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…

Presents findings on academic success of early entrants to school that show children younger at school entrance often have academic problems that last throughout their school careers. Suggests changing the cutoff dates for school entrance and using better developmental assessment to determine children's readiness to enter school. (MD)

Twenty-one studies reporting on early admission of children to elementary school are reviewed and discussed in terms of methodological design and findings. An appendix summarizes studies with implied or explicit comparisons. (Author/MT)

The influence of age of entrance to first grade on subsequent rate of scholastic development was tested in this longitudinal investigation. Forty-one pairs of boys and forty-nine pairs of girls, matched according to sex, intelligence, and socioeconomic status, were subjects. The mean chronological age of late entrants was 81 months, opposed to 72…

Notes that the practice of delaying school entrance for summer-born children, especially boys, to give them some academic advantage, is not substantiated by sufficient research. Describes a subsequent study indicating higher achievement for children held-out than those entering school on time. Argues for more research and consideration of the…

THIS INVESTIGATION WAS DESIGNED TO ASSESS THE INFLUENCE OF AGE OF ENTRANCE INTO THE FIRST GRADE ON ARITHMETIC ACHIEVEMENT. THE SCORES ON ARITHMETIC ACHIEVEMENT TESTS WERE COMPARED FOR 378 LATE AND EARLY ENTRANT BOYS AND GIRLS IN THE FIRST TO SIXTH GRADES. THE LATE ENTRANTS WERE BETWEEN 8 AND 9 MONTHS OLDER THAN THE EARLY ENTRANTS. THEORETICALLY,…

This paper reviews literature and research on the effects of age of initial entry into schooling, citing over 20 studies from the 1930's through the 1970's relating entrance age to academic success and personality development. Studies investigating the effect of early entry into first grade on academic achievement have indicated that not only…

The first part of this document presents the results of a survey of early entrance testing procedures in 25 Florida districts and details teacher ratings of 486 first-grade and 154 kindergarten students whose entrance test results had permitted them to enter kindergarten a year earlier than other students with birthdays between October and…

This report presents findings from the first year of a pilot program permitting kindergarten age students to enter school at the first grade level (K-1 program for 5-year-olds). The purposes of the study were: (1) to compare the academic and social behavior of the early admissions (EA) students with that of the regular first graders; (2) to…

This study compared the academic and social development of students who entered grade 1 very early (5:6 years or 5:7 years), in the mid range (5:8 to 6:3 years), and very late (6:4 years or older). The purpose of the study was to explore the hypothesis that the early grade 1 entrants would have continuing problems in both academic and social…