Excerpt:
The research reported here represents key findings from an ongoing longitudinal study in collaboration with the Regional Municipality of Peel, the Peel District School Board and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. For five years, the research has been examining the implementation and impact of school-based integrated early childhood services including kindergarten, child care and parenting support in the Peel Best Start program (Region of Peel, 2011). The Best Start study builds on the previous work of our research team in the Toronto First Duty project (e.g., Corter & Pelletier, 2010; Corter, Janmohamed & Pelletier, 2012; Pelletier, 2012a). In 2010, the Peel research expanded to include full-day early learning/kindergarten (FDK). The FDK program is the focus of this report.
The purpose of the FDK research has been to examine the implementation and impact of Ontario's FDK initiative with three groups of stakeholders: 1) kindergarten children, 2) parents, and 3) staff teams of early childhood educators and kindergarten teachers, including classroom environment quality. The study is being carried out over time from JK/SK until children are in Grade 2 with results from Grade 3 EQAO to be added. This report provides an update on Year 3 of FDK implementation in 2012-13. The first group of FDK children in the study was now in Grade 1 or Grade 2. Also in 2012-13 (Year 3 FDK) a new cohort of
kindergarten children in both FDK and half-day kindergarten control schools was recruited. This allowed a comparison between Year 1 FDK and Year 3 FDK. Key findings from previous years were posted on the Atkinson Centre website at OISE (Pelletier, 2012b/c).
This report includes results of analyses with all kindergarten children, and comparisons of FDK children with half-day kindergarten children. The research design has allowed us to observe growth over time (from JK - Grade 1 and from SK - Grade 2 for the first cohort of FDK) as well as to compare cohorts across Year 1 FDK when the implementation was in its infancy, with Year 3 FDK after some of the initial challenges were addressed.
Also from this study:
- Pelletier, J. (2012). Key findings from Year 2 of Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten in Peel. Toronto: Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
- Pelletier, J. (2012). Key findings from Year 1 of Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten in Peel. Toronto: Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
News coverage:
- Full-day kindergarten offers little academic advantage, study says, Globe and Mail, 28 Mar 14
- Letter to the Editor from study author Janette Pelletier, Globe and Mail, 31 Mar 14
- Four questions about full-day kindergarten that matter more than test scores, Globe and Mail, 1 Apr 14