School age may be reset

Kindergartners should turn 5 by Aug. 31, some lawmakers and educators recommend

Kindergarten is for 5-year-olds, as everyone knows. Except that many kindergartners turn 6 during the school year, and thousands start at age 4.

Like other states, North Carolina regulates the age of kindergartners in public schools by requiring them to turn 5 by a certain date -- Oct. 16 of the year they enroll.

No matter when the cutoff fell, many parents would face a difficult choice about sending children barely old enough.

But coming almost two months after school starts, North Carolina's date makes the decision harder, some lawmakers and parents say.

Should we let our child start school with mostly older children, and hope she catches up, they wonder? Hold him back a year to make sure he's mature enough?

Advancing the birthday cutoff date would schedule the choice closer to when school starts, an idea state lawmakers are starting to talk about.

To improve kindergarten and to discourage children from falling behind -- and staying behind all the way through high school -- some lawmakers favor barring more 4-year-olds from kindergarten in North Carolina's public schools, starting two years from now.

To attend public-school kindergarten in the fall of 2008, children would have to turn 5 by Aug. 31 of that year. Most schools open Aug. 25.

"You have some children who are barely toilet-trained in the same classrooms with children approaching 7 years old," said state Rep. Louis Pate Jr., a Republican from Mount Olive. "The cognitive differences can be significant."

Pate, who champions the idea of changing the date, said he has learned about the problem from his wife, Joyce, a Wayne County kindergarten teacher.

"Kindergarten is not socializing and learning how to get along anymore," he said. "It's pretty rigorous work. We want children who are ready to learn."

Nobody has to go to kindergarten. School principals decide whether 7-year-old students who don't go to kindergarten should be placed in a first-grade class or in kindergarten.

Goals and trade-offs

Ultimately, Pate said, the effort's aim is to reduce high school drop-out rates by preventing younger students from lagging throughout their school years.

The new rule would have exceptions: Academically gifted children still could get a head start. So could 4-year-olds who have completed preschool.

Only four states have later birthday cutoff dates than North Carolina, the Associated Press has reported. Nineteen have a Sept. 1 cutoff.

If the proposed change in North Carolina becomes law, supporters say, it would improve children's education.

At the same time, they concede, it would force some parents to pay for another year of day care or preschool.

And the move could delay schooling for some of the state's poorest children, who often benefit from an early start.

Supporters say scientific studies back the shift, but some education experts disagree.

"There's not a lot of evidence to suggest that moving up the date would enhance achievement," said Carolyn Cobb, director of the state's More At Four pre-kindergarten program for disadvantaged children. "Sure, children would be more mature if they come in a year older. They might do a little better up-front. But it's not clear that the gains maintain. It's going to require more study."

No evidence shows conclusively whether earlier kindergarten age cutoffs improve high school graduation rates either, she said.

"That might be a wish," she said, "but there's no research one way or the other."

Teachers' anecdotes, however, seem to run in favor of moving the kindergarten age cutoff earlier.