Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was threefold, to: (1) examine the perceptions of superintendents, principals, and faculty on twenty-five supportive and nonsupportive issues for implementing all-day kindergarten classes; (2) determine their rankings of six conditions that could have impacted their decision to implement all-day kindergarten classes; and (3) ascertain what changes in their district they would deem necessary to accommodate the all-day kindergarten program. Methodology. Descriptive statistical procedures were employed to report the questionnaire-generated information. The Kruskall Wallis one-way analysis of variance and the Mann Whitney U two-sample analysis along with the Bonferroni Test of Medians were used to determine the existence of significant differences from among the stakeholders with regard to their degree of agreement with the twenty-five issues and the ranking of the six conditions. Findings. Significant differences were found in the degree of agreement between administrators and faculty on six of thirteen supportive issues, and eight of the twelve nonsupportive issues with administrators favoring the program and teachers, for the most part, disagreeing with the option. All-day kindergarten teachers concurred with the administrators. Similar rankings were given by both administrators and faculty to the six conditions impacting the decision to move to the all-day configuration. And finally, stakeholders agreed that the most important change to be made to accommodate all-day classes would be acquiring facilities, materials, furniture, and equipment. Conclusions. Administrators and faculty did not agree on the benefits of all-day kindergarten classes, with administrators supporting the option and faculty disagreeing, except for the all-day kindergarten teachers. Administrators and faculty, however, did acknowledge the importance of a shared decision-making process to implement any organizational changes. Any districts contemplating implementing the all-day kindergarten option must first gain the support of the early primary teachers and the teacher organization leadership. Recommendations. Recommendations for further research included: comparing the curricular content of half-day and all-day kindergarten classes; a replication study using a larger population of all-day kindergarten teachers; a study of the end of the first grade reading, language, and math performance of students from half-day and all-day kindergarten classes; and a qualitative case history study of students in half-day and all-day kindergarten classes.