When Should Children Start School?

Abstract

March 2012* When Should Children Start School? Dionissi Aliprantis Kindergarten-entrance-age effects are diffi cult to identify due to the nonrandom allocation of entrance-age and simultaneous relative-age effects. This paper presents evidence that instrumental variable frameworks do not identify age effects for the youngest children of a cohort using the results of statistical tests for essential heterogeneity in initial enrollment decisions. Restricting attention to the oldest children in a cohort yields a sample with quasirandom variation in entrance and relative ages. This variation is used to identify the parameters of education production functions in which both entrance and relative ages are inputs for achievement. Estimates of entrance-age parameters from the ECLS-K data set are positive, large, and persist until the spring of third grade. Relative-age parameters are smaller, tend to be negative, and fade-out for math achievement by third grade. For the average child in our sample these estimates imply that both an earlier entrance cutoff date and an earlier birthdate will increase achievement if the child remains eligible. There is extreme heterogeneity in effects by gender and home environment, and these results are likely to be the most relevant for policy.

Early effects of an early start: Evidence from lowering the school starting age in Poland

“…Use of age-adjusted assessments also removes the impact of relative age on IQ scores and the test scores in reading and spelling in Great Britain (Gledhill et al, 2002). Aliprantis (2014) argues that there could be a decreasing or even negative return to relative age in the United States. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study he demonstrates that, for the oldest children in a cohort, educational achievement in third grade decreases as their age relative to that of their classmates increases.…”

The relationship between school-entry age and academic achievement in Lebanon. (c2011)

“…Researchers often refer to the age of the child in relation to other children in the same class as relative age (Aliprantis, 2010;Bedard & Dhuey, 2006;Deming & Dynarski, 2008;Dhuey & Lipscomb, 2008Dobkin & Ferreira, 2010;Elder & Lubotsky, 2009;Evans-Becker, 2003;Graue & DiPerna, 2000;Kern & Friedman, 2009;Puhani & Weber, 2007;Stipek, 2002;Weil, 2007;Yesil-Dagli, 2006;Zill, Loomis, & West, 1997). Large differences between the ages of same-grade students arise in countries and school districts that have a single annual intake window.…”

“…Research in the United States shows that approximately 9% of children are heldout of school with boys twice as frequently held-out as girls, particularly in families of higher socioeconomic status (Aliprantis, 2010;Bellisimo et al, 1995;Datar, 2003;Zill et al, 1997).…”

“…Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), which involved a nationally representative sample of 22,666 children who had started kindergarten in the fall of 1998 in 1,277 schools in the US, showed that 91% had enrolled in the academic year they were ageeligible and the remaining 9% either enrolled before the cut-off date or delayed school entry past the year of eligibility (Aliprantis, 2010).…”

“…Despite the plethora of educational research on age and achievement, there is little consensus on the optimal age of school-entrance and on the effects of age on achievement, (Verachtert et al, 2010;Aliprantis, 2010). The lack of agreement among the various studies points to the complexity of the relevant questions.…”