Early School Entry Research Articles

THE EFFECTS OF THE LOWERED COMPULSORY SCHOOL ENTRY AGE ON THE CURRICULUM

The question at what age a child should start compulsory education raises debates both in the scientific and public interest contexts. This topic is also relevant all over the world, but a uniform answer is still not found, so the problem of the research emerges - the disclosure of the prerequisites for the change of the educational content during early primary education. The article raises questions related to the possibilities and assumptions of early school entry age for children and the structuring of educational content. 12 education experts and 6 preschool and primary education pedagogues participated in the study. Qualitative research methodology was chosen for this study: semi-structured interview and group discussion methods. During the research, 4 main topics were distinguished. They are as follows: relevance of lowering the school entry age of children; changes in the educational content when the educational age is advanced; characteristics of age change; change processes taking place in the education system. The research findings state that in order to lower the compulsory school age and achieve quality education, it is necessary to reform the educational content: educational programs must be reviewed, reasoned and changed, educational methods and tools must be selectedin a more detailed way, new educational environments created and developed, the evaluation system has to be changed, and teachers must be properly trained to work with younger children.

Early entry, age-at-test, and schooling attainment: evidence from Italian primary schools

The effect of early school entry on pupils’ educational outcomes is investigated using data covering the entire population of Italian primary school students and exploiting exogenous thresholds imposed by legislation regulating school entry. Evaluation tests are set at different dates for different cohorts so that the effects of age-at-test and age-at-school-entry on pupils’ performance can be disentangled. Results highlight that despite a negative and significant effect of age-at-test, the negative effect of early enrollment on scores is still present and it lasts for the entire primary education path.

PARENTS KNOW THEM BETTER: THE EFFECT OF OPTIONAL EARLY ENTRY ON PUPILS' SCHOOLING ATTAINMENT

The effect of optional early school entry on pupils' educational outcomes is investigated using data covering the entire population of Italian primary school students and exploiting exogenous thresholds imposed by norms regulating first enrollment. Results highlight the fact that pupils whose parents can choose when their children start school perform better than those who are bounded by terms imposed by law. These findings suggest that parental choice leads to a better match between pupils' characteristics and the beginning of formal learning. Results show that giving parents the option to anticipate or delay school entry could be a beneficial measure. (JEL I20, H52)

Does ethnic bias affect kindergarten teachers’ school entry recommendations?

BackgroundEthnic educational inequality is present in almost all Western societies. One possible explanation for the persisting disadvantages of children from immigrant family backgrounds is discrimination. Individual ethnic discrimination has been reported in the form of ethnic bias in school teachers’ evaluations and recommendations. Children of immigrant families tend to be disadvantaged with regard to both school teachers’ evaluations of their competencies as well as to recommendations of further steps in their educational career.PurposeThe aim of this research paper is to analyse whether ethnic bias is also present at earlier stages of the educational career, in kindergarten teachers’ recommendations. The study, conducted in Germany, investigated (a) whether kindergartens’ recommendations of school entry (early, regular or delayed school entry) differed with respect to whether the child had a Turkish migration background or was a child of German origin and (b) whether these potential differences can be explained by children’s individual skill levels and family background characteristics.Design, sample and methodsThe research was carried out from a quantitative secondary analysis, using data from the longitudinal project ‘Preschool education and educational careers among migrant children’, conducted in Germany since 2006. The sample consists of 742 children, with around half of the sample being children of Turkish origin and half being children of German origin, and their parents. Parents were interviewed and children’s individual skills were tested using standardised instruments from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. The effect of Turkish origin on kindergarten teachers’ school entry recommendations is analysed, controlling for children’s social background, individual skills (non-verbal cognition, German language, mathematics) and children’s social behaviour, using a stepwise multinomial logistic regression analysis.ResultsThe analysis indicated that, although kindergarten teachers’ school entry recommendations differed according to a child’s ethnic background, there was no ethnic bias evident. Children of Turkish origin were significantly less frequently recommended for early school entry than children of German origin and significantly more often for delayed school entry, but these differences vanished when the parents’ educational level was controlled and disappeared when children’s individual skills and social behaviour were additionally considered in the model.ConclusionsWe conclude that, in the sample studied, there was no ethnic bias in kindergarten teachers’ school entry recommendations. The disadvantage of children of Turkish origin as compared to the children of German origin can be fully explained by differences in parental educational level and children’s individual skills and social behaviour. The remaining effect of social background, however, should be studied further to clarify whether this effect captures other characteristics such as unobserved skills of the children and differences in parental engagement.

Does Early School Entry Prevent Obesity Among Adolescent Girls?

To examine the relationship between early school entry and body weight status among adolescent girls. Using nationally representative data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we exploited state-specific first-grade entrance policy as a quasi-experimental research design to examine the effect of early school entry on the body weight status of adolescent girls. Fixed-effects models were used to compare the body mass index (BMI), BMI z-score, and likelihood of overweight and obesity between teenage girls born before school cut-off dates and those born after, while controlling for age, race/ethnicity, maternal education status, and maternal body weight status. Late starters had higher BMIs and a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity and the results were found to be consistent across age groups. Among girls whose birthdays were within 1 month of the cut-off dates, the coefficient of late starting was significantly positive (β = .311; p = .02), indicating that it might be correlated with weight gain in adolescence. Early admission to a school environment might have a long-term protective effect in terms of adolescent girls' propensity to obesity. Future studies are needed to examine the effect of early school entry on the eating behavior and physical activities of adolescent girls.

Early educational milestones as predictors of lifelong academic achievement, midlife adjustment, and longevity

This study gathered follow-up data from the Terman Life Cycle Study ( N = 1023) to examine how age at first reading and age at school entry relate to grade school academic performance, lifelong educational attainment, midlife health and mental adjustment, and longevity across eight decades. Early reading was associated with early academic success, but less lifelong educational attainment and worse midlife adjustment. Early school entry was associated with less educational attainment, worse midlife adjustment, and most importantly, increased mortality risk. Personality, midlife adjustment, and educational attainment partially mediated the school entry-longevity association (controlling for age, sex, personal characteristics, and home environment factors). Although the sample is limited in some respects and care should be taken in generalizing the results, findings do confirm the importance of lifespan approaches in understanding the effects of education on individual patterns within social contexts.

Do School Entry Laws Affect Educational Attainment and Labor Market Outcomes?

Age based school entry laws force parents and educators to consider an important tradeoff. Though students who enter school early typically have poorer academic performance, on average, they stay in school longer. The popular and academic press has focused primarily on the former effect which has lead to substantial concern and strategic behavior on the part of both parents and educators. In this paper we document that the school entry laws have a very large impact on the age at which students enroll in school and that the youngest students in a class are substantially more likely to be held back a grade. However, we also find that the youngest students in an academic cohort have slightly higher educational attainment than their older peers. To estimate the net effect of this tradeoff we examine a broad range of labor market outcomes and find that early school entry has no effect on any of them. We also document that school entry laws are a poor instrument for educational attainment in wage regressions because they affect wages by numerous causal pathways, several of which have a substantially stronger first stage relationship with the school entry laws than educational attainment does.

Development of the Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test to assess key markers of specific language and literacy difficulties in young children

Despite a large body of evidence regarding reliable indicators of language deficits in young children, there has not been a standardized, quick screen for language impairment. The Grammar and Phonology Screening (GAPS) test was therefore designed as a short, reliable assessment of young children's language abilities. GAPS was designed to provide a quick screening test to assess whether pre- and early school entry children have the necessary grammar and pre-reading phonological skills needed for education and social development. This paper reports the theoretical background to the test, the pilot study and reliability, and the standardization. This 10-min test comprises 11 test sentences and eight test nonsense words for direct imitation and is designed to highlight significant markers of language impairment and reading difficulties. To standardize the GAPS, 668 children aged 3.4-6.6 were tested across the UK, taking into account population distribution and socio-economic status. The test was carried out by a range of health and education professionals as well as by students and carers using only simple, written instructions. GAPS is effective in detecting a range of children in need of further in-depth assessment or monitoring for language difficulties. The results concur with those from much larger epidemiological studies using lengthy testing procedures. The GAPS test (1) provides a successful screening tool; (2) is designed to be administered by professionals and non-professionals alike; and (3) facilitates identification of language impairment or at-risk factors of reading impairment in the early educational years. Thus, the test affords a first step in a process of assessment and targeted intervention to enable children to reach their potential.

The Effect of Age at School Entry on Educational Attainment in Germany

Determining the optimal age at which a child should enter school is a controversial topic in education policy. In particular, German policy makers, pedagogues, parents, and teachers have since long discussed whether the traditional, established age of school entry at 6 years remains appropriate. Policies of encouraging early school entry or increased consideration of a particular child?s competency for school (?Schulfahigkeit?) have been suggested. Using a dataset capturing children who entered school in the late 1960s through the late 1970s, a time when delaying enrolment was common, we investigate the effect of age at school entry on educational attainment forWest and East Germany. Empirical results from linear probability models and matching suggest a qualitatively negative relation between the age at school entry and educational outcomes both in terms of schooling degree and probability of having to repeat a grade. These findings are likely driven by unobserved ability differences between early and late entrants.We therefore use a cut-off date rule and the corresponding age at school entry according to the regulation to instrument the actual age at school entry.The IV estimates suggest there is no effect of age at school entry on educational performance.

Getting it right from the start? The influence of early school entry on later achievements in mathematics

SUMMARY There has been a growing public concern in the UK about falling standards in numeracy over the 1990s. A little-examined assumption of successive governments has been that providing high quality teaching of numeracy from an early age leads to the raising of standards, to be judged in national and international terms. One goal of the project to be described here was to evaluate critically this assumption. This was achieved through a case study of the development of learning and teaching of numeracy in two, contrasting European contexts — England and Slovenia — in order to search for the explanations for observed differences in international performance at nine years (TIMSS, 1997). This paper will focus on the development of high and low-attaining six and seven-year-olds' arithmetic knowledge and calculation strategies in the two contexts and in relation to existing policy and practice. Several standardised and non-standardised instruments designed for the study were applied, using both oral and written tasks. Two-way analysis of variance showed six-year-old English pupils to score significantly higher than Slovene preschoolers for a test of basic arithmetic yet by seven years there were no significant differences and thereafter the Slovene pupils forged ahead. For a standardised arithmetic test (BAS) English six and seven-year-olds scored significantly higher yet by eight years there were no significant differences between the countries. Mental calculation tasks also showed that by the end of the Slovene children's first year at school there was little difference in accuracy between the two groups. Furthermore, unlike their English counterparts, Slovene children were beginning to use recall of fact strategies. By eight years, as data from the larger project showed, there appeared to be no benefits to accrue from the English early school entry. These results are discussed in the light of broader educational and cultural differences.

Achievement in the Australian Mathematics Competition: A question of age?

Early school entry and acceleration as means of catering for academically able students continue to attract advocates as well as critics. In this paper data from the large Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) are used to examine the performance in mathematics of students young for their grade. The youngest students generally performed well above average on the AMC papers; the oldest group typically achieved substantially below the grade mean. There were proportionately more males than females in the older group but no gender differences were noted in the composition of the younger group. Items common to papers attempted by students at four grade levels fell into two clusters: questions which were challenging for the majority of students but consistently easy for the best students, and questions which were distinctly difficult for the majority of students but apparently suitable for the best mathematics students. As in other timed mathematics competitions, gender differences in performance were found.

How can autonomy be achieved in school?

Discussion of the benefits of pre‐school provision and the relative merits of the different kinds of institutional provision available ‐‐ playgroup, day nursery, nursery class and early school entry ‐‐ has tended to focus on the possible cognitive benefits of such provision. It is however possible to draw conclusions, both of a general nature and ones more specifically related to the growth of autonomy in young children. Such conclusions can be used when planning the kinds of experiences we may wish to provide for children upon entry to school. The present paper focusses on the sort of structures that can be created during the early years of children's schooling such that the development of autonomy may be fostered. Consideration is given to the importance of: organisational structures created by the school; tasks and activities in which children engage; relationships within the classroom and school.

Long Term Effects of Early School Entry

The debate regarding age of entry to school goes back a number of years. It seemed to come to a head in the late 1970s, coinciding with the visit to Australia of Dr Raymond Moore, who put forward the somewhat extreme view that children should not start school before the age of about 8 to 10 years. Hisargument was based on a maturational view of development. Experiences must wait until the child is ‘ready’ and the brain has ‘matured’. In particular, he argued that exposure to early reading and the close work involved in the pre-school and early primary school could harm the developing visual system and lead to long-term visual defects, particularly short-sightedness.Moore's position was of course contrary to the mainstream of thought in this area, and particularly the recognition, stemming from the work of Hebb and Piaget, of the importance of the early environment in laying the foundations for later development. It nevertheless had some popular appeal, and was taken up by various parent and teacher pressure groups who called for changes to school entry policies and specifically raising the age of entry to school to five years.

Early school entry for the gifted: New evidence and concerns

The author suggests that research indicates that there is a disadvantage to early entry, and/or an advantage to later school entry. Implications for parents and administrators are discussed.

Early Admission: Opinion versus Evidence

Previous articleNext article No AccessEarly Admission: Opinion versus EvidenceJoseph L. BragaJoseph L. Braga Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Elementary School Journal Volume 72, Number 1Oct., 1971 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/460674 Views: 4Total views on this site Citations: 15Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1971 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Françoys Gagné, Nadia Gagnier The socio‐affective and academic impact of early entrance to school, Roeper Review 26, no.33 (Mar 2004): 128–138.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783190409554258Naomi Sankar‐DeLeeuw Gifted Preschoolers: Parent and teacher views on identification, early admission, and programming, Roeper Review 24, no.33 (Mar 2002): 172–177.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783190209554174Naomi Sankar‐DeLeeuw Gifted preschoolers: Parent and teacher views on identification, early admission and programming, Roeper Review 21, no.33 (Feb 1999): 174–179.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783199909553957Theron B. Proctor, Kathryn N. Black, John F. Feldhusen Early admission to elementary school; Barriers versus benefits, Roeper Review 11, no.22 (Dec 1988): 85–87.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783198809553172 Bibliography, Journal of Children in Contemporary Society 18, no.3-43-4 (Dec 1986): 139–153.https://doi.org/10.1300/J274v18n03_14Theron B. Proctor, Kathryn N. Black, John F. Feldhusen Early Admission of Selected Children to Elementary School: A Review of the Research Literature, The Journal of Educational Research 80, no.22 (Jan 2015): 70–76.https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1986.10885726NICHOLAS COLANGELO, COLETTE FLEURIDAS The Abdication of Childhood, Journal of Counseling & Development 64, no.99 (Dec 2011): 561–563.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1986.tb01203.xPeggy Dettmer Attitudes of school role groups toward learning needs of gifted students, Roeper Review 7, no.44 (Jan 2010): 253–257.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783198509552910Cleborne D. Maddux Early school entry for the gifted: New evidence and concerns, Roeper Review 5, no.44 (Jan 2010): 15–17.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783198309552716C. Tomlinson-Keasey, Cheryl Smith-Winberry Educational Strategies and Personality Outcomes of Gifted and Nongifted College Students, Gifted Child Quarterly 27, no.11 (Sep 2016): 35–41.https://doi.org/10.1177/001698628302700106Cleborne D. Maddux, Don Stacy, Mary Scott School Entry Age in a Group of Gifted Children, Gifted Child Quarterly 25, no.44 (Sep 2016): 180–184.https://doi.org/10.1177/001698628102500408Nancy Ewald Jackson, Joseph Famiglietti, Halbert B. Robinson Kindergarten and First Grade Teachers’ Attitudes toward Early Entrants, Intellectually Advanced Students, and Average Students *, Journal for the Education of the Gifted 4, no.22 (Nov 2016): 132–143.https://doi.org/10.1177/016235328100400209Halbert B. Robinson The Uncommonly Bright Child, (Jan 1981): 57–81.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3773-7_4Cleborne D. Maddux First-Grade Entry Age in a Sample of Children Labeled Learning Disabled, Learning Disability Quarterly 3, no.22 (May 1980): 79–83.https://doi.org/10.2307/1510510Carolyn M. Callahan The gifted girl: An anomaly?, Roeper Review 2, no.33 (Jun 2012): 16–20.https://doi.org/10.1080/02783198009552455