School administrators and teachers create a culture for high learning and achievement when they partner with parents to make decisions regarding the optimal age to begin formal schooling. The age that students begin school has decreased across the globe; however, the United States has various eligibility dates for school entry that require…

Many states require children to reach age 5 by a specified date in the calendar year in order to begin kindergarten. We use birth certificate records from 1999 to 2004 to assess whether parents systematically time childbirth before these eligibility cutoff dates to capture the option value of sending their child to school at a relatively young…

Research Findings: Data on more than 900 children participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were analyzed to examine the effect of age of entry to kindergarten on children's functioning in early elementary school. Children's academic achievement and socioemotional development were…