Half-day to full -day kindergarten programming and early literacy behaviors of emergent reader

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between half-day and full-day kindergarten programming and early literacy behaviors of emergent readers in a school district located in a medium sized Midwest city that has recently transitioned from half-day to full-day kindergarten programming. Factors included in the study were letter identification, concepts about print, word test, writing vocabulary, hearing and recording sounds in words, and text level reading. Other factors included Headstart, retention, and sex. All these factors were analyzed as to how they related to early literacy behaviors of emergent readers.;The survey instrument, Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement, was developed by Dr. Marie Clay. The studied district elicited assessment participation from 11 K-5 elementary schools over four years.;There were 2,177 subjects who participated in the study from 2003-2007. In the 2003-2004 school year, a total population of 547 kindergarten students participated in the study. The survey instrument was administered at the end of their half-day kindergarten year. The 2003-2004 school year was the last year the school district provided half-day kindergarten programming for their kindergarten students. The studied school district then transitioned to full-day kindergarten programming. In the 2004-2007 school years, a total of 1,630 students participated in the study. This population of kindergarten students received a full year of full-day kindergarten programming.;The results provided a description of the sample with frequencies and percentages of the demographic variables. Standard deviations, means, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to report results of the research questions. Questions two, three, and four were answered using independent t-tests, equality of means.;Findings of the study reported students attending full-day kindergarten made significant gains in letter identification, concepts about print, word test, writing vocabulary, hearing and recording sounds in words, and text level reading. In addition, students who attended Headstart, male students, and students who were retained also made significant gains.