The Efficacy of Full-Day Kindergarten to Mitigate Community-Level Early Childhood School-Readiness Gaps

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Accounting for Parental Influence: School Readiness, Enrollment, and Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine the efficacy of full-day kindergarten to mitigate community-level school-readiness gaps in a mid-sized western-Canadian school district. Results from multiple waves of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) consistently revealed mean scores for the EDI domains of physical health and well-being, communication, and general knowledge significantly gapped as compared to the reference sample had been decreasing over time. Early Years Evaluation (EYE) results showed that FDKs in this study enroll students from much lower socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds as compared to HDK children. There was also a disproportionately high number of Aboriginal students in FDK as compared to HDK. Children showed more improvement in FDK than in HDK on all EYE measures.

Authors

• Scott D. Tunison, Saskatoon Public Schools

• Nazeem Muhajarine