A continuum of ages exists within each starting class due to the use of a single school cut-off date – making the “oldest” children approximately twenty percent older than the “youngest” children at school entry. We provide substantial evidence that these initial maturity differences have long lasting effects on student performance across OECD countries. In particular, the youngest members of each cohort score 4-12 percentiles lower than the oldest members in grade four, and 2-9 percentiles lower in grade eight, depending upon the country. In fact, data from Canada and the United States shows that the youngest members of a cohort are even less likely to enroll in pre-university academic track courses and high-end academic universities. Taken together, these findings point to important early relative maturity effects that propagate themselves into adulthood through the structure of education systems.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/25098831

The Persistence of Early Childhood Maturity: International Evidence of Long-Run Age Effects

Recent interest and investment in early childhood education as a means of promoting children's school readiness has prompted the need for clear definitions of school readiness. Traditionally school readiness has been viewed within a maturationist frame, based on a chronological set-point, which led to the emergence of readiness testing. Following a brief review of this literature, this article provides an overview of the conceptual and practical considerations that must be given to such a definition. Among conceptual concerns are the lack of agreement about the key components of school readiness and theoretical models to connect them. Also of concern is the need to consider multiple purposes of assessment, and the appropriate use of assessments. Practical considerations include the need to incorporate multiple stakeholders' views in a definition, the availability of adequate measurement tools and how resultant data can be used. The article closes with a discussion of possible future directions by laying o...

Measuring School Readiness: Conceptual and Practical Considerations

Does Delaying Kindergarten Entrance Give Children a Head Start

Several reports have documented the magnitude and range of risk conditions that children and youths confront in their daily lives (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2004). Nearly one in five children in the United States live in poverty and experience the multiple, layered risks associated with poor homes and poor communities (Evans, 2004; U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). As a result of widespread risk conditions and low access to preventive or remedial mental health services, approximately 20% of children living in the United States have a diagnosable mental disorder, and 9% to 13% of children have severe emotional disorders that impair their functioning at home or school (Friedman, Katz-Leavy, Manderscheid, & Sondheimer, 1996). Consequently, at least 25% of children in the United States are at serious risk of not achieving “productive adulthood” (National Research Council, 1993).

These statistics on population-level risk among youth, combined with a rapidly expanding array of empirically supported mental health prevention programs, have led to renewed calls for an increased emphasis on deploying empirically supported prevention programs into children’s natural settings. The Surgeon General’s National Action Agenda for Children’s Mental Health (U.S. Public Health Service, 2002) has recommended that prevention programs be embedded into schools and other child-serving institutions, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has targeted significant resources toward efforts to disseminate such programs into schools and other community settings. As school psychologists increasingly move into prevention and public health–oriented roles (Cummings et al., 2004; Durlak, 1995; Greenberg, Domitrovic, & Bumbarger, 2001; Hoagwood & Johnson, 2003), they experience the need for brief, reliable, and valid measures of behavioral and emotional adjustment that can be used in epidemiological and prevention research.

This study provides evidence of the psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 2000), a measure recently included by NIMH as its epidemiological screener in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; NIMH, 2002, 2003, 2004). A brief screening instrument that teachers and parents can complete on all students would be of particular value to school psychologists who adopt a prevention-oriented, public health orientation to practice (Hoagwood & Johnson, 2003).

/pdf/an-examination-of-the-convergent-and-discriminant-validity-2v8o26ewyj.pdf

An Examination of the Convergent and Discriminant Validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

The impact of entrance age on reading and mathematics achievement in 1st grade was examined. Methodological problems with past research were identified, including small size of achievement differences, failure to take background variables into account, and confusion of achievement levels with degree of learning. Using a pre-post design, growth of reading and mathematics was examined in younger 1st graders, older 1st graders, and older kindergarteners. Comparisons of background information on these groups with children who were either held out prior to or retained an extra year in kindergarten, produced minimal background differences. Results revealed that younger 1st graders made as much progress over the school year as did older 1st graders and made far more progress than older kindergarteners. Overall, findings demonstrated that, in itself, entrance age was not a good predictor of learning or academic risk.

Nature-nurture in the classroom: entrance age, school readiness, and learning in children.

One hundred and thirty-seven fourth-grade pupils participated in a follow-up study of the effect of school-entrance age on academic achievement and social-emotional functioning. The sample included 73 oldest pupils, born in the months of January to March, and 64 youngest pupils, born in October to December of the same calendar year. Results indicated that differences between the two groups in academic and social-emotional measures, found when the subjects were in first grade, persisted in part to the fourth grade. The youngest subjects continued to score lowest in mathematics and in oral and silent reading comprehension; they were slower readers; and they had higher trait anxiety scores. In addition, the differences between the groups in oral and silent reading comprehension performance were found to increase over the years.

The effect of school entrance age on academic achievement and social‐emotional adjustment of children: Follow‐up study of fourth graders

The relationship between school entrance age and academic and social-emotional adjustment was examined for 104 first-grade pupils toward the end of the school year. The sample population included only the oldest and youngest pupils in the class (i.e., those born between January and March and between October and December of the same year). The oldest first graders surpassed their younger peers in all tests of reading and arithmetic skills. They were better adjusted both socially and emotionally and were more highly rated by their teachers. Younger girls showed a slight advantage over younger boys in the sociometric measure only.

Tamar Teltsch

Papers

The effect of school entrance age on academic achievement and social‐emotional adjustment of children: Follow‐up study of fourth graders

The effect of school entrance age on academic achievement and social-emotional adjustment of children