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58 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, June 7, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 25, 2004 Howard Elementary School kindergartners Alexis Charlton, left, Montana Logue, Joshua Langelier and Kaylee Hakes get in a little reading during class. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Full school days pay off Kindergartners at seven Medford elementary schools are now reading at first-grade levels after going to class all day By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Kindergartner Montana Logue tracks the words of Dr. Seuss’s "Green Eggs and Ham" across the page with her finger. Her Howard Elementary School classmates flip pages and sound out words all around her. "They are reading," Howard kindergarten teacher Jody Gressett said. "They are so ready for first grade." Gressett said 21 of her 23 students can read, results she usually wouldn’t expect from a class before the middle of first grade. The difference this year is kindergartners at Howard and six other Medford schools that serve low-income students have gone to school all day. The other schools are Jackson, Jefferson, Oak Grove, Roosevelt, Washington and Wilson. This was the first year all kindergartners at those schools attended full days. One or two classes at each school had gone all day in a two-year pilot program, with good results, officials said. Advertisement The district used Title 1 money, federal funds provided to schools in areas with many low-income families, to pay for all-day instruction. The district pays for half days of instruction for kindergartners at all its schools, then uses $720,000 of federal funds a year to extend the day at the Title 1 schools, explained Julie York, the district’s supervisor of special services. The federal funds aren’t part of the district’s general fund. In January, Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo made full-day kindergarten at Title 1 schools a priority in her plan to boost student achievement and encouraged schools to use federal funds for such programs. Nationwide, about 60 percent of kindergartners attend full-day classes, and those who do are better prepared to succeed in first grade and beyond, according to the Education Commission of the States, a policy advisory organization based in Denver. "We knew going into it we could reap a lot of benefits for kids," Howard Principal Trisha Evens said. Those benefits are apparent in year-end testing that just wrapped up. The tests, done at several points during the year, measure the skills kids will need to read such as recognizing letters and knowing sounds. In a timed test to identify letters, kids starting kindergarten should be able to name eight letters in one minute, and by spring they should zip through 40 letters in that time. In the fall, 30 percent of the district’s kindergartners struggled with the task, but by spring only 21 percent had trouble, York said. At schools offering all-day classes, just 13 percent faltered. In the past, students at those schools typically did worse than the rest, she said. Districtwide, 77 percent of kindergartners met the goals set out in the skills tests, she said. All-day classes show some of the best results, with 94 percent hitting the target at Jackson and 90 percent at Howard, she said. In past years, about 50 percent of Howard kindergartners met the benchmarks. Still, the gains didn’t come without a struggle as teachers, students and parents got used to an all-day schedule, Evens said. In the fall, the daily routine included plenty of snacks, naps and potty breaks for youngsters who were just learning how to be in school, she said. As kids adjusted, rest times and snacks became less frequent, as did accidents on the way to the bathroom. Now the kids navigate the cafeteria at lunch and attend all-school assemblies like pros, something kindergarten classes never did before. "I try to keep them focused and entertained with academic play," teacher Kathy Erickson said. "They are still little kids." Last fall, dad Kurt Winchell had his doubts about putting those little kids through a full day of instruction, but now he’s a believer with praise for Evens and Erickson. His oldest son, James, 5, is excelling on tests and reading at home. A former educator, Winchell said he has seen schools get caught up in instructional fads, then quickly abandon them. He also worried that the program targeting poor schools could stigmatize kids. As he learned more about the program and saw the results as a classroom volunteer, he came around. "I’m all for all-day programs now," Winchell said. "I would like to see it in all schools. It’s sad that can’t happen because of funding." Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] . 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