Full-Day or Half-Day Kindergarten?

The U.S. Department of Education is funding an extensive evaluation of full day kindergarten by the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy (CEEP). Although correlational, causal-comparative, and other non-experimental designs appear to support the effectiveness of FDK relative to half-day programs, results from quasi-experimental designs are mixed, probably due to nonequivalence of control and treatment groups. CEEP’s evaluation is a randomized controlled trial comparing the academic development of students who attend full day kindergarten (FDK) classes with those attending half day kindergarten (HDK) classes. For more information go to the Indiana University School of Education Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Full Day Kindergarten website.

A frequently asked questions is, "What is better, half-day kindergarten, full-day kindergarten, or alternate day kindergarten?"

From a practical perspective - there is no single answer to the question. It depends on what is happening the other part of the time. It depends on "What is the purpose of kindergarten?" It depends on the needs, resources and abilities of the parents. It depends on the needs and abilities of the child. It depends on what else is available in the community. And, of course, it depends on the quality of the kindergarten itself. Is not quality an even more important variable than quantity? Would you rather have your child attend a top quality half-day kindergarten or a mediocre full-day kindergarten? How about an awful half day program or a pretty good full day program? Doesn't the answer change?

The argument for a full-day kindergarten program should not be based on making kids smarter but should be based on having the "luxury of time" i.e., time for hands-on discovery, time for experimenting and "making mistakes," time for reading the whole story, time for deeper, richer, more developmentally appropriate learning. Why would we compress kindergarten into half a day and then have many of the children bused home to watch television?

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education has helped us look more closely at this issue.