Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Recent studies indicate that kindergarten has become more academic. Results from nationally representative surveys find that kindergarten teachers spent more time on academics in 2010-2011 than they did in 1998-1999 (Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016). Nearly all children in the United States attend kindergarten, and, most kindergarten programs are now full day—a rapid change from the turn of the century. Whether kindergarten should emphasize academics or socialization and other non-academic skills has been debated for decades (Russell, 2011). Recently, researchers have argued for the possibility that play and learning need not be at odds (Bassok, Claessens, & Engel, 2014). However, there is little evidence on how kindergarteners spend their days beyond single point-in-time teacher reports from surveys.

The proposed paper provides detailed evidence on how time is spent during the kindergarten day. Using classroom observational data collected in 24 New York City Public Schools during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years, we explore how much time is devoted to reading and mathematics, other academic subjects, activities such as music and art, developing social skills, gross motor activities (physical education and recess), meals, and transitions.

Preliminary results from analysis of 30 full-day classroom observations conducted during the 2015-2016 school year indicate that the majority of instructional time in kindergarten is spent on reading and language arts; teachers spend approximately 90 minutes per day on literacy instruction. The second most emphasized academic subject is mathematics, with teachers spending nearly 60 minutes per day teaching math. While kindergarten teachers devote substantial time to literacy and math, results indicate that teachers spend little concentrated time on any other academic subjects, with science and social studies accounting for only 3% or 15 minutes of the school day. An average of approximately 20 minutes of the kindergarten day are devoted to art and music, on average, and only 15 minutes are spent on gross motor activities (including recess and physical education). The largest portion of the kindergarten day – 42% or approximately 3 hours – was composed of non-instructional time. On average, most of this non-instructional time is spent on transitions (nearly two hours per day) and meals (45 minutes per day).

Expanding on the preliminary results described above, the proposed paper will add data from 30 additional full day classroom observations conducted in the same schools in 2016-2017. We will explore how instructional time use varied across contexts, variation in how transitional time was spent, and implications for educational policy. In particular, we will explore what prior research and theory suggest might be optimal time use for kindergarten students, the extent to which our results from NYC align with what research and theory suggest might be the best use of time during kindergarten, and what factors led to the large amount of non-instructional time (particularly time spent on transitions) that was observed.