|
A recent
registration drive to enroll full-day
kindergarten students at Tempe schools
received a warm response from the
community, according to school district
officials.
“We had a great turnout for our annual
kindergarten round-up but,
unfortunately, we won’t have numbers for
a few weeks. We’ll have to wait and see
how it compares to last year, but we’re
hearing good things from our schools,”
said Monica Allread, public information
coordinator for the Tempe School
District.
This is the first time that Tempe, along
with other school districts, is offering
free full-day kindergarten to students
as part of House Bill 2874. The bill,
signed last June by Gov. Janet
Napolitano, allots $118 million to
support the implementation of full-day
kindergarten.
Earlier, the Tempe School District
offered only half-day kindergarten
programs and had to provide its own
funds.
According to Allread, the district
enrolled 1,800 kindergarten students
last year and expects to accommodate a
similar number for this academic year.
All schools in the district now offer
this program, including Ward Traditional
Academy.
The new full-day kindergarten program
will not bring any changes to staffing
levels for the school district,
according to Allread.
“Since we have been offering free
full-day kindergarten for so many years,
we haven't had to hire new teachers this
year,” Allread said.
The district official added that
national studies have shown that
students who attended full-day
kindergarten had lower numbers of grade
retentions and were twice as likely to
reach third grade without repeating.
Locally, for Tempe, full-day
kindergarten offers teachers more time
in teaching a scientifically researched
reading program offered by the district.
“The full-day allows teachers to go
deeper into the lesson, so students are
reading during their kindergarten year,”
Allread said. Besides, English language
learners tend to be more successful
learning a second language
According to information posted on the
Arizona Department of Education’s Web
site, full-day kindergarten offers
students “more time and opportunity to
play with language" as well as to
explore subjects in depth. Parents
benefit with lower childcare costs while
teachers get more time to spend with
students.
Tempe offers an open enrolment policy
and parents can call (480) 730-7305 if
they have questions about open
enrollment or registration.
|
