Full-Day Kindergarten Benefits Evaporate Over Time

USC and American University researchers have rattled some of the most basic assumptions of parents, teachers and politicians about all-day kindergarten with all the jarring discord of fingernails on a blackboard.

Their rigorous new cost-benefits analysis casts doubt on the lasting benefits of full-day kindergarten versus half-day and raises many questions, including whether federal Title I money, often used for all-day kindergarten, would be better spent if spread over grades K through 4. …

The new study, published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, confirmed that full-day kids, in the kindergarten year, do better on math, reading and other measures than half-day kids, but then the others quickly catch up. By third grade any academic advantage is gone. …

Decision-makers on any publicly funded pre-school should probe the quality of learning experiences, not just how many hours the school day lasts. … States ought to go slow on moves to mandate full-day kindergarten. …

— Cincinnati Enquirer