Elementary School Performance and Adjustment of Children Who Enter Kindergarten Late or Repeat Kindergarten: Findings from National Surveys

摘要

The age at which children start formal schooling varies across countries and has changed over time in this country. Starting school with first grade at age six used to be the norm, whereas now most children go to kindergarten at age five (West et al. 1992). However, the five-year-olds in today's kindergarten classes are older than the kindergarten pupils of the past. Whereas it used to be standard practice to require kindergartners entering in September to have turned five by the following December or January, it has become increasingly common for schools to require children to have turned five by September or October, or even earlier (Meisels 1992; Walsh 1989; and Shepard and Smith 1986). Another difference is that most of the children entering kindergarten nowadays have had prior experience with preschool programs or center-based childcare (West, Hausken, and Collins 1993). This was not the case in the past. The findings of developmental psychology do not demonstrate that one age of school entry is inherently preferable to another. No matter where the age of entry is set, educational systems have to deal with the fact that children vary in their rates and patterns of development. Because rates of development are so rapid in the preschool and early elementary years, disparities between different children of the same chronological age can be striking. One 5yearold may be reading fluently, while another can identify only a few letters of the alphabet. There can also be marked differences within the same child across different domains of development; such as when a kindergartner is able to count objects and solve simple math problems, but cries or hits other children when frustrated in group situations.