By Roxana Orellana and Nicole Stricker
Salt Lake Tribune
January 29, 2007

Yady Cordero, 6, has excelled at math while attending an all-day kindergarten program at Woodrow Wilson Elementary in the Granite District.

Experiments with all-day kindergarten programs in Utah appear to be working.

Students in programs in the Granite and Jordan school districts demonstrate better reading preparedness and more sophisticated social skills than peers in half-day programs, initial evaluations show. In the Salt Lake City School District, children at risk of failing who attend all-day kindergarten have proved themselves capable of catching up with their peers.

"There is just so much more time for individualized instruction that can address the individual deficiencies students have," said Rob Averett, Granite director of school services/Title I.

Initial success with all-day kindergarten programs is good news for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who wants some of the state's surplus spent to expand them to more schools that serve a large number of disadvantaged children.

Both the governor and the Utah State Board of Education have asked the Legislature for $7.5 million to expand all-day kindergarten programs. Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, is sponsoring a bill to secure the ongoing funds.

SB49 has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee but has yet to have a hearing. The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, voiced objections to last year's nearly identical bill.

She has equated full-day kindergarten to state-funded day care that robs children of time better spent with their parents.

Although existing programs are optional and targeted to kids who aren't receiving enough quality parental time, Dayton worries the concept might become mandatory for everyone.

Last year's bill, sponsored by Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, survived a hostile amendment from Dayton and passed the House but stalled in the Senate. Both Holdaway and Hillyard hope it will have better luck this year.

"I've been told this is the governor's No. 1 priority, which may make it a target," Hillyard said.

Existing all-day kindergarten programs in Granite, Jordan, Salt Lake and a dozen other districts are paid for with federal Title I money set aside for disadvantaged students or other initiatives unique to each district.

The $7.5 million from the state would enable expansion to other Title I schools where many students are ill-prepared for school.

Such students clearly benefit from more instruction time, advocates of all-day kindergarten argue.

A study of Jordan's two-year pilot program at Midvale Elementary School found that all-day students showed greater gains than their peers in half-day programs in the areas of rhyming, alphabet knowledge, letter sounds, spelling and word recognition.

June LeMaster, a Jordan spokeswoman, said first-grade teachers noticed a marked difference. Students "had better academic skills and social skills. . . . They had the all-day routine down," LeMaster said.

Granite added its all-day kindergarten program last fall at six sites. Averett said measurements so far show twice as many established readers in the extended classes and only half as many at-risk readers compared with students in half-day classes.

Participation in Granite's program, like many others, is voluntary. Students are selected differently depending on the individual school. Some select the students randomly, while others do assessment tests. Classes at each kindergarten site begin at 8 a.m. and go to 2:40 p.m. four days a week, with Fridays as half days.

Curriculum includes literacy blocks with reading and math blocks along with learning activities.

South Salt Lake's Woodrow Wilson Elementary, one of the six Granite district all-day kindergarten sites, has 22 students enrolled.

Teacher David Weinberger said he has noticed the "great strides they've made since the beginning of the year." With an all-day program, the extra time allows for more in-depth study, more time for learning activities and getting to know the students.

Voices for Utah Children did its own research in the Salt Lake district and found that students attending all-day programs began the year with skills in math and reading below their peers in half-day programs. But by the end of the year, those students had caught up.

Of schools that didn't offer all-day kindergarten, 70 percent would like to and most have parents asking for it, said Terry Haven, director of the study. Now the recent spate of positive studies show why.

"Last year when this was debated, there were passionate arguments for it and against it," said Karen Crompton, executive director of Voice for Utah Children, "but there was little data."

Proponents are happy that has changed.