The Effects of Full-day Kindergarten on the Long-term Academic Achievement of Students

The Effects of Full-day Kindergarten on the Long-term Academic Achievement of Students PDF Author: Laura Fong
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
As the quality of kindergarten instructional programs and their relation to student academic achievement come under scrutiny from policy makers and educators, greater demands are placed on students to enter school prepared to learn. Some programs operate on the traditional half-day model in which students attend school during either a morning or an afternoon time frame which includes classroom instruction, lunch, and recess time. Other schools have adopted a full-day kindergarten model in which students attend school the same amount of minutes per day as the other elementary grade levels. The purpose of this study was to determine if the amount of minutes of instruction per day in kindergarten programs affects the long-term academic achievement of students in English language arts and mathematics as measured by the California Standards Test (CST). Archival data of student CST scores were retrieved for the 2012-2013 school year from a unified school district located in the Central Valley of California. Student scores were statistically analyzed by utilizing a t-test for independent means. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in English language arts or mathematics achievement between third grade students who had attended a half-day kindergarten program and third grade students who had attended a full-day kindergarten program.