Impact of Early Entrance to Kindergarten on Academic Performance and Behaviors

• In Event: Poster Session 15
  In Poster Session: Poster Fair B: Data Use and Research in the Schools

Abstract

With a quasi-experimental design, this study examined how early entrance to kindergarten (EEK) before the age of five impacted student academic performance and behaviors by Grade 2. The EEK students were compared to two groups: 1) their slightly older peers in the same grade, and 2) their same age group who delayed kindergarten entrance for a year by parental choice.

Through propensity score matching, the EEK and comparison groups were similar in demographics, English language proficiency, free-and-reduced lunch status, and school readiness at the beginning of kindergarten. The results showed that the EEK group either performed higher or at the same level academically or behaviorally by Grade 2, when compared to their two comparison groups.

Author

• Huafang Zhao, Montgomery County Public Schools