At the end of first grade, children who repeated kindergarten had lower reading and math knowledge and skills than children who started on time¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr?·q3
Currency · newest study 2006 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Children who repeated kindergarten had lower reading knowledge and skills at the end of first grade than those who started on time. → Malone 2006
q3 i? Children who repeated kindergarten had lower math knowledge and skills at the end of first grade than those who started on time. → Malone 2006
Evidence¶
Malone 2006¶
Malone, L. M.; West, J.; Denton Flanagan, K.; Park, J. (2006). The Early Reading and Mathematics Achievement of Children Who Repeated Kindergarten or Who Began School a Year Late. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/the-early-reading-and-mathematics-achievement-of-children-who-repeated-kindergarten-or-who-began-school-a-year-late
q3 · i? · associational · r?
Association reported from the ECLS-K longitudinal dataset comparing end-of-first-grade achievement of kindergarten repeaters with on-time starters; the report states "children who repeated kindergarten had lower reading and math knowledge and skills". No effect sizes are printed in the available text.
"At the end of first grade, children who repeated kindergarten had lower reading and math knowledge and skills than those who started on time"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Redshirted students' early-grade academic advantage over on-time peers fades as students move through school — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
- At the end of first grade, children whose kindergarten entry was delayed were behind their classmates who began kindergarten on time in math — related
- At the end of first grade, children whose kindergarten entry was delayed demonstrated slightly higher reading knowledge and skills than those who started on time — reports the opposite
- In fall 1998, five percent of children were repeating kindergarten and six percent were attending kindergarten for the first time despite being age-eligible a year earlier — related
- Children who attend pre-kindergarten are more ready for kindergarten at the end of their pre-k year than children who do not attend — related
- Michigan's GSRP participants showed better kindergarten readiness, fewer grade repetitions, better reading and math proficiency, and better on-time graduation rates than non-participants, per a HighScope longitudinal evaluation — related
- Being a year older at kindergarten entry leads to higher initial achievement — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
repeaters-lower-reading-math-end-first-grade |
title |
At the end of first grade, children who repeated kindergarten had lower reading and math knowledge and skills than children who started on time |
description |
At the end of first grade, children who repeated kindergarten had lower reading and math knowledge and skills than children who started on time |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2006 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — malone-2006 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.