Myers Elementary School Principal Terri Harpster addressed the Bellwood-Antis School Board this week regarding the issue of full-day kindergarten.
Harpster’s biggest concern was with time. Currently, the half-day kindergarten classes only meet for two-and-a-half hours each day.
With state standards in place, the benchmarks for kindergarten students are high. After sharing some examples of kindergarten benchmarks with the board, Harpster said, “I’ll be honest, there’s no way we can address all of this in two-and-a-half hours.”
Because of the time constraint, Harpster said, “We have to pick and choose priorities and we’ve chosen reading.”
Harpster shared an example of a typical day in a Bellwood-Antis kindergarten classroom. Subjects and activities are rushed to try and fit in as much as possible.
Math should consist of 15 to 20 minutes of direct instruction followed by hands-on activities for about 40 minutes, but according to Harpster, “We don’t have that time.”
She said writing should be done daily, students should work on math for an hour a day and social studies and science should be taught through shared reading. But again, lack of time prevents this from happening and shared reading time is spent focusing on high frequency words rather than social studies and science.
However, time is not the only concern of Harpster and others.
She said when teachers have two classes, totaling 40 to 50 students, plus their parents, it takes a lot of time to get to know everyone. Plus, assessments take up a lot of time with so many students.
Harpster came prepared with an example of what a full day kindergarten class might look like if implemented. It consisted of kid writing for 30 minutes a day, followed by a mini lesson; phonics and phonetic awareness; centers; math; shared reading daily, with science and social studies lessons; guided reading groups and more time for specials like gym, music and art.
Harpster researched several school districts who have full day kindergarten classrooms, including neighboring Tyrone, which utilizes a balanced literacy program like Bellwood-Antis.
After speaking with elementary school principal, Theodosia Spewock, Harpster said the “growth from fall to spring is phenomenal.”
Using the Developmental Reading Assessment, 87 percent of Tyrone kindergartners were basic or below basic at the beginning of the 2004-05 school year. By the end of the year, only eight percent of those same students were basic or below basic.
Harpster said 54 percent of this year’s Bellwood-Antis first graders are basic or below basic.
“When I look at those 54 percent, all I can think is we’re already behind,” said Harpster. “We have four years, including kindergarten, to get our students ready to be an accelerated reader by third grade.”
Administrative Assistant Donald Wagner spoke up, saying his daughter participated in full-day kindergarten at Tyrone last year and another daughter is currently enrolled.
Wagner agreed with Harpster saying full day kindergarten has been beneficial to both of his daughter and they enjoy it.
Harpster said when looking at the pros and cons of half-day kindergarten, “There really aren’t any pros.”
Another school district Harpster researched is currently switching over all kindergarten classrooms to full day. She said this district currently has some full day classes and some alternate day classes, but eventually want only full-day classrooms.
Alternate day classes is another alternative to full-day kindergarten and may be an option for Bellwood-Antis to take advantage of while making the switch from half day classes.
Harpster explained that in alternate day classes, instead of splitting the day in half, one group of students would attend full-day classes on Monday and Wednesday, for example, while a second group of students would attend on Tuesday and Thursday. Then on Friday, the day would be shared between the two groups.
While, in the end, the same amount of time is spent in the classroom, Harpster said students learning may improve because there are larger chunks of time to work with.
Board members agreed to look over the materials presented by Harpster for discussion at a later time.
