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This study investigated the changing achievement relationships among students based on ages at entry into first grade and ages relative to their classmates. Data from students in grades 4, 8, and 11 were selected from National Assessment of Educational Progress achievement data in mathematics, science, and reading collected from national samples of year-old students. Relative age, class age, sex, parental education, home environment, and type of community were entered in stepwise multiple regression analyses. The achievement data for Caucasians indicated that the significantly higher achievement of the oldest as compared to the youngest students at age 9 remained significant, but decreased at age 13, and disappeared by age 17. For blacks, while the trend did not decrease at age 13, it also disappeared at age 17. A second analysis of the proportion of students retained one grade revealed significantly increasing proportions of retained students as relative age became younger for Caucasians and blacks. Clinical screening based on sex and school district entrance age requirements was suggested for several groups. Signs of inadequate readiness in some of these groups pose potentially serious threats to academic careers and suggest delaying entrance for a year. Is there a best age for all children to enter the first grade? This difficult question has long concerned parents, educators, administrators, and legis-This article is based on a paper given at Downloaded from LANGER, KALK, AND SEARLS lators (Hedges, 1977). The common criterion used by school districts for entrance into the first grade has been chronological age, with admission usually allowed only at the beginning of the school year (Jones, 1968). Such a simple criterion has obvious administrative advantages but also encourages pressure for change from parents and teachers. The result is frequent legislative reexamination of the laws governing entrance age (Carline, 1964; Educational Research Service [ERS], 1975). The confusion and ambiguity about these policies can be seen in the range of 5 calendar months among the entrance age requirements for the nation's school districts (ERS, 1975; National Institute of Education, 1978). But school budget constraints and inadequate research have left the simple age requirement as the normal admission policy to first grade. Comparisons of the academic achievement of children entering school at the opposite ends of the normal 12-month entrance age period have demonstrated that the younger students receive lower school grades and score lower on achievement tests. These findings have been consistent, starting with Bigelow (1934), through King (1955), Green and Simmons (1962), Carrol (1963), and Hall (1963).Most of the research has dealt with both restricted populations and grade ranges. However, in a study covering a more extended grade range, Miller and Norris (1967) found the initial academic differences attenuating between normally entering older and younger children as they progressed through elementary school.The Colema...

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This longitudinal case study focuses on handwriting samples of a female diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder from 12 years of age to 21 years of age. Diaries and journals produced for class assignments and later for this research yielded 293 handwriting samples. 15 characteristics of handwriting were measured and statistically analyzed to follow changes in handwriting across time. At seven years of age while in elementary school the subject was diagnosed with ADHD and placed on Ritalin (methylphenidate). At puberty the drug was discontinued. During two summers she visited grandparents, once alone and once with two sisters with whom she was in conflict. Her handwriting deviated from its pattern of general decrease in size and increase in uniformity during these visits. The changes over time of three handwriting characteristics (slant of "l," heights and areas of the lower loop of the "g," and area of the left loop of the "I") also deviated from the general pattern of her handwriting change.

Serial changes in voltage, QRS vectors, and QRS-T angles were studied in 44 patients who had shown improvement in their electrocardiograms during treatment for hypertension. Changes were observed in a number of electrocardiographic voltage criteria often used in the study of left ventricular hypertrophy. This is consistent with a change in the magnitude of the mean QRS vector and its reflection on a variety of ECG leads even if pretreatment records were normal. Improvement also occurred in the mean T vectors and the QRS-T angle. It is proposed that serial changes in the ECG might be of greater value than pretreatment abnormalities in diagnosing the disorder of cardiac structure or function that occurs in hypertension.