You wanted other countries, too...
In Germany, mandatory b&m schooling starts in first grade only, enrolment age 6, cutoff between Jul 1 and Dec 31, varying by state.
The equivalent to k, as in a preparatory program for 5yo is a pull-out program mandatorily offered in preschools, enrolment in which is not mandatory, but pretty much universal since every child is entitled to a half day place in preschool/daycare from age one and up. It is usually a bit of a joke, like two hours weekly pull-out with a bit of mild academics for the 5yo kids in what is usually a mixed age play-based classroom, and sometimes a daily 10 minutes phonics program, but this is considered sufficient since all the "separating from the parents and functioning in an institutional setting" stuff is taken care of by the preschool environment. (although we did manage to have DS7, who narrowly missed the cutoff, included a year early, it was barely a bandaid for him, and we were glad to be able to swing early entrance into first grade as well.)
The debate about making the last year of preschool mandatory for 5yo waxes and wanes, with some insisting that with non-enrolment being into e low single digits by that age a mandate would be regulatory overkill, with others pointing out that the non-enrolled kids, usually from poor non educated recent immigrant families, tend to be precisely the ones who'd need it most.
Re the question how the benefits for low SES kids accrue and whether they last:
The benefit can be summarized as: lots of interactive exposure to high level language in the dominant language of instruction lead to great academic gains for kids who, unlike peers from higher SES families, do not get this at home from practically before birth.
The research on the long term results of preschool benefit for low SES kids is uneven because unless you take program quality and intake into account, you cannot really tell how much of this exposure is actually taking place, as in are there lots of low SES immigrant kids being watched by overworked staff with minimal qualifications, or are low SES kids, integrated with high SES kids, being actively engaged by well trained child care workers and teachers with a low student staff ratio - and most crucially, does this continue in primary and secondary education in SES-integrated schools. Google the research on the peer benefits of SES integration and the evils of SES segregation by Richard Kahlenberg, it's fascinating!
Last edited by Tigerle; 09/29/14 02:47 AM.
