The Benefits of Delayed Primary School Enrollment: Discontinuity Estimates Using Exact Birth Dates

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe paper estimates the effect of delayed school enrollment on student outcomes, using administrative data on Chilean students that include exact birth dates. Regression-discontinuity estimates, based on enrollment cutoffs, show that a one-year delay decreases the probability of repeating first grade by two percentage points, and increases fourth and eighth grade test scores by more than 0.3 standard deviations, with larger effects for boys. The paper concludes with implications for enrollment age policy.

Early effects of an early start: Evidence from lowering the school starting age in Poland

“…The main division runs between the research examining the age of enrollment into school (including the fact of doing it within or outside the compulsory term) jointly with the absolute age of a student, and research attempting to isolate the two effects from each another. Authors who focus verbally on the issue of school starting age, but who do not control for the age at the time of performance measurement, usually wind up concluding that a delayed start is beneficial for students in terms of test achievements and promotion perspectives (McEwan and Shapiro 2008, Altwicker-Hámori and Köllo 2012, Fredriksson and Ockert 2013. However, separating the effect of enrollment age from the impact of the absolute age may lead to results supporting (or at least not rejecting) the idea of sending children to school earlier.…”

To leave or not to leave? A regression discontinuity analysis of the impact of failing the high school exit exam

“…There is a growing literature on educational and social program evaluations using the RD approach (Angrist and Lavy, 1999;Chay, McEwan and Urquiola, 2005;Jacob andLefgren, 2004, 2007;Kane, 2003;van der Klaauw, 2002;Lemieux and Milligan, 2008;Martorell, 2004;McEwan and Shapiro, 2008). The RD approach allows me to compare the outcomes for students whose test score is "just below"…”

Moving Up a Gear: The Impact of Compressing Instructional Time into Fewer Years of Schooling

“…There is a lasting debate on the impact of the school starting age on student outcomes. The literature has mostly focussed on the impact of the relative school starting age for individuals, exploiting birth date variations around given starting age rules (Bedard and Dhuey, 2006;Puhani and Weber, 2007;McEwan and Shapiro, 2008;Black et al, 2011;Fredriksson and Ockert, 2014). Policy-makers, however, can only shift the absolute age at school entry.…”