School Entry Cutoff Research Articles

The effect of the month of birth on academic achievement: heterogeneity by social origin and gender

ABSTRACT Students born in the days before the school-entry cutoff date are one year younger at school entry than their counterparts born in the days following the cutoff, which causes an achievement gap between the youngest and oldest students within each cohort. I assess this so-called relative age effect in the Spanish context, where the school-entry rule is strictly enforced. By means of a sharp Regression Discontinuity Design, I report a remarkable effect in fourth grade that is still visible in eighth grade. The heterogeneity of the effect by social origin and gender is explored. Following the compensatory advantage model, I reason that the relative age effect should be smaller among high-SES students when assessing academic outcomes that might endanger the probability of attaining higher education (such as repetition), but not for low-stakes external examinations. I confirm this expectation. As for gender, I argue that the relative age effect might be lower among girls either because younger girls are not ever affected by their birth month or because they are better able to catch up with their older peers than boys. I provide evidence supporting this second hypothesis.

Association between relative age at school and persistence of ADHD in prospective studies: an individual participant data meta-analysis

The youngest children in a school class are more likely than the oldest to be diagnosed with ADHD, but this relative age effect is less frequent in older than in younger school-grade children. However, no study has explored the association between relative age and the persistence of ADHD diagnosis at older ages. We aimed to quantify the association between relative age and persistence of ADHD at older ages. For this meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubPsych up to April 1, 2022, with terms related to "cohort" and "ADHD" with no date, publication type, or language restrictions. We gathered individual participant data from prospective cohorts that included at least ten children identified with ADHD before age 10 years. ADHD was defined by either a clinical diagnosis or symptoms exceeding clinical cutoffs. Relative age was recorded as the month of birth in relation to the school-entry cutoff date. Study authors were invited to share raw data or to apply a script to analyse data locally and generate anonymised results. Our outcome was ADHD status at a diagnostic reassessment, conducted at least 4 years after the initial assessment and after age 10 years. No information on sex, gender, or ethnicity was collected. We did a two-stage random-effects individual participant data meta-analysis to assess the association of relative age with persistence of ADHD at follow-up. This study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020212650. Of 33 119 studies generated by our search, we identified 130 eligible unique studies and were able to gather individual participant data from 57 prospective studies following up 6504 children with ADHD. After exclusion of 16 studies in regions with a flexible school entry system that did not allow confident linkage of birthdate to relative age, the primary analysis included 41 studies in 15 countries following up 4708 children for a period of 4 to 33 years. We found that younger relative age was not statistically significantly associated with ADHD persistence at follow-up (odds ratio 1·02, 95% CI 0·99-1·06; p=0·19). We observed statistically significant heterogeneity in our model (Q=75·82, p=0·0011, I2=45%). Participant-level sensitivity analyses showed similar results in cohorts with a robust relative age effect at baseline and when restricting to cohorts involving children with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD or with a follow-up duration of more than 10 years. The diagnosis of ADHD in younger children in a class is no more likely to be disconfirmed over time than that of older children in the class. One interpretation is that the relative age effect decreases the likelihood of children of older relative age receiving a diagnosis of ADHD, and another is that assigning a diagnostic label of ADHD leads to unexplored carryover effects of the initial diagnosis that persist over time. Future studies should be conducted to explore these interpretations further. None.

The effect of the age at school entry on educational attainment and field of study: an analysis using the Spanish census

In countries with a school-entry cutoff date, individuals born right after the cutoff are almost 1 year older than individuals in the same school cohort born right before that date. Abundant research has documented that, as a result of that extra year of maturation and skill accumulation, older students in a cohort outperform their younger peers. It is also well-established that this effect peaks at the initial stages of the educational career and wanes as students grow. However, it remains unclear whether or not the age at school entry affects final educational attainment. In this work, we use Spanish census data to assess whether individuals born right after the school-entry cutoff (January 1) are more likely to complete post-compulsory education, a university degree and post-graduate education. We also assess if the age at school entry affects the probability of completing education in a STEM field of study. Our findings indicate that males born after the cutoff accumulate more years of education than males born before that date, but are less likely to complete their education in a STEM field of study. Interestingly, the effect concentrates among the youngest and oldest students in each cohort, is less intense for higher levels of education and disappears among females.

Sibling Spillovers: Having an Academically Successful Older Sibling May be More Important for Children in Disadvantaged Families.

This paper examines causal sibling spillover effects among students from different family backgrounds in elementary and middle school. Family backgrounds are captured by race, household structure, mothers' educational attainment, and school poverty. Exploiting discontinuities in school starting age created by North Carolina school-entry laws, we adopt a quasi-experimental approach and compare test scores of public school students whose older siblings were born shortly before and after the school-entry cutoff date. We find that individuals whose older siblings were born shortly after the school-entry cutoff date have significantly higher test scores in middle school, and that this positive spillover effect is particularly strong in disadvantaged families. We estimate that the spillover effect accounts for approximately one third of observed statistical associations in test scores between siblings, and the magnitude is much larger for disadvantaged families. Our results suggest that spillover effects from older to younger siblings may lead to greater divergence in academic outcomes and economic inequality between families.

School entry cutoff and the timing of births: evidence from Argentina

ABSTRACT The distance between the birth date and the school entry cutoff has been repeatedly used as an exogenous instrument to examine the impact of several educational programmes. In this work, we analyse the validity of this instrument for the case of Argentina. Considering multiple waves of the Permanent Household Survey we detect the existence of discontinuities in the distribution of births around the school entry cutoff (30 June). These discontinuities suggest that parents act strategically. In particular, they defer birth dates to days after the cutoff. This effect is especially large considering a bandwidth of 7 days and in boys.

Relative Age Effect in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder at Various Stages of the Medicalization Process.

Diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of ADHD are more common among the youngest children in a classroom, born in the months immediately preceding the school entry cutoff date. The mechanisms behind this phenomenon, called the relative age effect (RAE), are not yet well understood. Nearly all hypotheses involve the school system, various teachers’ actions, and concern children’s immaturity. However, most previous studies have been based on reports of health professionals’ diagnoses and prescriptions found in official databases rather than on reports of teachers’ behavior identification or suspicion of ADHD, despite their being at the first stages of the medicalization process. Our study overcomes this limitation by using reports of parents’ and teachers’ behavior identification or suspicion of ADHD within a three-level multilevel survey design, comprising 1294 children, 130 teachers, and 17 elementary public schools. The goal of our study was to investigate whether RAE stems (1) from adults’ judgement of the child’s expression of immaturity or (2) from the consequences associated with the child’s double burden of being immature and exhibiting ADHD behaviors. Our multilevel analyses put forward the first hypothesis only, supporting the medicalization of immaturity. RAE in ADHD seems mostly initiated by teachers’ pre-diagnostic actions toward younger children.

Causal Impact of School Starting Age on the Tempo of Childbirths: Evidence from Working Mothers and School Entry Cutoff Using Exact Date of Birth.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-021-09597-x.

The Effect of Education on Mortality and Health

This paper examines a schooling expansion in Romania which increased educational attainment for successive cohorts born between 1945 and 1950. We use a regression discontinuity design at the day level based on school entry cutoff dates to estimate impacts on mortality with 1994-2016 Vital Statistics data and self-reported health with 2011 Census data. We find that the schooling reform led to significant increases in years of schooling and changes in labor market outcomes but did not affect mortality or self-reported health. These estimates provide new evidence for the causal relationship between education and mortality outside of high-income countries and at lower margins of educational attainment.

Too Late or Too Soon for School? The Impact of School Entry Age

The education laws of each country establish starting cutoff dates for compulsory education which could, potentially, affect students’ academic achievement. Specifically, they could be detrimental for those students whose birthday is just before the school entry cutoff, as they will be the youngest in their classroom, while it could boost the academic performance of those whose birthday is just after (the eldest ones). The present research paper analyses this issue in respect to students’ academic achievement using census and longitudinal data for the most populated region of Spain (Andalusia) with a regression discontinuity methodology. Our results show that those students who are the youngest in the classroom due to this school entry cutoff present lower academic achievement compared to the eldest students, an effect which is reduced while students advance in their education. This motivates policy recommendations aimed at checking students’ cognitive skills prior to their access to compulsory education and at letting parents choose whether or not to delay their children’s access to school in case they are not yet ready.

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

AbstractThis study explores how the distinctive Korean age reckoning, the Confucian age culture, and the school-entry-cutoff date affect the decisions of parents on both birth and school-entry timing for their children in Korea. There is a traditional method of age calculation in Korea that all people get one year older on January 1. Korea also has a distinctive age culture influenced by Confucianism. I find a substantial amount of birth and school-entry timing selections around the Korean age-cutoff date, January 1. The estimation results show that children born in January and February delayed school entry by 18.2–21.2 percentage points more than those born in November and December and 24% of births moved from one week before January 1 to one week after when the school-entry cutoff was March 1. After the school-entry cutoff has changed to January 1, children barely delay school enrollment, while more births are moved from December to January: 42% of births are shifted within the 7-day window. These behaviors are made by two motives: (1) parents want their children to have the same Korean age with their classmates because of the Confucian age culture; (2) they also want their children to be relatively older to have academic advantages.

Sibling Spillovers: Having an Academically Successful Older Sibling May be More Important for Children in Disadvantaged Families

This paper examines causal sibling spillover effects among socially advantaged (e.g. white, two-parent, or non-poor school district) and disadvantaged families (e.g. black, single-mother, or poor school district) in elementary and middle school. Exploiting discontinuities in school starting age created by North Carolina school entry laws, we adopt a quasi-experimental approach and compare test scores of public school students whose older siblings were born shortly before and after the school entry cutoff date. We find that individuals whose older siblings were born shortly after the school entry cutoff date have significantly higher scores in middle school, and that this positive spillover effect is particularly large among disadvantaged families. We estimate that these spillover effects account for more than one third of observed statistical associations in test scores between siblings, and the magnitude is much larger for disadvantaged families than advantaged families. Our results suggest that educational spillover effects from older to younger siblings lead to greater divergence in academic outcomes between families.

The early bird catches the worm? School entry cutoff and the timing of births

Does the cutoff date for school entry affect the timing of births? Using administrative data from birth certificates that covers over five million newborns in Guangdong Province of China from 2014 to 2016, we find that more than 2000 births in a single year are shifted from seven days after the cutoff date to seven days before the cutoff date. Because of the strict administrative procedures in China to record births, manipulation of reported birthdates is infeasible. We also find evidence that mother and child characteristics systematically differ across the threshold; in particular, advantaged mothers are more likely to bring delivery forward to send their children to school at a relatively young age. These heterogeneous responses around the cutoff date violate the assumption in regression discontinuity design that the date of birth is exogenous. Moreover, our results contribute crucially to understanding the different starting age effects between China and developed countries.

Age relative to school class peers and emotional well-being in 10-year-olds.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of age relative to school (i.e., class or grade level) peers on emotional well-being and the role of possible mediators of this effect in early adolescence using a large set of individual-level data from a community survey.MethodsA large community-based survey of 10-year-old children and their primary parents was conducted in Tokyo, where the school entry cutoff date is fixed. Emotional well-being was assessed by the WHO (Five) Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Academic performance and the experience of being bullied at school were also evaluated as potential mediators of the effect of relative age.ResultsA total of 4,478 children participated in the study. In a univariate linear regression analysis, the relative birthdate (continuous variable starting from the school entry date and ending at the last date of the academic grade) was negatively associated with emotional well-being (β = -0.043, p = .005). The path analyses suggested that academic performance and bullying mediated the relationship between the relative birthdate and emotional well-being (both p < .01).ConclusionsAmong a sample of 10-year-olds, children who were younger compared to class peers had lower levels of emotional well-being. Academic performance and victimization by peers mediated the relationship.

Keeping Kids in School: The Long-Term Effects of Extending Compulsory Education

This paper uses a natural experiment from Egypt to examine the effect of extending compulsory schooling on long-term educational and labor market outcomes. Beginning in school year 2004–05, the Egyptian government extended primary education from five to six years, moving from an eight-year compulsory schooling system to a nine-year system. Using a regression discontinuity design, I examine whether the compulsory schooling expansion affects years of schooling, literacy and cognitive skills, post-primary attendance, and labor market outcomes of individuals born just around the 1992 school entry cutoff. The results suggest that an extra year of compulsory education increases total years of schooling by 0.6 to 0.8 years. This effect, however, is concentrated among male individuals. In particular, I find that the school reform increases the schooling gap between male and female students by somewhere between 0.30 and 0.48 years. I also find no effect of expanding compulsory education on individuals’ literacy skills, schooling beyond the primary education level, or labor market outcomes. There is some evidence, however, that the school reform has improved reading and self-reported writing skills among male individuals.

Age Culture, School-Entry Cutoff and the Choices of Birth Month and School-Entry Timing in South Korea

This study explores how the age culture and elementary school-entry cutoff in Korea affect the decisions of parents on both birth and school-entry timing for their children. There is a traditional method of age calculation in Korea that is different from other countries, and Korea also has a distinctive age culture influenced by Confucianism. Korean age culture, which prescribes standards of behavior according to age, influences parents' decisions about school-entry timing as it relates to the child's Korean age and its effects on age group identity and peer relationships in school. This study suggests that the distinctive age reckoning and culture strongly affect school-entry timing. This study also provides evidence that deliberate birth-month selection exists in Korea and shows that the birth-month selection is related to school-entry timing.

Relative Age in School and Suicide among Young Individuals in Japan: A Regression Discontinuity Approach.

ObjectiveEvidence collected in many parts of the world suggests that, compared to older students, students who are relatively younger at school entry tend to have worse academic performance and lower levels of income. This study examined how relative age in a grade affects suicide rates of adolescents and young adults between 15 and 25 years of age using data from Japan.MethodWe examined individual death records in the Vital Statistics of Japan from 1989 to 2010. In contrast to other countries, late entry to primary school is not allowed in Japan. We took advantage of the school entry cutoff date to implement a regression discontinuity (RD) design, assuming that the timing of births around the school entry cutoff date was randomly determined and therefore that individuals who were born just before and after the cutoff date have similar baseline characteristics.ResultsWe found that those who were born right before the school cutoff day and thus youngest in their cohort have higher mortality rates by suicide, compared to their peers who were born right after the cutoff date and thus older. We also found that those with relative age disadvantage tend to follow a different career path than those with relative age advantage, which may explain their higher suicide mortality rates.ConclusionRelative age effects have broader consequences than was previously supposed. This study suggests that policy intervention that alleviates the relative age effect can be important.

School Entry Cut-Off Dates and the Timing of Births

I examine how the timing of births responds to school entry cutoff date. Many countries require children to reach a certain age by a specified date in the calendar year in order to start kindergarten/primary school. There is a clear trade-off for parents to time a birth after the school entry cutoff date; births just after cutoff date may benefit children from being older among the school cohort, which is shown to provide the children with academic advantage, while parents have to bear an additional year of child care costs. Using the universe of births during 1974– 2010 in Japan, I find that more than 1,800 births per year are shifted roughly a week before the cutoff date to a week following the cutoff date. The overall shifts in births, however, may mask heterogeneous responses of mothers. In fact, I find that mothers with low-skilled jobs (and hence low-income) tend to give more births before the school entry cutoff date while mothers with medium- and high-skilled jobs give births after the cutoff date. These findings imply that a very common rule set by the government made children born just before the cutoff date suffer from “double” deficits, which may potentially contribute to intergenerational immobility. This study may also have implications for growing literature that assumes births around the school entry cut-off dates are random.

Life-cycle Effects of Age at School Start

In Sweden, children typically start school the year they turn seven. We combine this school entry cutoff with individuals' birthdates to estimate effects of school starting age (SSA) on educational attainment and long-run labour market outcomes. We find that school entry age raises educational attainment and show that postponing tracking until age 16 reduces the effect of SSA on educational attainment. On average, SSA only affects the allocation of labour supply over the life-cycle and leaves prime-age earnings unaffected. But for individuals with low-educated parents, we find that prime-age earnings increase in response to age at school start.

The Effects of School Entry Laws on Educational Attainment and Starting Wages in an Early Tracking System

Empirical evidence indicates that relative age, which is determined by date of birth and the school entry cutoff date, has a causal effect on track choice. Using a sample of male labor market entrants drawn from Austrian register data, I analyze whether the initial assignment to different school tracks has persistent effects on educational attainment and earnings in the first years of the career. I estimate the reduced-form effect of the school entry law on starting wages and find a wage penalty of 1.1-2.0 percent for students born in August (the youngest) compared to students born in September (the oldest). The analysis of educational attainment shows that significant differences exist in the type of education. Younger students are more likely to pursue an apprenticeship and less likely to have higher education. After five years of labor market experience, the wage penalty amounts to 0.8-1.1 percent, suggesting a persistent (albeit decreasing) negative effect of the school entry rule on earnings.

School-Entry Policies and Skill Accumulation Across Directly and Indirectly Affected Individuals

During the past half-century, there has been a trend toward increasing the minimum age a child must reach before entering school in the United States. States have accomplished this by moving the school-entry cutoff date earlier in the school year. The evidence presented in this paper shows that these law changes increased human capital accumulation and hence adult wages. Backing up the cutoff by one month increases average male hourly earnings by approximately 0.6 percent. The evidence also suggests that the majority of the cohort benefits from backing up the cutoff, not just those who must delay entry.