Michael Hohmann wrote: > Terry Erickson write, in part... > > Mpls Public Schools did a study and found that all day > > kindergarten students > > had a higher level of achievement. > > [MH] Interesting. > > 1. What does the research, locally and elsewhere, imply about all day > kindergarten? If these FT students demonstrate a higher level of > achievement relative to PT kindergarten students, is it clearly a function > of the education system/time in class, or do student characteristics and > family background/socio-economics play a profound role (in the studies; and > are study results valid/relevant for the larger, general population)? Do we > have a significant understanding of the issue and findings? >
Mark Anderson replies: My daughter was in all day kindergarten a couple of years ago, and it was great! It not only lowered our day care bill, but she was ready to spend all day in school, so she advanced all that much more academically. I have no idea why the city decide to try this, but I jumped on it immediately when it became available. The question in my mind is how much it costs the city. Is the city contemplating doing this for all kindergartners (or at least those that are ready), perhaps thinking this could turn around much of the failure in the city schools? If so, I think they are mistaken, because those kids most likely to fail are probably the same kids who aren't ready for full day kindergarten at five years old. I think we need to take the higher achievement of full day kindergartners with a grain of salt. The kids are too self-selected to be a valid statistic. The schools ask if you want your kid in full days, so parents that aren't on the ball probably all get their kids into half-day (I don't mean to say here that all kids in half-day have parents not on the ball). Even if the parents are on the ball, if the kid is barely ready for school, then those parents might well select half days. So the full day kindergartens mostly have the kids least likely to fail in the first place. Mark Anderson Bancroft _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
