Oregon's conversion from half-day to full-day kindergarten was startlingly fast and complete, with 99.7 percent of the state's 5- and 6-year-olds currently enrolled in full-day classes, the state reported Thursday.
That's a huge change in a state where just 42 percent of kindergartners were in school all day the previous school year. The Legislature allocated an extra $110 million a year to cover the costs.
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from the half-day version
Educators say lessons are richer and go deeper when the school day lasts six hours rather than two hours and 45 minutes. There's more time to build classroom routines and self-management skills. Art, music and science get more attention. Students write more. And they get a real chance for hands-on exploration.
Schools could choose to offer either half-day or full-day classes this year, but they get twice as much state funding if they choose the longer option.
In 2011, the Legislature gave school leaders four years of notice that the state would begin paying schools the full per-student rate, instead of half, for every full-day kindergartner beginning in fall 2015. Back then, many school officials protested that they would not be able to find enough classrooms and other resources to handle universal all-day kindergarten.
But in the end, 740 of the 750 Oregon schools that offer kindergarten found a way. All but one of the 10 holdouts are charter schools or tiny rural schools with only one or two kindergartners.
Full-day kindergarten proved popular with parents. Kindergarten enrollments surged by in Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Sherwood and elsewhere as families embraced the extended learning opportunity.
Lake Oswego's kindergarten enrollment went up 15 percent. Beaverton schools drew 215 more kindergartners than in fall 2014.
The largest half-day kindergarten class at any neighborhood school is at Joan Austin Elementary in Newberg, where families of the school's 52 kindergartners were offered the choice of full-day or half-day. Thirteen chose the half-day option.
Research indicates that students who take part in full-day kindergarten are sure to arrive at first grade better at reading and math than those who go for just a half-day, and likely more confident as learners too.
Past studies indicate those gains will evaporate by second or third grade. But Oregon school leaders are betting they can defy that old pattern and translate kindergarten gains into stronger third-grade reading skills. Those scores won't be known until 2019.
-- Betsy Hammond