Does it matter at what age children start school in Australia? Investigating the effects of school starting age on six-year old children’s outcomes
Ben Edwards, Mario Fiorini and Matt Taylor
Australian Institute of Family Studies and University of Technology, Sydney
Contact Email:   Ben.Edwardsaifs.gov.au

In April 2004 the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) agreed to implement a uniform national school starting age by 2010. A report that focused on the monetary and costs of implementing a common school starting age was produced, but it did not consider the impact of changes on school starting age for children’s development.

In this presentation we examine the causal impacts of school starting age in Australia.

Previous empirical research in this area suggests that children who start school later do better than early entrants. However, some parents might not comply with state entrance cut-offs, delaying or anticipating school entry based on theirs or their children’s characteristics. Therefore, a positive correlation between age at school entry and school tests does not imply that late school entry causes better learning.

To address this issue we use data from 6 year olds in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). We use variation in compulsory school starting ages in the states and territories to model the causal effect of school starting age. The key point to understand here is that one month difference in age can mean that children in one state start school one year later. Importantly, this discontinuity in school starting ages is independent of other child and family characteristics.

We find that school starting age is correlated with children’s cognitive but not social emotional outcomes. However, when we use predicted school entry from compulsory school starting ages to estimate the causal effect of school starting age, there is clear evidence of an effect for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test but not for Matrix Reasoning. We discuss the potential implications of these results for understanding child development and public policies on school starting age.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Copyright © 2009 Social Policy Research Centre.