Full-Day Kindergarten May Not Be Best For All Children

To the Editor:

As we consider replacing our current part-day kindergarten with full-day kindergarten (FDK) in Newtown public schools, has anyone considered the kindergarten child, who is typically only four or five years old upon entry?  We’re talking about children who are just beginning to print some letters, use future tense, and better understand the concept of time. (1) 

Yet, proponents of FDK tell us that we need more kindergarten instructional time to meet the state’s newly adopted Common Core Standards.  Preparation for “career readiness” and “21st century skills” needs to begin in kindergarten.  Our kindergarten curriculum needs to integrate technology skills, incorporate daily math lessons, develop stamina in curricular areas, etc.

Earlier in the 21st century, my children attended Hawley’s part-day kindergarten, where the teachers did a wonderful job of preparing them for the rigors of first grade through age-appropriate activities.  Like others their age, and regardless of the curriculum, both of my children would have suffered from attending a full-day of kindergarten.  Yet both are currently thriving in advanced academic curriculums.

We’re told that today’s kindergarten is a stressful place where teachers are being asked to cram in more academics than their part-day allows.  And we’re looking to increase the cramming!  We’re striving to meet state recommendations of 510 instructional hours/year for mathematics and language arts alone.  That’s greater than today’s total kindergarten hours, and almost half of a full-day of kindergarten.  How could this be developmentally appropriate?      

Are we as a community willing to hand over our children’s early childhoods in exchange for the unsubstantiated promise that they’ll be prepared for the right careers?

Before jumping to the FDK-for-all conclusion, were the problems fully defined and alternatives analyzed?  Some examples:   

* Academic standards changing – Can we meet standards in a developmentally appropriate manner and timeframe?  Or are the standards themselves developmentally inappropriate?   

* Wide skills gap among kindergarten entrants – What about offering extra intervention time only for students in need?    

* Needs of working couples – Did we consider an optional FDK for interested parents as “pay for play,” covering any additional taxpayer expenses?

I’ve discovered important findings from the administration’s cited research that were not included in their FDK presentations to the Board of Education (this year and last year), including:

- any initial academic gains of FDK disappear by third grade,

- FDK students had poorer mathematics performance in fifth grade, and 

- FDK students demonstrated poorer dispositions toward learning, lower self-control, and poorer interpersonal skills, and they had a greater tendency to exhibit anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and sadness than children in part-day.(2)

I wish the Board of Education had considered implementing other programs that provide lasting student benefits.  However, the costs of FDK to our children and to our pocketbooks are not justified, so regrettably, I cannot support the Board of Education budget request. I must ask the Board of Finance to cut the requested funding for FDK implementation.

(1) American Academy of Pediatrics

(2) http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG558.pdf

     http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/07-03-2201.pdf - Washington State Study

Cathy Reiss

 42 Obtuse Road, Newtown                               February 29, 2012