Human Services News

National Center for Education Statistics

This Statistics in Brief examines the association between kindergarten enrollment status (e.g., repeating kindergarten or delaying entry into kindergarten) and children's first grade reading and mathematics achievement.

Based on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), the statistics in brief reports that in the fall of 1998 5 percent of all children in kindergarten were repeating kindergarten and 6 percent were attending kindergarten for the first time even though they were age-eligible to do so a year earlier (i.e., delayed entry).

In terms of children's first grade performance by kindergarten enrollment status, at the end of first grade, children who repeated kindergarten have lower reading and mathematics knowledge and skills than those who started on time.

At the end of first grade, children whose kindergarten entry was delayed, in general, demonstrate slightly higher reading knowledge and skills than those who started on time.

In mathematics at the end of first grade, children whose kindergarten entry was delayed kindergarten are behind their classmates who began kindergarten on time.