A Study on the Relationship between School Entrance Age (first grade) and Academic Achievement, Social Adjustment and Creativity among second and fifth grade elementary, third grade middle school and third grade high school students in Tehran

Comparing cognitive, social, and behavioral achievements of thestudents who have begun school with different ages can be useful torevise ongoing education policies about school entrance age and to pavethe way for changes and improvements in Education system. In thisregard, 872 students who were born in the first and second half of theyear were randomly selected from second and fifth grade elementary, third grade middle school and third grade high school, as the researchsamples. The student's knowledge of reading and writing skills as well asmathematics were tested in each grade by using researcher-made tools. Torrance creativity test and Grady social adjustment test has also beenused. The obtained means were compared by Men Witny Test. Theresults indicated that in all grades studied, academic achievements andcreativity of the students who were born in the first half of the year wereless than students of the second half of the year. When beginningschool, younger children showed more maladjustment than those whobegan school with older age, but the difference will vanish in highergrades. While in other grades under study, the students of the first halfof the year emerged to be socially more maladjustment than othergroups, these differences are not significant.