A study of the effect of kindergarten entry age on third grade academic achievement

This study examined the effect of kindergarten entry age on the scores of the third grade Tennessee Comprehensive Achievement Program (TCAP) math and reading tests based on gender and socioeconomic status. The subjects included 250 students from three rural Tennessee schools. Unpaired t-tests and ANOVAs were conducted to test for significant differences between group means. Ten null hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. Results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference in TCAP reading scores based on gender. There was also a significant difference in the TCAP math and reading scores based on SES. There was not a significant difference in the third grade TCAP math and reading scores based on kindergarten entry age, age and gender combined, or age and SES combined.