Is all-day, every-day kindergarten really what it’s cracked up to be? Most studies say yes.

District 241 residents passed a two-part referendum on Nov. 5. The first part will retain the program offerings the district currently has, and the second will help add more classes to decrease class sizes, restore the dance and cross country teams &045; and most significantly, according to Superintendent David Prescott, add all-day, every-day kindergarten.

&uot;Research is pretty positive on the effects of all-day every-day kindergarten on students,&uot; Prescott said. That should be visible as students who attend the program get older. &uot;We should see testing scores get better,&uot; he said.

The &uot;Informed Educator Series&uot; put out by the Educational Research Service, a non-profit research organization, says that full-day kindergarten programs have been found by many studies to give students the academic readiness for first grade that they might not have had otherwise.

Steve Lund, principal at Sibley Elementary School, agrees with that and hopes the Albert Lea district can provide those same benefits through an all-day, every-day program.

According to Lund, the benefits for students, no matter what their ability, increase dramatically in a full-day setting.

&uot;Kids can have more opportunities to learn things in different ways and try some more relaxed and enriching types of programs,&uot; he said. Teachers can spend more individual time with students and make sure each has a good grasp on the lesson.

&uot;Hopefully some of the students that come in with deficits will have opportunities to have their needs met, as well as the high-performing kids,&uot; he said. &uot;It provides more time to really reach both ends of the spectrum.&uot;

The current kindergarten day is 2 hours, 45 minutes, with the begining and end of that time being spent with children getting settled from arrival or getting ready for departure. &uot;It’s really a race right now,&uot; Lund said.

The ERS report cited a study done by Early Childhood Research Quarterly that said children in all day kindergarten &uot;exhibited slightly greater academic progress in kindergarten and higher levels of first grade readiness.&uot;

Prescott said the kindergarteners coming in each year are less prepared academically than they had been in the past.

&uot;We are seeing a continual drop in the reading and math skills as they enter kindergarten,&uot; Prescott said. &uot;There are multiple reasons for this. Most notably, parents spend less time with their children because they have to work more. It’s not neccesarily a parental problem, more of an overall economic problem.&uot;

Prescott said for this reason the new program will be helpful because it will better prepare those students who are a bit behind for the future grades.

&uot;I think this will raise the bar for all kindergarteners,&uot; Prescott said. &uot;Individually it will make quite a huge difference. I think students will be not only better educated but also better socialized, spending more time with their peers.&uot;

One popular argument against full-day kindergarten, according to the ERS report, is that the students are too young to be doing so much school work. Also, some parents want to have their children at home for part of the day.

Lund said the district has considered making a few classes for those parents who might want to opt for that, but sees it as a difficult problem because there are no guarantees about the number of students who might enroll in a half-day program.

&uot;I think we’d rather work with parents and show them the programs we have to offer and the benefits they have for students,&uot; Lund said.

The district will start the new program next fall. Administrators and teachers are working on curriculum right now, which should take a recognizable shape within two months, according to Lund. He said the district will then go to parents for inpt.

This year there are ten kindergarten classes, but only five teachers in the district. With each class going all day, the district will hire five new teachers to make five new kindergarten classrooms.

The state does not provide funding for this sort of program, so the district will rely on funds from the passed referendum to support it. But Prescott said the district plans on lobbying state legislators to change that funding.

The district will be the first in the Big Nine conference to offer such a program.

&uot;I think generally speaking as a district, we are very excited,&uot; Lund said. &uot;We feel it is a great opportunity for our students.&uot;