A study was conducted to determine whether or not a child who is older when entering school performs better on reading readiness and achievement tests than a younger child. Two samples of second grade students from a middle class community in Bloomfield, New Jersey, were established by examining the ages of all the children in the cohort. Sample A…

Reviewed are foreign and American studies on the relationship between school entrance age and reading readiness; and presented is the author's contention that children should be automatically admitted to kindergarten and first grade, with the school responsible for appropriate individualized instruction. (CL)

This paper describes the scope and findings of a separately published comprehensive review of research on optimum age of entry into first grade, covering the literature from 1915 to 1976. (Not included was research on reading, the gifted, mentally retarded, and materials in popular journals.) Findings noted the inadequacy of chronological age as a…

To determine the factors accounting for children's growth in decoding skill, a study examined school entering characteristics--age, sex, ethnicity, and developmental abilities--and school-influenced skills and characteristics--phonemic awareness, letter-name knowledge, basal text, and place in series--of approximately 100 grade one students.…