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Title: Do 'Skills Beget Skills'? Evidence on the Effect of Kindergarten Entrance Age on the Evolution of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skill Gaps in Childhood
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Lubotsky, Darren
Kaestner, Robert
Do 'Skills Beget Skills'? Evidence on the Effect of Kindergarten Entrance Age on the Evolution of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skill Gaps in Childhood
Economics of Education Review 53 (August 2016): 194-206.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716301753
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Age at School Entry; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Childhood Education, Early; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Noncognitive Skills; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading)

We use exogenous variation in the skills that children have at the beginning of kindergarten to measure the extent to which "skills beget skills" in this context. Children who are relatively older when they begin kindergarten score higher on measures of cognitive and non-cognitive achievement at the beginning of kindergarten. Their scores on cognitive assessments grow faster during kindergarten and first grade. However, after first grade the scores of younger entrants catch up. We find no evidence that the growth in non-cognitive measures differs between older and younger entrants. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that schools are not the cause of the younger students' faster growth after first grade.
Bibliography Citation
Lubotsky, Darren and Robert Kaestner. "Do 'Skills Beget Skills'? Evidence on the Effect of Kindergarten Entrance Age on the Evolution of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skill Gaps in Childhood." Economics of Education Review 53 (August 2016): 194-206.