Kindergarten

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Kindergarten Red-Shirting - Position Statement
Click Here, National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education

Alternatives to Kindergarten Retention and Transition Placement
Click Here, Center for Early Education and Development (CEED), University of Minnesota

Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten? Redshirting may do more harm than good
Click Here, EducationNext, 2017, 17(3)

Red-Shirting: Quite Bad for Some
New research from Duke University indicates that children who are older when they start kindergarten do well academically and socially in the short term, but as teenagers, can be more likely to drop out and commit serious crimes, depending on context. The study compared North Carolina public school students born 60 days before and 60 days after the school cutoff, which at the time of the study was five years old by October 16 to enter kindergarten that year. Prior studies have established that children who enter school "old for grade" perform better academically than younger classmates. The study confirms this, and also finds old-for-grade students one-third less likely to engage in delinquent behavior while still in school. However, after age 16 and for certain populations, the picture shifts. Among old-for-grade students, likelihood of dropping out and being convicted of a serious crime before age 20 is 3.4 times greater for those born to an unwed mother and 2.7 times greater for those whose mothers were high school dropouts. The explanation may lie with the age at which students may legally withdraw from school, 16 in North Carolina. To improve outcomes, the study recommends that states should require completion of a certain grade or a specified number of years in school for withdrawal, rather than legal age.
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Kindergarten Entry Profile


Early Kindergarten Entrance Workshop – February 13, 2014

The Minnesota Department of Education’s Decision-Making Strategies for Early Kindergarten Entrance Workshop was designed to assist school districts and charter schools in developing board-approved policies for the early admission of select students into kindergarten. The workshop was held at MDE in Roseville on Thursday, February 13, 2014, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The workshop provided detailed information about effective assessment of children who potentially may be admitted to kindergarten prior to meeting the age-eligibility requirement for kindergarten entrance.

Early Entrance Kindergarten Workshop Agenda Click Here for PowerPoint February 13, 2014