Full-Day Kindergarten: A Step towards Breaking the Cycle of Poverty in Indiana

I. INTRODUCTION An educated workforce is the single most important factor in the role of the national, state and local governments in preventing a cycle of poverty.1 In 2007, Indiana sought to do its part in helping at-risk citizens by funding full-day kindergarten within its public school system.2 Indiana House Enrolled Act No. 1001 created a grant program providing progressive funding for full-day kindergarten programs in Indiana schools from 2007-2008 through 2008-2009.3 With this action, Indiana has taken a positive step to alleviate the cycle of poverty and this action should serve as a model for other states. In 2004, 11.1 percent of all Indiana residents lived in poverty.4 Of that percentage, 15.7 percent of those were under the age of eighteen and 19.8 percent were under the age of five.5 These statistics suggest that the cycle of poverty will continue to perpetuate among nearly twenty percent of Indiana's youth. Indiana's investment in education may help to break this cycle and assist at-risk children and low-income mothers by improving chances for quality education and employment opportunities. This note will examine the history of full-day kindergarten in Indiana, the legislative requirements for program funding, the proven benefits of full-day kindergarten, and the full-day kindergarten program's power to break the cycle of poverty in Indiana. II. FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN IN INDIANA AND LEGISLATIVE REQUIREMENTS FOR FUNDING As early as 2003, one quarter of all kindergarten students in Indiana attended full-time kindergarten.6 In 2004, an analysis of full-day kindergarten systems was performed by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy for the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents.7 This study revealed that significant academic progress was made among participants in school districts that had established fullday kindergarten programs.8 Particularly, full-day kindergarten students excelled in mathematics, reading, handwriting and spelling.9 Individual school districts also implemented their own full-day kindergarten task forces in the face of the funding legislation. One such school district, located in Brownsburg, Indiana, had previously implemented a charter full-day kindergarten system in 2001.10 The collection of data from this full-day system and other full-day systems resulted in promising conclusions. Specifically, full-day students excelled over half-day students in written skills, reading skills, and word recognition.11 To qualify for funding provided by the current legislation, schools must participate in an application process.12 The program requires schools to report their expenditures and establish a required curriculum. Moreover, the program allows schools to charge parents for the privilege of attending full-day programs.13 Funding is available to all schools that properly abide by the grant rules.14 III. THE BENEFITS OF FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN The benefits of full-day kindergarten have been widely researched. Though there are some discrepancies in how far reaching these benefits are, academic benefits to children enrolled in full-day kindergarten programs include scholastic achievement, higher standardized test scores, and lower grade retention rates.15 With regard to scholastic achievement, there is evidence that students who attend full-day kindergarten earn higher grades throughout middle school than those who attend half-day kindergarten.16 Moreover, students attending full-day kindergarten receive higher standardized test scores for two years after participation in the program.17 Finally, with regard to grade retention, full-time kindergarten students are less likely to repeat a grade between kindergarten and third grade after completing the program.18 These encouraging results are certainly not perfect.19 Some studies find that the benefits to full-day participants are minimal or short-lived. …

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