The relationship between full-day and half-day kindergarten on the reading and mathematic scores of first grade students

This study was designed to determine if there is a relationship between the academic achievement of students who attended full-day kindergarten and their peers who attended half-day kindergarten. A second purpose of the study was to determine if there is a relationship between the academic achievement of at-risk students and their non-at-risk peers who attended full-day and half-day kindergarten.; Students, who attended kindergarten in the 1998--1999 school year at one of six selected schools, participated in the study. The schools have similar percentage ranges of students impacted in the federally mandated school lunch program. Eligibility for the school lunch program is determined by the family's income level. Three of the schools had full-day kindergarten and three had half-day in 1998--1999. A correlation design was utilized to look for relationships between academic achievement and variables of attendance day and risk categories of students. The reading and mathematical subtests of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement-Brief Form were administered, and test results were analyzed with Pearson product-moment correlations. The alpha level of significance was set at .05 for all the two-tailed statistical tests. Mean scores and standard deviations on math and reading subscores were analyzed in relationship to attendance, gender, and risk categories.; Mean scores showed that students in full-day kindergarten performed better academically in reading and math than their peers in half-day. Mean scores also showed that at-risk students in full-day kindergarten performed better academically than at-risk peers in half-day settings. The Pearson product-moment correlations showed significant, small, positive relationships between the length of the school day and academic scores. Significant, small, positive relationships were also shown between academic scores and at-risk and non-at-risk students, all in the half-day kindergarten setting. There were no relationships between scores and at-risk and non-at-risk students, all in the full-day kindergarten setting.