The effects of changes in kindergarten entry age policies on educational achievement

Abstract

This study explores the effects of state kindergarten-entry-age policies on students’ outcomes by exploiting variation in the kindergarten entry cutoff dates enacted by states in the United States over the last 40 years. Using the state average and standard deviation in NAEP test scores in 4th, 8th and 12th grades, we estimate the impacts of state entry-age policies on educational achievement and test score dispersion in the state. The estimation results from the baseline state and time fixed effects model show that a one month earlier cutoff increases average state reading and math scores of 4th graders by 21.7 and 13.6 percent of a standard deviation, respectively. Eighth graders’ average score increases in math and science are 12.4 and 24.3 percent of a standard deviation, respectively, while the effect on reading score significantly decreases. We find no effect of kindergarten entry date on educational outcomes in 12th grade. We also find that an earlier kindergarten entry date generally reduces the standard deviation of state test scores. Robustness checks support these findings and suggest no evidence of endogeneity of the policy changes. Our findings provide novel evidence that early school start cutoffs have improved state-level achievement measures over the past 40 years.

Paid Parental Leave and Children's Schooling Outcomes

“…Bettinger et al (2014) Table 6 presents the results of two placebo RD-DID analyses, using our original RD-DID estimation strategy based on the Austrian sample and the 1990 and 1987 birth cohorts, but using 1 May, 1990 and1 September, 1990, as pseudo reform cut-off dates. 35 In each 34 Using the variation in kindergarten-entry-age cut-off dates across US states and over time, Fletcher and Kim (2016) show that a one month earlier cut-off increases average state standardised test results by 21.7 and 13.6% of a standard deviation in grade 4 for reading and mathematics, respectively. By the eighth grade, the effects are slightly smaller (12.9% of a standard deviation in mathematics, 18.9% in science, and 5.1% in reading).…”

“… Using the variation in kindergarten‐entry‐age cut‐off dates across US states and over time, Fletcher and Kim () show that a one month earlier cut‐off increases average state standardised test results by 21.7 and 13.6% of a standard deviation in grade 4 for reading and mathematics, respectively. By the eighth grade, the effects are slightly smaller (12.9% of a standard deviation in mathematics, 18.9% in science, and 5.1% in reading). …”

Age culture, school-entry cutoff, and the choices of birth month and school-entry timing in South Korea

“…The key hypotheses to explain the phenomena on the birth-month selection and school-entry timing decision in South Korea are (1) a significant number of parents want their children to be relatively older in class to enable their children to have academic and non-academic advantages; and (2) parents do not want Korean age of their children to be different from that of classmates. There have been many studies that report being among the older students in class is positively associated with educational achievement [Bedard and Kelly (2006), Datar (2006), Elder and Lubotsky (2009), Fletcher and Kim (2016), Kim (2011), Lubotsky and Kaestner (2016), McEwan and Shapiro (2008), Nam (2014)] 1 . Parents who perceive this relationship and want their children to perform well in school may strategically decide the school-entry timing of their children given a date of birth and school-entry cutoff.…”

The Long-Term Effect of Age at School Entry on Competencies in Adulthood

“…While the effects are not significant for whites, they are slightly negative for blacks. Fletcher and Kim (2016) estimate the reduced form effects of the kindergarten entry cut-offs that differ by state on state-specific averages of the test scores in math and reading. They find no effect of kindergarten entry age on test scores in Grade 12.…”