Early Entrance to Kindergarten: Fall Behind or Fast Forward?

93% of American students begin kindergarten at five years of age. Approximately 6% now “redshirt” by delaying the start of kindergarten by one year. The remaining 1% gain entry to kindergarten at 4 years of age. In today’s world of enriched/accelerated learning opportunities are these “greenshirt” students helped or hindered by the head start to school that early entrance affords them?

Research has long shown that grade acceleration, including an early start to kindergarten, is beneficial to significantly advanced gifted students. Districts have an irrefutable responsibility to parents and students who seek early entrance to kindergarten. They must develop an application process that is equitable, transparent, and child-centered. The process must be open enough to place the child who will flourish in the more structured academic realm of kindergarten, yet it must be conservative enough to protect the long-term interests of the child who may not be ready. Districts use a myriad of tools to assess the academic, intellectual, and social/emotional readiness of a child for kindergarten. Assessments and inventories such as the WPPSI, GESELL, and Iowa Acceleration Scale help provide objective measures to accompany the subjective but crucial information parents and caregivers provide.

When a District’s open and thorough identification process results in an early entrant acceptance, your real work, as a parent or guardian, must begin. Was your child close to the “cut-off?” How do your son’s achievement levels compare to those of the students he is about to join? Does your daughter’s learning profile, including IQ assessments, indicate an exceptional capacity for learning? Will her comparatively advanced achievement levels likely be maintained over time? Answers to these questions must be central to your decision-making.

For highly gifted students who have exceptionally advanced academic skills and appropriate levels of social-emotional development, early entrance to kindergarten will be an important step in assuring a challenging and engaging start to the school experience. Waiting another year for this child to begin school will further the divide between her learning level and her classmates’.

When a child’s results are closer to cut-offs, and aptitude measures less than two standard deviations above the norm (98%ile), parents are wise to consider waiting. Placement in advanced, accelerated, and honors courses in your child’s future will depend upon how his academic performance compares with students in his grade level, not his age group. Standardized achievement tests such as NWEA and ITBS are not age-normed; they are grade-level normed.

A well-considered early start to kindergarten can be a gift to your child. Keep in mind that a temporary “fast forward” isn’t worth “falling behind” in the long run. Your school district’s “yes” is your invitation to study the data to make the best long-term decision you can for your child.