School Starting Age and Cognitive Development

We present evidence of a positive relationship between school starting age and children's cognitive development from ages 6 to 18 using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and large‐scale population‐level birth and school data from the state of Florida. We estimate effects of being old for grade (being born in September vs. August) that are remarkably stable—always around 0.2 SD difference in test scores—across a wide range of heterogeneous groups, based on maternal education, poverty at birth, race/ethnicity, birth weight, gestational age, and school quality. While the September‐August difference in kindergarten readiness is dramatically different by subgroup, by the time students take their first exams, the heterogeneity in estimated effects on test scores effectively disappears. We do, however, find significant heterogeneity in other outcome measures such as disability status and middle and high school course selections. We also document substantial variation in compensatory behaviors targeted towards young‐for‐grade children. While the more affluent families tend to redshirt their children, young‐for‐grade children from less affluent families are more likely to be retained in grades prior to testing. School district practices regarding retention and redshirting are correlated with improved outcomes for the groups less likely to use those remediation approaches (i.e., retention in the case of more affluent families and redshirting in the case of less affluent families.) Finally, we find that very few school policies or practices mitigate the test score advantage of September‐born children.     

Die Anlage-Umwelt-Debatte: Alte Konzepte und neue Einsichten

In this article the question is considered whether and to what extent human behavior and personality are innate or learnt. For that reason the biologically orientated research on behavior and American Behaviorism are compared and criticized. The dualism between those two theoretical approaches is resolved in the modern developmental and personality-psychological disposition-environment debate. Human behavior is neither solely biologically determined nor fully learnt. The narrow interconnection of genetic disposition, early formative influences before and immediately after birth and societal influences is illustrated in detail using aggressive and violent behavior as an example. It becomes clear that the human brain is a social organ which awaits social influences in a particular way and personality is accordingly formed.