Review and Special Articles
Effects of Full-Day Kindergarten on the Long-Term Health Prospects of Children in Low-Income and Racial/Ethnic-Minority Populations: A Community Guide Systematic Review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2013.12.003Get rights and content

Context

Children from low-income and minority families are often behind higher-income and majority children in language, cognitive, and social development even before they enter school. Because educational achievement has been shown to improve long-term health, addressing these delays may foster greater health equity. This systematic review assesses the extent to which full-day kindergarten (FDK), compared with half-day kindergarten (HDK), prepares children, particularly those from low-income and minority families, to succeed in primary and secondary school and improve lifelong health.

Evidence acquisition

A meta-analysis (2010) on the effects of FDK versus HDK among U.S. children measured educational achievement at the end of kindergarten. The meta-analysis was concordant with Community Guide criteria. Findings on the longer-term effects of FDK suggested “fade-out” by third grade. The present review used evidence on the longer-term effects of pre-K education to explore the loss of FDK effects over time.

Evidence synthesis

FDK improved academic achievement by an average of 0.35 SDs (Cohen’s d; 95% CI=0.23, 0.46). The effect on verbal achievement was 0.46 (Cohen’s d; 95% CI=0.32, 0.61) and that on math achievement was 0.24 (Cohen’s d; 95% CI=0.06, 0.43).

Evidence of “fade-out” from pre-K education found that better-designed studies indicated both residual benefits over multiple years and the utility of educational boosters to maintain benefits, suggesting analogous longer-term effects of FDK.

Conclusions

There is strong evidence that FDK improves academic achievement, a predictor of longer-term health benefits. To sustain early benefits, intensive elementary school education is needed. If targeted to low-income and minority communities, FDK can advance health equity.

Section snippets

Income, Race and Ethnicity, and Educational Attainment

Educational attainment is one of the most important determinants of health.1, 2 Conversely, incomplete or poor-quality education can jeopardize a child’s prospects for health and well-being. This review investigates the potential of full-day kindergarten (FDK) to foster the public health goal of health equity, with a focus on low-income and racial/ethnic-minority populations in the U.S.

Risk factors for poor lifelong educational attainment appear even before children enter the formal educational

Evidence Acquisition

The Community Guide systematic review process was used to assess the effectiveness of FDK (vs. HDK/ADFDK) to improve the education-related health outcomes of low-income and racial/ethnic-minority populations.12, 13 The process involved forming a systematic review team (the team) to work with oversight from the nonfederal, independent Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force), to develop evidence-based recommendations.

The rules of evidence under which the Task Force makes its

Short-Term Effectiveness: FDK Versus HDK/ADFDK Observed at the End of Kindergarten or Beginning of First Grade

In total, Cooper and colleagues16 examined 655 study reports, and 290 were retrieved as potentially useful. Forty studies were included in the meta-analysis, of which seven were published. The studies assessed 55 “samples,” that is, separate populations. Dissertations and master’s theses accounted for 21 samples, and 16 samples were conference papers, government reports, school district reports, or other unpublished research reports.

The meta-analysis focused on FDK programs (compared with HDK

Evidence Gaps

Whereas prior reviews have indicated that FDK programs are especially effective for lower-income and minority populations,50, 51, 52, 53, 68, 69 the meta-analysis by Cooper et al.16 could only address this issue with a proxy measure. Lack of findings on variations in effect by race/ethnicity may have been a consequence of their seemingly stringent inclusion criterion of population homogeneity (i.e., “only one ethnicity”), which, if taken literally, is rare. Given that low-income and minority

Discussion

The present review demonstrates that, at least in the short term, children in the general population benefit more from FDK than HDK/ADFDK in academic and social development. Evidence on the long-term benefits of pre-K programs suggests that FDK also may have long-term educational and health benefits, particularly when reinforced by intensive ongoing education programs. Prior reviews suggest greater relative benefits among children in lower-income populations and racial/ethnic-minority

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Katherine Magnuson, PhD (University of Wisconsin); Elizabeth Dhuey, PhD (University of Toronto); Raj Chetty, PhD (Harvard University); Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, PhD (University of Pittsburgh); Harris Cooper, PhD (Duke University); Jessie Hood, ScD (CDC); and Jackie Buckley, PhD (Department of Education), in addition to our consultant team: Ann Abramowitz, PhD (Emory University); Geoffrey Borman, PhD (University of Wisconsin); Jeannie Brooks-Gunn, PhD (Columbia

References (71)

  • Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health

    (2008)
  • Feinstein L, Sabates R, Anderson TM, Sorhaindo A, Hammond C. What are the effects of education on health? Measuring the...
  • U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Entering kindergarten: a portrait of American...
  • Egerter S, Braveman P, Sadegh-Nobari T, Grossman-Kahn R, Dekker M. Education matters for health. Issue Brief 6:...
  • C.E. Ross et al.

    The links between education and health

    Am Sociol Rev

    (1995)
  • A. Bowers

    Reconsidering grades as data for decision making: more than just academic knowledge

    J Educ Admin

    (2009)
  • Chetty R, Friedman JN, Hilger N, Saez E, Schanzenbach DW, Yagan D. How does your kindergarten classroom affect your...
  • E. Dhuey

    Who benefits from kindergarten? Evidence from the introduction of state subsidization

    Educ Eval Policy Anal

    (2011)
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau. Current Population Survey (CPS)...
  • U.S. Census Bureau. School enrollment in the U.S.: enrollment status of the population 3 years old and over, by sex,...
  • S. Zaza et al.

    Data collection instrument and procedure for systematic reviews in the Guide to Community Preventive Services

    Am J Prev Med

    (2011)
  • G.J. Duncan et al.

    School readiness and later achievement

    Dev Psychol

    (2007)
  • World Bank. World development indicators 2006....
  • H. Cooper et al.

    Effects of full-day kindergarten on academic achievement and social development

    Rev Educ Res

    (2010)
  • M.W. Lipsey et al.
    (2000)
  • M. Lipsey et al.

    The efficacy of psychological, educational, and behavioral treatment

    Am Psychologist

    (1993)
  • J.E. Hunter et al.

    Fixed effects vs. random effects meta-analysis models: implications for cumulative research knowledge

    Int J Select Assess

    (2000)
  • K. Fischer

    States and individual differences in cognitive development

    Annu Rev Psychol

    (1985)
  • S. Macartney

    Child poverty in the U.S. 2009 and 2010: selected race groups and Hispanic origin

    (2011)
  • R. Rosenthal et al.

    A simple general purpose display of magnitude of experimental effect

    J Educ Psychol

    (1982)
  • Anderson E. Increasing school effectiveness: the full-day kindergarten. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the...
  • Hamilton Township Schools New Jersey. Full-day kindergarten pilot program. Interim report of the Full-Day Kindergarten...
  • Department of Education. Federal TRIO Programs current-year low-income levels....
  • National Center for Education Statistics. Early Childhood Longitudinal Program (ECLS)....
  • J.S. Cannon et al.

    Is full better than half? Examining the longitudinal effects of full-day kindergarten attendance

    J Policy Anal Manage

    (2006)
  • Cited by (16)

    • Whole-day or half-day kindergarten? Chinese parents' perceptions, needs, and decisions in a privatised marketplace

      2019, Children and Youth Services Review
      Citation Excerpt :

      Through focus group meetings, Coughenour, Pharr, Gakh, Clark, and Cheong (2019) also recorded greater favouritism from parents, educators, and community members towards the whole-day kindergarten as they believed in its greater capacity in increasing children's social skills and physical activities and allowing teachers to detect children's special educational needs. In regard to non-academic learning, participation in the whole-day programme has been shown to enhance children's physical, social, and emotional development, self-esteem, and interpersonal skills, which may indirectly promote academic success (e.g., Crane, Talley, Cook, Naylor, & Temple, 2012; Hahn et al., 2014; Zhang, 2011). The longer school time has been associated with a lower body mass index, more physical education and outdoor playtime, rapid exercise, and less television watching (Gottfried & Le, 2017).

    • Is whole-day kindergarten better than half-day kindergarten? A mixed methods study of Chinese educators’ perceptions

      2018, Children and Youth Services Review
      Citation Excerpt :

      More than half of the teachers rated the former whole-day kindergarteners as better than their half-day counterparts in terms of work habits, independence, fine and gross motor skills and coordination, handwriting, and following instructions. Data from standardized tests and teacher surveys have associated the whole-day program, or the children who attend it, with better reading and mathematics achievement, more active learning behaviour, higher cognitive and problem-solving skills, greater social competence and more prosocial behaviour, more outdoor physical activities and less sedentary behaviour, fewer special educational referrals and grade retention, and smoother transition to and greater school readiness for primary education (Cooper, Allen, Patall, & Dent, 2010; Crane, Talley, Cook, Naylor, & Temple, 2012; Elicker & Mathur, 1997; Gottfried & Le, 2017; Hahn et al., 2014; Herry, Maltais, & Thompson, 2007; Zhang, 2011). Hough and Bryde (1996) also claimed that the whole-day program's ability to enhance teacher–student relationships and parent–teacher communication could in turn aid the delivery of an educational curriculum catered to different children (Hough & Bryde, 1996).

    • Health impact assessment as an instrument to examine the health implications of education policies

      2017, Public Health
      Citation Excerpt :

      In the short term (at the end of kindergarten or beginning of 1st grade), kindergarteners that attend FDK tend to have higher test scores when compared with those who attend half-day kindergarten (HDK).17 While conclusions about the long-term educational benefits of FDK are less definitive, research suggests that certain students who attend FDK, particularly lower socio-economic status, minority, ELL, and inner-city students, maintain significant and positive differences in math and reading scores on 3rd and 5th grade standardized tests when compared with HDK students.17–19 The literature review also revealed that proficiency on 3rd-grade reading and math tests are relatively accurate predictors of high school graduation.20,21

    • Full-day kindergarten and children's later reading: The role of early word reading

      2016, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
      Citation Excerpt :

      In addition, initial academic benefits of attending full day-kindergarten are generally not sustained through elementary school (Gullo, 2000; Saam & Nowak, 2005; Votruba-Drzal et al., 2008; Walston et al., 2005; Wolgemuth et al., 2006). Researchers have speculated reasons for the fade-out, including the characteristics of children who attend full-day programs, the quality of instruction and support in school environments post-kindergarten, and summer learning loss (Hahn et al., 2014; Zvoch, 2009). Children who are at an increased likelihood of academic difficulty are more likely to attend full-day kindergarten (Lee et al., 2006; Walston & West, 2004), so it is plausible that, although full-day kindergarten has initial benefits, children's experiences post-kindergarten (e.g., lack of continued intervention, less individualized support) do not sustain the learning from kindergarten (Rothstein, 2013; Welner & Carter, 2013).

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Names and affiliations of Task Force members can be found at www.thecommmunityguide.org/about/task-force-members.html

    View full text