Full Day Kindergarten

The following article appeared in the WFIE news headlines this morning.

I think it should be remembered that in Warrick County, kindergarten has always been half day, and the quality of education there has always been superior to Vanderburgh County.

The big question to ask is, “Has anyone asked what it is that the children aren’t getting with half day K that they would be getting if they spent a full day?”

There is never any mention of curriculum, just that more tax dollars are desired to do whatever secret stuff they are doing that the children aren’t getting enough of now that they aren't getting the money they want.

It’s not true that children in a half day program won’t learn to read. All of my children learned to read in Kindergarten in the half day program offered by exemplary teachers at Newburgh School. Brendan had 60 children in his half day class, all in one room, and he learned to read.

Kindergarten is an introduction to school. It’s not a holding tank to get kids out of their homes as suggested by McCandless. Parents should demand to know what a full day of kindergarten will mean for the child not just the school’s pocketbook.

School's back and so is full-day kindergarten.

Reporter: Emily Sinovic
Web Producer: Jason Bailey

Eight of Evansville's elementary schools are title-one schools, which means they are using federal funding to keep their programs going.

The eight schools funded are Caze, Cedar Hall, Culver, Delaware, Fairlawn, Howard Roosa, Lincoln and Lodge.

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation had to cut funding for full-day kindergarten a few years ago.

Officials hope this latest stint of full-day kindergarten programs will be successful enough to give EVSC officials enough fodder to bring a strong case to the Indiana legislature for full-day for all Vanderburgh elementary schools.

At Delaware Elementary School, full-day kindergarten has implications of being a much needed solution for some teachers trying to improve their students' learning.

Some faculty maintain that a quick-paced curriculum and a student's increased interest in school isn't complimented by a half-day school schedule.

Marilyn Beach, a kindergarten teacher at Delaware Elementary School, has been an educator for 26-years. She says the kids weren't getting the education they needed with a half-day school schedule.

"Being a former first-grade teacher, I could see the kids coming from a half-day program and they didn't have the skills," says Beach.

By the end of the year, all Beach's students will be reading and writing, skills that she said were rare among half-day students.

"When you do just half a day, you can't get everything in," says Beach.

EVSC Superintendent Bart McCandless, PhD shares that sentiment, saying that the increased time students have with their teacher will be an improvement.

"It's definitely an advantage over having them just in front of you for two-point-five hours," says McCandless.

The EVSC is going to the Indiana State Legislature this year to ask for state money to fund full-day in all twenty elementary schools.

McCandless says the other 12 non-title one schools in the district still have disadvantaged students.

"The other part of they day that they are not spending in school, we don't have a consistent way of knowing where they are and whether they are getting reinforcements or not," says McCandless.

Beach adds, "They need this all day program to keep on learning and this is where it starts."
Giving kids a good 'head start' is what Beach says is what her job is all about.

"To see when a child does get it and maybe had trouble at the beginning, but by the end they are reading and excited; it's an awesome feeling, an awesome feeling to see them grow," says Beach.