At the Medford Township Board of Education meeting held on Monday, Sept. 26, four kindergarten teachers and two reading specialists from the schools were in attendance to give a presentation on the benefits of the new full-day kindergarten program that was implemented in September 2015.
“Basically what we tried to do was show the Board of Education that they truly made a great decision here,” Beth Asbury, supervisor of instruction at Medford Township Public Schools, said. “We just wanted to let them know they definitely did a good thing.”
Compared to the previous half-day program, the teachers explained how a higher quality of instruction is now possible. Corresponding with respective school hours, it was explained that more time with students allows for more data driven instruction, time to build community relationships, time to teach for development of the “whole child” and time to differentiate instruction that meets individual student needs.
The presentation, titled “the positive effects of full-day kindergarten from Medford Township students and family,” explained three key areas of focus where development was said to have increased: literacy, mathematics and social and emotional development. Although the half-day option is no longer available, this kindergarten curriculum has also come to include science, social studies, art, music and physical education.
“In the half-day program, teachers try to meet state standards that are designed for a full-day program,” Asbury said. “As teachers we needed to think ‘what do i need to condense or eliminate,’ so now the biggest thing for us having the time to maintain the integrity of the program and teach it authentically.”
In a press release sent by Superintendent Joseph Del Rossi on Feb. 4, 2015, he explained that there were a number of reasons why the schools decided to implement full-day kindergarten. Ultimately, he explained that he believes extended time is needed to develop a depth of understanding as expected by the increased rigor of the Common Core.
Del Rossi also explained that full-day programming helps the schools to circumvent subsequent needs for remediation and for grade retention, as well as yielding better attendance and thus more learning time. Furthermore, full-day programs are thought to help students gain faster literacy and language developments and further enhance social, emotional and behavioral development.
Funded through program cost containment, reduction in staff via a slight decline in enrollment, staff retirements and sacrifice on behalf of our administration, teachers and support staff, this initiative has come at no additional cost to the Medford taxpayer.
Children within Medford can be registered for the full-day program by visiting the public school’s website at www.medford.k12.nj.us. For more information on the program itself, residents can contact Del Rossi at (609) 654–6416, ext. 8001.
