Even though boys and girls in childhood perform similarly in math and spatial thinking, after puberty fewer young women pursue majors that emphasize abilities such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in college. If postpubertal feminization contributes to a lower likelihood of choosing STEM majors, then young women who enter…

As in many countries, in the Netherlands, governmental policy regulates the decisions of schools and care providers that concern and the control of the quality of education and care. Article 23 of the Dutch Constitution defines a fundamental right of freedom in matters of education within the context of institutions such as schools and other…

Compulsory school attendance refers to the minimum and maximum age required by each state in which a student must be enrolled in and attending public school or some equivalent education program defined by the law. The vast majority of states include an added clause providing for pupils to be released from compulsory attendance requirements upon…

Age based school entry laws force parents and educators to consider an important tradeoff: though students who are the youngest in their school cohort typically have poorer academic performance, on average, they have slightly higher educational attainment. In this paper we document that for a large cohort of California and Texas natives the school…

We look at the effect of school starting age on standardized test scores using data covering all Grade 4 and Grade 8 students in Hungary. Instrumental variables estimates of the local average treatment effect suggest that children generally gain from starting school 1 year later, and the effects are much stronger in the case of students coming…

The age at which students enter school is increasing. More parents are delaying their child's entry, and U.S. states are moving school entry cutoffs earlier, mainly because older students outperform younger ones on many educational outcomes. Much of the literature interprets advantages held by older students as benefits to entering school older,…

Parents of children of preschool age ask school education to meet certain requirements. Research shows that there are four main concerns: assessing the optimal age to begin schooling, how to choose an appropriate school, the goals of the educational program, and the professional and personal qualities of the schoolteacher.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of kindergarten enrollment age on four-year-old Chinese children's early cognition and problem behavior using multilevel models. The sample comprised of 1,391 pre-school children (the mean age is 4.58 years old) from 74 kindergartens in six different provinces. The results demonstrated curvilinear…

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to identify child, maternal, family, and community factors associated with rate of developmental disability among children enrolled in the California Early Start Program. The cohort included 8,987 children considered at high risk for developmental disability due to medical risks and/or developmental…

This study was conducted to see if a difference exists in the mean Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills: Oral Reading Fluency scores of students who entered kindergarten as 4 year olds, 5 year olds, and 6 year olds inclusively. Specifically, this dissertation considered the possibility that holding children out of kindergarten an…

In this article, the authors discuss two interventions deployed to remediate low performing students. The first is grade level retention in which a student is required to repeat a given grade due to lack of academic or social progress. The second is academic redshirting in which a parent voluntarily delays the entrance of her child into…

Many argue that childcare costs limit the labor supply of mothers, though existing evidence has been mixed. Using a child's eligibility for public kindergarten in a regression discontinuity instrumental variables framework, I estimate how use of a particular subsidy, public school, affects maternal labor supply. I find public school enrollment…

The Reconstructed Cohort Method is often used to examine the status of national education. However, this method does not account for individual details and we know little about the status of school enrolments by tracking individual students from entrance until dropout or graduation. This study employs the True Cohort Method to analyse data for…

In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Kindergarten Readiness Act into law. The law changed the kindergarten entry cutoff so that children must turn five by September 1 to enter kindergarten. The law also established a new grade level--Transitional Kindergarten (TK)--which is the first year of a two-year kindergarten experience for…

Literature on age of entry into formal education is inconsistent at best in determining if early or late entry impacts the educational experience in positive or negative ways. The purpose of the current study was to add to the literature by examining the relationship between age of entry into formal education and participation in the Accelerated…