Over the past 10 years, kindergarten classes have escalated their academic demands in order to prepare children to begin first grade. In tandem with curricular changes, many parents have elected to "hold out" their children from first grade for an additional year, and increasingly, schools are using kindergarten retention in response to early school failure. A study assessed the impact of student characteristics on holding out and retention or promotion practices. Data on all 1,089 kindergarten students in one South Central California school district were analyzed, including student age, gender, ethnicity, home language, age of entry, and decisions regarding grade retention, promotion, and advancement. Approximately 68% of the students were Latino, and 32% Anglo. Study findings included the following results: (1) on average, boys started school at 67.5 months and girls at 66.7 months; (2) neither ethnicity nor home language influenced age of school entry; (3) over 10% of the children had been held out of school an extra year by their parents, 4.2% had been previously retained, 5% were recommended for retention the following year, and 19.9% were advanced to first grade with concerns about their promotion; (4) children in the youngest part of their cohort were more likely than older children to be held out, retained, or recommended for retention; and (5) English-speaking Latino students were more likely to be recommended for retention than Spanish-speaking Latinos, although the reasons for this particular pattern were unclear. (Contains 28 references.) (AC)