School officials said a dramatic improvement in reading skills among kindergarteners is powerful evidence that full-day kindergarten programs introduced three years ago in low-income schools are working.

The school system's Office of Shared Accountability reported Tuesday that the percentage of students meeting the benchmark of being able to read "a simple story with familiar content and supportive illustrations" jumped from 39 percent in 2000-01, the first year of the study and of a new kindergarten curriculum, to 70 percent in the 2002-03 school year.

That means more students will be prepared to tackle tougher classes as they progress through their school careers, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast wrote in a memo to the county school board introducing the study.

"We know from previous research that there is a high correlation between being able to read fluently by Grade 3 and ultimately being ready for higher-level coursework in high school," Weast wrote. "Therefore, the earlier children reach the necessary benchmarks in reading skills the better. Indeed, the preparation for success in high school begins in kindergarten."

The report says the gains by students in full-day kindergarten programs -- particularly African-Americans and Hispanics -- versus students in half-day programs show the value of a full-day regimen. Overall, 69 percent of all students in half-day programs and 71 percent in full-day met the benchmark.

Students in special education, English for Speakers of Other Languages and Free and Reduced-Price Meals programs used to identify the county's most impoverished schools also showed improved reading skills, the report says.

The proof is in the reading

Three years ago, the school system began implementing a new kindergarten curriculum, including a full-day program with a 15-to-1 student to teacher ratio, a 90-minute block for reading and writing each day and lessons based on state standards. The program was started in the neediest schools first.

The Montgomery system hired 178 new teachers, retrained more than 350, and spent about $1,000 more per student in kindergarten through second grade, Weast said.

On Nov. 20, the county school board approved a four-year rollout that will bring full-day programs to all county elementary schools by 2007-08, as mandated by state law.

Seventeen schools will switch to full-day programs in each of the first three years, beginning next year. The final 14 schools will switch in 2007-08. It will cost about $7.5 million a year, in salaries and some portable classrooms, to expand the program in the first three years and slightly less in the final year.

Some Maryland counties have asked the state to waive the requirement until they can pay for additional classroom space, but Montgomery County is moving forward with its expansion.

"We have the data that shows all-day kindergarten works for every child," said school board President Patricia B. O'Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda.

O'Neill said she and board member Sharon W. Cox (At large) of Germantown mentioned the results of the reading study at the state's association of school boards convention in October. They plan to mail them to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis.

The county school system is asking for $59.9 million in state construction money for next year as part of a $956.2 million, six-year construction plan.

"Nothing gains greater appropriations than success," said County Councilman Michael L. Subin (D-At large) of Gaithersburg, chairman of the council's education committee. "[The state school board], the governor, the legislature has a moral obligation to get us the operating funds and the capital funds to continue on this path."

Closing the gap

Since being named superintendent in 1999, Weast has stressed the need to close the achievement gap between African-American and Hispanic students and their white and Asian-American classmates.

Seventy-two percent of African-American students and 60 percent of Hispanic students in full-day kindergarten met the benchmark at the end of the 2002-03 school year, according to the study.

That compares to 71 percent among full-day students from all racial groups, including 79 percent among white students and 80 percent among Asian-American students.

When the school system first phased in the new curriculum in full-day kindergarten classes in 2000-01, 44 percent of African-American and 33 percent of Hispanic students met the benchmark.

Judy Docca, education chairwoman of the county's branch of the NAACP, called the progress those students have made "remarkable."

"I think they're beginning to close the gap," she said.

Weast, in his memo, called the number of full-day Hispanic students meeting the benchmark "an extraordinary achievement given the high level of limited English proficiency" among that group.

The jump in full-day students' reading skills raised eyebrows among researchers, said Theresa Alban, coordinator of the Office of Shared Accountability.

"For us, it was looking at those surges when the full-day [program] gets implemented," she said. "That was just so striking."

The improved numbers reflect what teachers are seeing in the classroom, said Carmen van Zutphen, principal at Bel Pre Elementary School in Silver Spring, which has nine full-day kindergartens.

"Our first-grade teachers are seeing kids who are coming in reading and writing, where traditionally they were only learning to write in first grade," she said.

That is because teachers in a full-day program have time to do more than merely "scratch the surface" of each student's reading skills, said Karen Sweetman, a Bel Pre kindergarten teacher.

"I think that I do what I used to do, but I spend more time doing it," she said. "I know these kids and I can focus on their strengths and their weaknesses."