Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Full day kindergarten

I had heard the govenor was going to talk about the need for full day kindergarten and she did give it a brief mention.  I think her direct quote was that in her budget address next week she was going to "ask" schools to offer full day kindergarten.  Some schools that have the space or staffing are offering full day kindergarten at this time, but there are clearly problems with doing it for some districts.  Most would argue it is good for kids, but expensive.  Legislators would say you are being paid for the full student already so offer a full day of education.  There are many views on this issue. 

Is her "ask" just that, or is it going to be a mandate that schools offer full day kindergarten?

Lets talk about how your school would handle this issue.   

Posted by Don Wotruba at 21:05:26 | Permanent Link | Comments (6) |
Comments
1 - Why are we re-inventing the wheel? What we need is to give money to schools so they can pull out students who need help.

Is the governor not making kindergrden mandatory and why not? (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/01/31 - 09:07:18
2 - Closing buildings is always a hard thing to do, the public never really understands, it gets personal to them...maybe this would give boards the leverage and courage to change/reorganize schools, and buildings. Some changes are good, and we need to be trying new ideas within our changing world. (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/01/31 - 09:12:07
3 - Is there any empirical evidence that all day Kindergarten has a significant effect on third grade reading proficiency rates? The Gov also is promoting more pre-school opportunities. My observation is that most of our challenged readers have also had pre-school(s). What does the research say? Who is looking? Conversely, research shows clearly that poverty students lose ground every summer in reading proficiency. Where is the call (funding) for summer reading programs?

Jim Rayner, Supt, Ironwood (Comment this)

Written by: Jim at 2008/01/31 - 21:26:08
4 - Space and staffing are major issues for our school community. We would have to "build classrooms" with limited resources. Also, we have a number of parents (via survey data) that have made it very clear they prefer the half day options. In fact, we have received some schools of choice students from neighboring districts that do not offer the 1/2 day option.

 (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/01/31 - 21:38:22
5 - An all-day kindergarten mandate would definitely create a cost and space problem for my district. There are parents who do not want their child attending kindergarten all day. A one-size-fits-all approach is not what is best for children. (Comment this)

Written by: Anonymous at 2008/02/01 - 04:04:03
6 - For every bit of research that points to all-day Kindergarten as successful, there is equal the amount that says it is not. All-day Kindergarten is for the parents. It makes it easier and more convenient for those who work all day. No problems with day-care. Busing is cheaper-fewer routes. If we are really concerned about our students, then more has to be done and looked at. And who is doing the looking? Will it be mandatory? Oh yes. Schools will be told that they will lose 1/2 funding for 1/2 day Kindergarten and be forced to offer full day. (Comment this)

Written by: interested at 2008/02/26 - 00:21:35
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