Will Increasing the Kindergarten Birth Date Cutoff Improve Student Test Score Outcomes? Evidence From North Carolina

• In Event: 65.038 - Kindergarten in Transition: Purpose, Entry Age, Curriculum, and Student Outcomes

Abstract

Objectives and Perspective: In recent years, several states increased the age cutoffs for kindergarten entry requiring that children are at least five years old at the start of kindergarten (e.g., moving the date from December to September). Influencing these decisions is some early evidence of the positive effects from entering school at an older age, and marked increases in educational accountability and performance demands for secondary and elementary education; these factors have increased the importance of policy decisions concerning early education. The principal focus of this study is to determine whether age at school entry is beneficial for children’s outcomes in the short- and long-term given the equivocal nature of existing research.

Data and Methods: In 2009, North Carolina moved the kindergarten birthdate cutoff from October 15th to September 1st, requiring kindergarten entrants to be 5 years old on or before September 1st of the 2009-10 school year (and thereafter) to enroll in kindergarten. We leverage this policy change in a quasi-experimental research design to determine the impact of the change in birthdate cutoff on student test score achievement and proficiency in 3rd grade reading and mathematics. We also examine whether the change influenced the incidence of redshirting (parental decisions to delay entry into kindergarten by one year). To control for school district-level influences, we conduct both statewide and within-district difference-in-difference models.

We use recent (2007-2013) statewide micro-level census data from North Carolina, including student’s exact birthdates and information from kindergarten through 3rd grade. For robustness, we also compare the test score gap between 3rd and 4th graders who entered school under the October 15th cutoff policy with the test score gap between 3rd and 4th graders who entered school under the
September 1st cutoff policy.

Results and Implications: In a prior study of the effects of kindergarten redshirting in North Carolina, we found that redshirted students were overwhelmingly more likely to be designated by their school as having a disability - up to 2.8 times the risk of being designated as disabled in 3rd grade. Therefore we also test whether the birthdate policy change influenced other available outcomes by the end of the third grade year (i.e., designation as gifted, retention before 3rd grade).

We are in receipt of test score and demographic data from the 2012-13 school year capturing the first year of statewide testing data for kindergarten students enrolled under the new cutoff policy. Our preliminary analyses show changes in the test score gap and proficiency rates across grade levels. The statewide incidence of redshirting decreased by 1.8 percentage points, going from 4.3% in 2008 to 2.6% in 2009, and dropping to 2.2% in 2010. Work on this study is in progress and will be completed in September 2014.
This is the first statewide evaluation of a change in birthdate cutoff policy in a large and diverse state. States are increasingly considering policy changes to birthdate cutoffs; the findings from our study are therefore extremely relevant in the current education policy discussion across the country.

Authors

• Kevin Fortner, Georgia State University

• Jade Jenkins, University of California - Irvine