Increasingly, parents sending children to full-day programs By Gail Spector, Globe Correspondent, 9/6/2001

When Northborough parent Ann Taggart watched her daughter Katie's name being drawn from a bucket on community television last year, she felt she'd won the lottery. In fact, she had: Katie was selected for a coveted slot in the town's new full-day kindergarten.

Taggart's daughter was one of about 28,000 children in Massachusetts last year to take part in the growing trend to implement full-day kindergarten. According to Barbara Gardner, the state's associate commissioner of school readiness, about 44 percent of the school districts across the state provided full-day kindergarten of varying schedules during the 2000-2001 year, in contrast with traditional 21/2-hour sessions. Of the 37 Globe West communities, 19 offer full-day programs to some or all of their kindergartners this fall.

According to Gardner, about 71,200 kindergarteners will enter Massachusetts schools this fall. Approximately 60 percent of them will attend full-day programs.

''As opposed to a half-day program, full-day kindergarten helps children develop habits that lead to later school success,'' said Mary Mindess, education professor at Lesley University and coordinator of the New England Kindergarten Conference. ''In the half-day programs, they develop the habit of hop, skip, and jumping all around. Full-day kindergarten allows for much more chance to become engaged and persist in an activity until you get it solved.''

Mindess said that the curriculum might be the same, but full-day kindergarten allows for a deeper level of understanding.

''If things happen in 20-minute drills, children might develop negativity toward things they might otherwise come to like,'' she said. ''If you have more time, you can engage them in an integrated meaningful kind of learning.''

Although many schools offer full-day kindergarten, the implementation varies from district to district. Some charge fees; some - like Northborough - hold lotteries for the limited number of slots; some phase it in over the year; others implement it on a part-time schedule.

In Northborough, Taggart's daughter was one of 40 students to participate in last year's pilot full-day course. The program, which is continuing this year, is held at two of the elementary schools but accommodates children from all four schools. Five boys and five girls are selected randomly from each school. Children from the Proctor and Peaslee schools attend a full-day classroom at Proctor, and kindergarteners from the Zeh and Lincoln Street schools attend a classroom at the Zeh School. Parents pay $2,000 to participate in the program, although there is a sliding scale for families with financial constraints.

Charles Gobron, director of curriculum and instruction for Northborough-Southborough schools, said that two years ago, a committee of parents, educators, and community members formed to research what other communities were doing. He said that much of the research showed that full-day kindergarten makes for an easier transition to first grade.

The goal in Northborough-Southborough is to decrease the fee and move toward free full-day kindergarten, he said. ''But there will always be an option for half day as long as there are people who want it. Some people like the idea of easing into school with half days,'' he added. Next year, the system is hoping to add three full-day classrooms in Southborough, said Gobron, adding that limited space is a factor in adding new classes.

Ashland also has a tuition-based full-day program as one of its options for kindergarteners. About 100 children's names were submitted this year for a lottery for three full-day sections, which hold about 17 kids each. The $2,500 per student fee, with no sliding scale, limits the program to those who can afford it.

Framingham is another community with a full-day program for some kindergarteners and a half-day for others. The first implementation of full-day kindergarten began over 10 years ago with a bilingual program. Over time, classes were added for special-needs children and children whose native language is not English. Because Framingham allows families to choose schools rather than be assigned to one based on proximity, full-day kindergarten was added to some schools as an option.

Now, seven of the nine elementary schools offer some sort of free, full-day program, with about one-third of the kindergarteners participating.

Newton's full-day kindergarten program, now entering its third year, is actually a part-time full-day program. Children are divided into smaller groups, with one group staying Monday and Wednesday afternoons and the other staying Thursday and Friday afternoons.

When Jeffrey Young became school superintendent in 1998, the School Committee had decided to implement full-day kindergarten, but there was no consensus in the city as to how the program should be structured. Roseli Weiss, assistant superintendent for elementary education, explained that the program actually started out as a compromise. ''There was a lot of trepidation on some people's part and support on others' part,'' she said.

Because teachers spend afternoons with small groups of kids, they are very aware of what children need. ''The foundations of learning are very cemented,'' she said, adding that ''what started out to be a compromise has turned out to be a gem in some ways.''

Wellesley also breaks classes into small groups for what it calls a transition full-day program. The children start the year going half days, and after about two weeks, they are divided into learning groups of four or five students, with each group attending one afternoon a week. In October, the groups are doubled up, with children staying two afternoons a week. After April vacation, the groups are combined again, and the entire class stays four full days a week, following the same schedule as the rest of the elementary school grades.

In Franklin, a lottery selected some children for full-day kindergarten until School Superintendent Richard Warren came on board. ''I found that very distasteful,'' he said. ''School was starting off with some winners and losers.''

Warren quickly implemented a full-day program for all kindergarteners at all five elementary schools.

''Half-day kindergarten has been a losing proposition,'' he said, referring to time lost to putting coats and boots on and off, bathroom breaks, and loading and unloading backpacks.

''We back-end education,'' said Warren. ''Early childhood is where the investment needs to be made. The earlier you get the children and work with them, the greater the payoff.''

State Representative David Linsky agrees. In Linsky's hometown of Natick, kindergarten is also a full-day program for all children. Two of his three children have gone through full-day kindergarten, and the youngest is entering the program this year.

''It's a great program for a whole lot of reasons,'' said Linsky. ''It allows kids to advance socially and academically. It's much more in tune with the realities of today's parents.''

Linsky added that the state has been encouraging school districts to implement full-day kindergarten programs with generous grants. ''The intent is that the state is willing to fund $18,000 per classroom for any community [implementing full-day kindergarten],'' he said.

Gardner, at the Department of Education, said that the state provides two different kinds of grants. The quality full-day kindergarten grant program funds teaching assistants, professional development, and materials. These ongoing grants range from $12,000 to $18,000 per classroom.

Another program, called the transition planning for full-day kindergarten, provides a one-time grant for districts to either move from half-day to full-day programs, or to investigate the feasibility of doing so.

The goal of the Department of Education, said Gardner, is to work ''toward universal full-day over five years,'' with completion by 2004 or 2005.

For Debbi Orr, whose daughter was a full-day kindergartener in Northborough's Proctor School last year, the program was wonderful. ''At first, I wasn't sure about sending her to a pilot program,'' she said. ''I don't work out of the house and I was kind of guilt-ridden about sending her. It had to be worth it.

''For my daughter, the social aspect was great. I think her love for school was helped by being in school all day.''

This story ran on page W1 of the Boston Globe on 9/6/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company