Full-day kindergarten has most benefit for high-needs children: study
Posted December 2, 2013 2:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Full-day kindergarten has the most benefit for high-needs students, according to an Ontario government report, but the benefits did not always extend to children from more affluent families.
The program was first rolled out four years ago, and is expected to be in all elementary schools by September 2014.
The two-year study looked at 690 children in 125 participating schools. Click here to read the full report.
The Ontario government report found that high-needs, junior-kindergarten students, who were placed in full-day education, had higher school readiness scores.
All junior kindergarten students in full-day kindergarten had high scores in two areas, communication and general knowledge.
Full-day senior-kindergarten students in high-needs schools showed improvement in only one area, in physical health and well-being. Full-day senior kindergarten students who were not high need did not show any positive effects.
The study authors wrote that in general, “there is some support in these findings that at least in high need schools, [full-day kindergarten] is having a positive impact on leveling the academic playing field.”
The report found that teachers appreciated having students at school every day because they had more time to work on concepts with them, they got to know their students better, and they had greater scheduling flexibility.
Parents appreciated the consistency and routine of kindergarten.
There are some issues with the implementation of full-day kindergarten, the report found. While the government has moved to play-based learning, some boards are still focused on literacy and numeracy instruction, and mis-categorized structured learning stations as play-based learning areas.
Another issue is that the role of the early child educator is not fully understood in some schools, which impedes teaching. They can be treated, wrongly, like educational assistants.
While full-day kindergarten can make it easier for children to receive community support, such as food programs, the report found that some children do not receive the extra attention they need because there are no consistent assessments in place to flag students. Sometimes students are placed on waiting lists because school boards do not have enough personnel support.
