The Impact of Birthdate on Kindergarten Student Communication, SocialEmotional, and Early Reading School Readiness in Rural Title I Elementary Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative and regression analysis studywas to assess whether students with summer birthdays enrolling in kindergarten enterschool at a disadvantage compared to their peers in academic, communication, andsocial-emotional school readiness. Assessing a student’s readiness for kindergarten iscomplex and requires an understanding of a student’s cognitive development, as well asthe growth of their communication and social-emotional skills. Archived data from arural Kansas school district with three Title I elementary schools was utilized in thestudy. Six research questions guided the study. Four of these research questions focusedon determining whether differences existed in communication school readiness, socialemotional school readiness, early reading gains, and early social-emotional gains betweenstudents with summer birthdays and students with earlier birthdays. The remaining tworesearch questions were incorporated to determine whether a student’s communicationschool readiness could be used to predict their early reading gains and whether astudent’s social-emotional school readiness could be used to predict their early socialemotional gains. Findings indicated no significant differences in communication schoolreadiness, social-emotional school readiness, early reading gains, or social-emotionalgains between students with summer birthdays and students with earlier birthdays.Furthermore, communication school readiness did not statistically predict reading gains,nor did social-emotional school readiness predict social-emotional gains. Future researchcould replicate the current study with an expanded participant group, including studentsfrom suburban and urban school districts, as well as incorporating participants from avariety of ethnic backgrounds. Examining the impact of other variables such as gender and early childhood opportunities accessed by a student would strengthen the findingsand allow educators to better understand the effect of birthdate on school readiness.