Examined the prevalence of holding age-eligible children out of kindergarten in a single northern California county, and the changes in the phenomenon over time. Found a significant decline in the frequency of holding out for both boys and girls, but that boys are held out more often than girls and that holding out is positively associated with…

Over the past 10 years, kindergarten classes have escalated their academic demands in order to prepare children to begin first grade. In tandem with curricular changes, many parents have elected to "hold out" their children from first grade for an additional year, and increasingly, schools are using kindergarten retention in response to…

This monograph presents information to help educators consider how to determine the best age for each child to begin his or her formal schooling. Trends in state requirements for school entrance age are described, and research in areas such as mental age, reading readiness, child development, screening instruments, and experimental preschool…