Document Information
The Impact of Changes in Kindergarten Entrance Age Policies on Children’s Academic Achievement and the Child Care Needs of Families
The past two decades have seen a rising trend in the minimum entrance age for kindergarten in the United States, motivated by findings from studies finding that older entrants perform better than younger entrants on a wide range of outcomes. Delaying kindergarten entrance, however, imposes additional childcare and time costs on families whose children are forced to stay out of school for another year. This dissertation provides new evidence on the causal effect of delaying kindergarten entrance on children’s academic achievement in elementary school. The author finds that, compared to other educational interventions, a one-year delay in kindergarten entrance has a positive and significant effect on children’s test scores both when they begin school and at the end of two years in school. Although the initial entrance-age effect is smaller among poor and disabled children compared with that for non-poor and non-disabled children. delaying entrance has a sizable effect on test score gains over time for poor and disabled children but a negligible effect on gains for non-poor and non-disabled children. The author also developed an economic model for parents’ kindergarten entrance age decisions and examined the effect of socioeconomic factors on these decisions. Higher childcare prices and maternal wages significantly lower the age at which parents desire to send their child to kindergarten.
See Also:
Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.
RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service.
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction
Chapter Two:
Effect of Kindergarten Entrance Age On Academic Performance
Chapter Three:
Effect of Kindergarten Entrance Age Policies on Child Care Needs of Families
Chapter Four:
Discussion and Policy Implications
This product is part of the Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS) dissertation series. PRGS dissertations are produced by graduate fellows of the Pardee RAND Graduate School, the world's leading producer of Ph.D.'s in policy analysis. The dissertation has been supervised, reviewed, and approved by a PRGS faculty committee overseeing the dissertation.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
* RAND research is conducted across divisions, centers, and projects; these organizational components are represented in the "Related RAND Divisions" section above.
Top
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2008 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: December 12, 2007 