Citation

Votruba‐Drzal E, Li‐Grining CP, Maldonado‐Carreño C. Child Dev. 2008; 79(4): 957-978.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01170.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Children’s kindergarten experiences are increasingly taking place in full- versus part-day programs, yet important questions remain about whether there are significant and meaningful benefits to full-day kindergarten. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study’s Kindergarten Cohort (N= 13,776), this study takes a developmental approach to examining associations between kindergarten program type and academic trajectories from kindergarten (ages 4–6 years) through 5th grade (ages 9–12 years). Full-day kindergarten was associated with greater growth of reading and math skills from fall until spring of kindergarten. Initial academic benefits diminished soon after kindergarten. The fade-out of the full-day advantage is in part explained by differences in the children who attend part- and full-day kindergarten as well as school characteristics.