Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

What’s better than a half day or preschool?

A full day.

That’s the result of a study from the University of Colorado Boulder.

A university news story explains:

“The results show that doubling the time that kids spend in prekindergarten classes could have big benefits for their learning. The research team, led by CU Boulder’s Allison Atteberry, found that the extra school hours improved how children performed in assessments of vocabulary, literacy, math and more.

“It’s not clear whether the positive effects will be sustained as the students continue their education—the researchers only looked at kids’ progress over their pre-K year.

“But the study, published in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that experiences early on in life may have huge implications for a child’s academic growth. That’s likely because of how quickly children’s brains evolve, Atteberry said.

“ ‘Even a month in the life of a young child may represent a huge period in their development,’ said Atteberry, an assistant professor in the CU Boulder School of Education. ‘At the same time, this is a period when families are making very different choices about childcare and have different resources to make those choices.’ ”

 The study looked at the Westminster Public Schools, a district “that serves a largely Latino and low-income population in the suburbs of Denver” that received funding “to open up several full-day pre-K classrooms.”

“From a research perspective what is so exciting here is it’s the first experimental evidence on full vs. half-day pre-K,” Attebery tells Chalkbeat Colorado.

Chalkbeat adds:

“The new study found that full-day preschoolers had significantly better scores on tests of receptive vocabulary — the set of words they understand and can apply to the world around them.

“Atteberry said such vocabulary skills represent a key building block of literacy, the foundation for learning in all subjects.

“Full-day preschoolers also received higher scores than their half-day peers, on two other assessments: an early literacy assessment and a broader assessment that examines a range of areas, from social and emotional skills and physical development to math and literacy.”

“However, the researchers concluded that the improvements cannot be attributed to increased academic time alone,” CBS4 Denver reports. The full-day students also received “regular school lunches and mandatory nap time… Those physical advantages cannot be dismissed in light of other research on the impact of such factors on young brain development.”

Leigh Pytlinski, the district’s director of early childhood education, tells Chalkbeat that “she doesn’t see the district eliminating half-day preschool entirely because some children have wonderful care at home or with relatives the other half of the day.

“But many full-day preschool students tend to be more mature and independent when they start kindergarten, she said, better at tasks like hand-washing, putting their dishes away after eating, and solving problems that crop up during play. They also get more time for lessons — or post-lesson activities — on math and science topics, cooking, and music.”

What’s next? More research.

Atteberry wants to see how long this boost lasts, and as Chalkbeat says of her thinking, “studies like this one could help to guide policymakers across the U.S. as they decide how best to help young children begin their education on the right foot.”