Delayed kindergarten entry among low-income, ethnically diverse children: Prevalence, predictors, and selection patterns

Abstract

School readiness is a concern for parents when deciding whether/when to enroll their children in kindergarten. Increased rigor/accountability standards in kindergarten may push parents to delay their child’s entry into school, known as “academic redshirting.” Current estimates suggest that 3–7% of students delay kindergarten entry in the US and that this is more common among high-SES families. The current project examined prevalence, predictors, and selection patterns of academic redshirting among a large, ethnically and linguistically diverse preschool sample (n = 30,967; 57.5% Latino, 34.7% Black, 7.8% White/Other) that was prospectively followed into kindergarten. Overall, delayed kindergarten entry was rare in this low-income sample—only 305 (1%) students entered kindergarten a year later than their age eligibility. Bivariate tests indicated that boys, native English speakers, students in poverty, younger students, and students who attended center-based childcare were more likely to delay entry than their peers. Further, delayed-entry students had poorer preschool cognitive, language, fine motor, and social/behavioral skills, on average, than those who entered on time. After including all variables in a logistic regression, demographic associations changed, suggesting that White children were more likely than their minority peers to delay entry, and that there were no differences by poverty status. After accounting for school readiness variables, gender associations disappeared, suggesting that boys may be more likely to delay entry due to poorer school readiness skills. We also examined evidence for positive and negative selection into kindergarten entry and found that most students in our predominantly low-income sample were negatively selected (i.e., had poorer school readiness skills prior to delayed entry).