Gone are the days when kindergarten was just about coloring books and naptime.
Millions of 5-year-olds get their minds ready to learn every day, but depending on where they live, the experiences could differ from a half day or full day.
Now, more and more educators are wanting that age group in school, even though the state of Ohio doesn’t want them to do so.
Grace Huang, early childhood education professor at Cleveland State University, sees the higher demand for better test scores being a major contributing factor.
“There’s a lot more pressure for academic performance,” she said.
With the push for the third-grade reading guarantee that requires students to read at grade level to graduate to fourth grade, school districts are starting to see a need for a full day of kindergarten.
“There were some issues that we had to kind of deal with first,” said Kelli Cogan, assistant superintendent for Olmsted Falls City Schools. “Before we were able to do that...one of them was the fact that you don’t necessarily receive funds in order to run a free all day program.”
Olmsted Falls and Rocky River are the only two school districts in Cuyahoga County providing only half-days, but that's changing for both districts in the coming year.
Cogan said, “It’s exciting when you’re doing something positive that parents are really receptive to.”
Tami Doyle, kindergarten teacher at Olmsted Falls Early Childhood Center expresses her excitement for extended learning.
“We’ll just have so much more time to do things without it seeming as rushed.”
That's what other schools are finding too.
Research shows full-day kindergartners in classes with fewer than 20 learn to read twice as fast as half-day students and more time in class can also help with kids social skills and language development.
There is a downside though.
Huang explained, “the research sees that there is a strong academic gain for the first year, but they started to see the fade out, meaning that first grade all the way to fifth grade, they started to see really not much difference.”
Jenny Steadman is a parent who had two kids go through full-time kindergarten. She’s seen a positive impact in their experiences.
“They’ve just both flourished through all of it.”
As a parent she explained that it takes some adjusting at first, but the benefits outway the cost.
“That first few months is just exhausting, so exhausting, but their growth is just huge.”
Olmsted Falls starts their open enrollment process on Feb. 16 while Rocky River is still working out the details of their program for next year.
