Are There Long-term Academic Benefits of Full-Day Kindergarten? A PATHS Equity for Children Project Marni Brownell, PhD CPHA Annual Conference Toronto, Ontario, May 27, 2014 Image courtesy of Vlado: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Project Team: Marni Brownell, Elaine Burland, Dan Chateau, Leah Crockett, Chun Yan Goh, Pat Martens, Nathan Nickel, Rob Santos, Joy Sarkar, Carole Taylor 2 Collaborators: Leanne Boyd (HCMO), Wenda Dickens (ME), Joanne Dumaine (DSFM), Tanis Pshebniski (St. James SD), Beverly Zakaluk (Faculty of Ed, retired) This Programmatic Grant to Reduce Health Inequity was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research ( and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canadawww.cihr-irsc.gc.ca

3 What we already know about Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK) Most of the research on FDK comes from the USA Tends to show that there are short-term benefits for children attending FDK – improved literacy and numeracy skills in Grade 1 Studies tend to show that benefits fade over time – usually by end of grade 3

4 Criticism of Past Research Half-Day Kindergarten (HDK) comparison groups – generally more advantaged Few studies follow kids past grade 3

5 Manitoba advantage Were able to follow several thousand children over time Could look at educational outcomes several years after Kindergarten (up to Grade 9) Used state-of-the-art statistical modeling to ensure FDK and HDK groups really were comparable

6 Full-Day Kindergarten - Populations Studied

7 Significant Findings Grade 3 Reading Grade 3 Numeracy Grade 7 Math Grade 7 student Engage’t Grade 8 Reading /Writing Grade 9 Achieve’t TargetedSES*K Sex*K UniversalSES*K-- Sex*K--

8 Significant Findings Grade 3 Reading Grade 3 Numeracy Grade 7 Math Grade 7 student Engage’t Grade 8 Reading /Writing Grade 9 Achieve’t TargetedSES*Kns Middle SES Low SES High SES ns Sex*Kns GirlsnsBoysns UniversalSES*K--ns Sex*K--nsGirlsns

9 Likely, there exists some unmeasured confounding. How much confounding is needed to nullify our findings? How confident can we be of these findings? Not Significant Impact on Gr. 7 math CONFOUNDER STRENGTH OF CONFOUNDER (31.6%)

10 Likely, there exists some unmeasured confounding. How much confounding is needed to nullify our findings? How confident can we be of these findings? Not Significant Impact on Gr. 7 engagement CONFOUNDER STRENGTH OF CONFOUNDER (1.4%)

11 Robust, Significant Findings Grade 3 Reading Grade 3 Numeracy Grade 7 Math Grade 7 student Engage’t Grade 8 Reading /Writing Grade 9 Achieve’t TargetedSES*Kns Middle SES Low SES High SES ns Sex*Kns GirlsnsBoysns UniversalSES*K--ns Sex*K--nsGirlsns

12 Policy Implications We found few long-term benefits of FDK FDK programs targeted at low income areas may confer some benefits, but these appear to be limited to numeracy and benefit lower income girls These limited benefits should be weighed against costs of FDK programs

13 Limitations Have not examined emotional/social outcomes, self-control – focused on academic (and student engagement)

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