By Cindy Kranz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kindergartners at Blue Ash Elementary work on money recognition skills. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

Karen Goodman waited nervously for weeks before learning this month that her daughter had been accepted into Sycamore Community Schools' all-day kindergarten.

The district is offering a tuition-based classroom pilot program in each of its four elementary buildings this fall. But demand was so great - 131 applicants for 80 slots districtwide - that a drawing had to be held.

A longtime staple of urban schools, all-day kindergarten is increasingly moving into suburban Tristate districts. Driving the trend is a push for greater academic achievement, along with parents looking for extra challenges for their 5-year-olds or who simply need day-care options.

And those parents are willing to pay for it - thousands of dollars a year in some cases.

Sycamore's all-day program will cost $1,975 a year. Half-day is offered at no charge.

Goodman moved to Symmes Township a year and a half ago from the Boston area, where her son had attended all-day kindergarten four days a week. She was surprised to learn that Sycamore, a high-achieving district of 6,000 students, didn't offer an all-day program.

Now her 5-year-old daughter, Melissa, is ready for kindergarten this fall.

"My children thrive on learning," Goodman said. "Once they get to a certain age, I see their time spent more usefully at school rather than staying home with me doing outside activities and having play dates."

Some early childhood educators, however, worry about pushing too hard, too soon.

In-Koo Hwang, 5, is framed by a stencil in his kindergarten class at Blue Ash Elementary. ([name of photographer] photo) | ZOOM |

Linda Plevyak, assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Cincinnati, said the pressure in the upper primary grades to perform well on standardized tests is trickling down to kindergarten and preschool.

"Unfortunately, we're challenging developmentally appropriate practice,'' Plevyak said. "When we look at a child's chronological age, they're 5-year-olds and entering kindergarten. We can't go beyond a certain level before hitting a brick wall.

"When you're trying to push children beyond what they can physically and emotionally do, we're going to have some real struggles,'' she added. "We're requiring kids to sit for longer periods of time, and they're having homework in kindergarten. I think there's going to be a breaking point."

Sycamore's elementary principals were assigned to study the pros and cons of all-day kindergarten last year.

"None of the research was surprising to us," said Adrienne James, Blue Ash Elementary principal. "Whenever you are able to provide more time for hands-on exploration and collaboration, more time for development of social and communication skills, the better. Some children need extra time."

A 1997 analysis of 23 studies on all-day kindergarten published in Child Study Journal concluded that children who had attended all-day kindergarten achieved at a higher level than children in half-day programs.

Half-day standard

While eight states currently require school districts to offer all-day kindergarten, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana mandate and fund only half-day programs.

Ohio provides Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid (DPIA), which can be used for all-day kindergarten for districts with average or above-average poverty rates.

FULL-DAY STATES

These eight states require school districts to offer full-day kindergarten (as of August 2002): Alabama Arkansas Georgia (full-day kindergarten is defined as 4.5 hours per day). Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina: Districts are required to offer full-day kindergarten unless they apply for a waiver due to lack of space and prohibitive cost. Parents may choose a half-day program for their children. West Virginia Other states: Maryland passed legislation in 2002 requiring all districts to offer full-day kindergarten by the 2007-08 school year; Oklahoma requires that districts offer full-day kindergarten by July 1, 2005. Parents still will be able to opt for half-day programs. Education Commission of the States

The Ohio Department of Education wants more money next year for all-day programs. Last year, the state appropriated $104.4 million in DPIA for fiscal year 2003. The Ohio Board of Education is seeking $130 million for next year.

In Kentucky, Gov. Paul Patton has proposed state-funded all-day kindergarten, but like Ohio, his state budget is in crisis and the plan may not materialize. Nevertheless, in 2001-02, 604 of about 800 Kentucky elementary schools offered all-day programs.

Covington Independent Public Schools is in the third year of its all-day program, half of which is funded by the state and half by the district's general fund.

Among other benefits, the district notes the kindergarten attendance rate has improved since launching the full-day program. In bad weather, parents are less likely to keep their children home a full day than for two or three hours, said Bill Weathers, the district's director of community relations.

Some Tristate districts have had all-day programs for decades. Wyoming and Madeira, for example, have offered optional fee-based all-day kindergarten for about 20 years. J.F. Dumont Primary School in Madeira offers two all-day kindergarten classes that are optional and three sections of half-day kindergarten. Parents have the choice of three or five additional afternoons a week at a cost of $1,872 and $3,105, respectively.

"I think all-day kindergarten is an excellent option for parents and a much-needed program for many children," said Cathy Swami, J.F. Dumont principal."However, I would never want to see the half-day option removed, because this program also has many advantages for families."

Judy Andrews enrolled her 5-year-old daughter, Sarah, in the half-day program at Madeira. When the family lived in Tennessee and Georgia, their two oldest children attended all-day kindergarten because there was no half-day option.

"I definitely think half day is better just because of the age of the children," she said. "I found a full day was pretty exhausting for my boys."

Achievement rises

Studies consistently show that all-day kindergarten raises academic achievement for at-risk students, according to the Educational Resources Information Center.

A study released in November by Minneapolis Public Schools showed that the district's all-day kindergarten program, established in 2000-01, helped narrow the achievement gap between white and minority students.

American Indian, Hispanic and African-American students, in particular, showed significant gains in all-day programs compared to half-day. For example, students in all-day classes had a gain in the number of letter sounds over the year that was about 30 percent higher than that of their peers in half-day.

With help from an operating levy, Cincinnati Public Schools began offering free all-day kindergartenin the mid- to late-1980s. That was completed in the 1998-99 school year when all-day kindergarten was expanded to all elementary schools.

"Our kids come in to us at many different levels," said Jan Leslie, district spokeswoman. "Some have had preschool. Some have not, so it's important to get them as far along as possible in kindergarten so that they're on grade and ready to go in first grade."

Oak Hills School District is piloting an all-day kindergarten this year for at-risk students from J.F. Dulles and Springmyer elementaries. The "Keep" program is located at Dulles.

After screening 225 incoming kindergartners last May, the district accepted the 35 percent of children who scored the lowest on kindergarten readiness factors (letter and shape recognition, writing their first name, etc.).

"Essentially, those children receive double the amount of schooling because they're here every day, all day," said Bob Sehlhorst, J.F. Dulles principal. "The Keep students don't participate in art, music or gym. What they're getting is a double dose of literacy, reading and writing."

The Keep students were tested at the end of first and second quarters, and will be tested again at the end of the year.

"We're very pleased with the progress they've made," Sehlhorst said. "The gains of Keep more than doubled that of typical children." Five students who started out in Keep made so many gains by the end of the second quarter that they moved into regular kindergarten.

Fun with a purpose

There are no Legos or play dress-ups in Shari Rush's all-day kindergarten classroom at the Loveland Early Childhood Education Center. Kindergarten is still fun, Rush said, but it has to be fun with a purpose.

"There's a lot of pressure to get them reading by the fourth grade," Rush said.

Rush has taught all-day kindergarten for six of the eight years she's been a kindergarten teacher. The big advantage, she said, is the amount of time the teacher spends with the students.

"You get to know them," she said. "You get to know their individual needs. It also allows you to take the content area you work on in the curriculum and expand on it a little more."

This is the second year for all-day kindergarten, a tuition-based program that costs $300 a month. The district also offers half-day kindergarten and a two-year all-day developmental program called Kindergarten Individual Development System (KIDS).

Bari Kraus, the mother of two school-age children, researched and helped push for all-day kindergarten in Loveland. Her 6-year-old daughter, Mallory, is in the second year of the KIDS program.

Kraus didn't have any options when her oldest daughter, Emilee, now a fifth-grader went to half-day kindergarten. At that time, Kraus was working full-time at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. With two small children at home, she quit her job.

There was little time for any at-home or outside activities because they were always watching the clock to get ready for school.

"I felt like that time (out of school) was so wasted," Kraus said. "She is a very bright child, so she could have been in school all day. After that experience, I was on a mission. We're not doing this again. We're going to find a way (Mallory) can go all day."

E-mail ckranz@enquirer.com