The belief that additional time allows children to become more ready for school has affected public policy and individual practices. Prior studies estimated either associations between school entry age and academic growth or causal effects on achievement measured at one or two points. This article contributes novel causal evidence for the impacts…

In the United States, when a child turns five years of age, he or she is eligible to enroll and attend five-year old kindergarten. Parents and caregivers are often tasked with making the decision on whether or not to enroll their child when eligible to attend kindergarten or if the child should be held back another year (redshirted) and attend…

In this study, the researcher examined the idea of the Catholic School Advantage (CSA), whether it is a quantifiable effect, or if it can be explained by selection bias on the part of parents. Additionally, the researcher sought to examine if this selection bias, if it exists, could explain any academic achievement differences between Catholic…

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…

In evaluating the role of kindergarten entry age, previous researchers have not examined the entry-age effects for English language learners (ELL). Additionally, little work has assessed the role of entry age on both achievement and social-emotional outcomes. This study is the first to do both simultaneously. The authors used data from a…

This quantitative study examined the effect of a student's entry point into a school district and his/her performance on the New York State English Language Arts and Integrated Algebras Regents Exams. The subjects of this study were students assigned to the 2010 and 2011 cohorts from one Long Island school district. Three entry points were…

Children participating in kindergarten programming across the United States are expected to perform at a higher level than ever before. Many of these children are unprepared and developmentally unready for the academic tasks that await them. Researchers have shown that an older age at the start of kindergarten is a predictor of academic…

Young-for-grade students have been shown to receive lower grades and have a higher likelihood of retention compared to their oldest peers upon kindergarten entry. Our study of 1474 economically disadvantaged first-time kindergarteners investigates if preschool attendance may ameliorate some of the risks potentially associated with being…

This research study was conducted to examine the effects of the Kindergarten Readiness program in a large suburban school district in Tennessee as measured by third grade Reading and Mathematics TCAP Achievement Test scores. In addition, the study examined the relationships between the chronological ages of the students at kindergarten entry and…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of kindergarten enrollment age on four-year-old Chinese children's early cognition and problem behavior using multilevel models. The sample comprised of 1,391 pre-school children (the mean age is 4.58 years old) from 74 kindergartens in six different provinces. The results demonstrated curvilinear…

This research examined the scope of parental involvement at school entry and sought to determine what, if any, differences existed between ethnic groups. In addition, the researcher attempted to determine if parental involvement was related to academic achievement at school entry. Participants were the African American and European American…

This study examined the effect of kindergarten entry age on the scores of the eighth grade Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) math and reading scores, while controlling for the demographic variables of gender and socioeconomic status. The subjects included 1,197 students who participated in the randomized, long-term STAR (Student-Teacher…

The authors investigated whether age at kindergarten entry was associated with early literacy achievement gaps and if these gaps persisted over time. Using the kindergarten age eligibility cutoff date, they created 2 groups of students who represented the oldest and youngest children in a cohort of students in high-poverty, low-performing schools.…

The current study examined whether the parental practice of delayed kindergarten entrance, also known as academic red-shirting, was associated with gains in academic achievement among children with learning disabilities. Results indicate no significant differences in the academic achievement among children with learning disabilities who were…

Older children outperform younger children in a school-entry cohort well into their school careers. The existing literature has provided little insight into the causes of this phenomenon, leaving open the possibility that school-entry age is zero-sum game, where relatively young students lose what relatively old students gain. In this paper, we…