What's best age to start school?

With kindergarten more demanding than ever, some educators recommend younger children wait a year before entering.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
Dante Ginnetti of Poland turns 5 on Sept. 11, which puts his parents in that age-old dilemma: Do we send him to kindergarten this fall or wait a year?
"We really didn't know what to do," said his mother, Amy.
They got all kinds of advice, heard all kinds of stories -- pro and con -- and ended up more confused than ever.
"But then we got a note from the school, and our mind was made up for us," she said.
Poland is the only Mahoning County school system that is changing its eligibility policy for kindergarten pupils under a new state law.
Next school year, children must turn 5 by Aug. 1 to enter kindergarten in Poland, up from the Sept. 30 cutoff date in previous years.
That quickly resolved Amy Ginnetti's dilemma: Dante will wait another year and enter kindergarten in fall 2003.
"It's fine," Amy said. "We're OK with it. He's OK with it."
The Aug. 1 vs. Sept. 30 debate, however, is anything but settled.
Perennial debate: As schools across the region spend this spring registering children for next year, the venerable debate continues about exactly when children are ready to take that first step into kindergarten.
The debate heated up in Ohio two years ago when lawmakers passed legislation allowing school districts to move the kindergarten eligibility date to Aug. 1 from Sept. 30, where it has been for decades.
Older children are more academically and socially prepared for the classroom, and two months in the life of a 4- or 5-year-old child can be significant.
But the response has been underwhelming. Although the Ohio Department of Education has no statewide statistics, education observers estimate only a few dozen of Ohio's more than 600 public school districts have made the switch.
In region: Of the 45 districts in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, four have moved the date to Aug 1: Champion, Bloomfield-Mesopotamia and Salem schools changed at the beginning of this school year, and Poland switches next school year.
There doesn't seem to be the type of support that would change those numbers any time soon.
"I guess maybe my own experience is if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and it has not presented a problem to us," said Matthew Chojnacki, superintendent of Lakeview schools in Cortland, which is keeping the Sept. 30 cutoff.
Fred Fastenau, with the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators, agreed.
OAESA unsuccessfully lobbied against the Aug. 1 eligibility date. Supporters of the legislation initially wanted the date moved to June 1.
Changing the date doesn't address the underlying issue -- a child's readiness to enter school, he said.
"A youngster doesn't magically become ready to learn on any particular special date," he said.
But proponents of the Aug. 1 date say the change makes sense.
Range of abilities: "We've always been concerned at our kindergarten level that the boys and girls who seem to struggle the most were the ones who are very young and have birthdays in the August and September range," said Beverly Hoagland, principal of Central Elementary School in Champion.
"So, when we had the opportunity to change that entry date to Aug. 1st, we really jumped at the chance."
Carmella Smallhoover, principal of North Elementary School in Poland, said she has seen the same trend at her school: Most of the children who must repeat kindergarten are those with summer birthdays and are among the youngest in their classes.
Delaying kindergarten for those children, allowing an additional year of preschool and maturation, will pay off in the long run, she said.
That's particularly true today, when the kindergarten curriculum is much more structured and demanding, she said.
Twenty-five years ago, children were exposed to letters, numbers, sounds and simple words in kindergarten, said Smallhoover, a former kindergarten teacher. Now, kindergartners are expected to master those skills.
"It's gotten to the point now where kindergarten looks a lot like first grade," she said.
Schools start giving state proficiency tests in the first grade, which also raises expectations, she said.
"That first-grade teacher is saying, 'These kids need to come to me knowing these skills,'" Smallhoover said. "And so that puts the pressure on the kindergarten teacher and her kids."
Choose to postpone: As a result, more and more parents are deciding on their own to hold their children back a year before entering kindergarten, even if they are eligible to attend, she said.
Parents of nearly one in 10 children postpone entrance into kindergarten by a year, says the National Center for Education Statistics. Those children are more likely to be white, boys and from affluent communities.
"Age and maturity is an advantage to having to face academic rigors," Hoagland said.
Research, however, is inconclusive about the advantages of delaying kindergarten.
Some studies indicate that the youngest children in a kindergarten class, particularly boys, may score slightly below the oldest children, says the federal Educational Resources Information Center.
But the differences are small and short-lived, ERIC reports.
Smallhoover said most of the youngest kindergarteners catch up academically by the third grade.
"But they've gone through kindergarten, first and second grade at the bottom of the heap, and where's their self-esteem by third grade?" she said. "It isn't so much that you put them at risk maybe academically, but certainly emotionally."
Opposing argument: Dr. Robert Post, schools superintendent in Grove City, Pa., said delaying entry into kindergarten also can work against a child, especially if she or he is left to sit at home without any academic or preschool activities.
"We would rather get the kids in school because we feel we can do more for them in school," he said.
Pennsylvania has no legislated date for kindergarten eligibility; school districts set their own cutoff dates. Most Mercer County districts have cutoff dates between Sept. 1 and 30, and Post said he doesn't see that changing.
In Struthers, Superintendent Sandra DiBacco said she prefers the Aug. 1 date, but the district is keeping the Sept. 30 cutoff to be consistent with other Mahoning County schools.
"There's so many pros and cons to the whole issue, but without consistency, it's a major problem," she said.
Pupils' transferring from one district using one cutoff date to another school district with a different date could wreak havoc, she said.
She said she would have preferred the state to mandate a new date, rather than making it an option.
cole@vindy.com