Full-day pre-K students demonstrate greater school readiness 
than half-day students

A study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that preschoolers who attended a full-day preschool program showed greater school readiness at the end of the school year than preschoolers who attended the same program for just half a day, as measured on the readiness subtests of the GOLD Assessment System.

Students were mostly low-income ethnic minority children enrolled in Chicago's Child Parent Centers in 11 Chicago schools. In a study by the Human Capital Research Collaborative, 409 full-day preschoolers were compared in a matched, non-randomized evaluation to 573 half-day preschoolers on measures of socioemotional competence, language, literacy, math, physical health, and cognitive development. Full-day pre-k students scored an average of 81% on the school readiness scale, while half-day pre-k students scored an average of 59%, scoring higher in all domains except literacy and cognitive development. Full-day preschoolers also demonstrated higher attendance rates than half-dayers. Parental involvement was equivalent for both groups.

The researchers plan to follow the children through elementary school to determine if the gains they demonstrated in preschool continue.

Johns Hopkins University 

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