Keywords

1 Introduction

Entering compulsory schooling represents a critical juncture in children’s educational biographies. For decades, the transition from preschool settings to the formal school environment has raised different issues, which have been studied from different disciplinary perspectives. From a pedagogical perspective, the possibilities of bridging the gap between these two areas are discussed in terms of structure and curricula as well as the possibilities of (re-)designing the transition and the school entry phase. From a sociological perspective, the transition is analysed as a selection threshold at which social inequalities become visible. Studies grounded in educational psychology have focused on children’s individual adaptation efforts when coping with the transition.

The primary school education project of the BiKS-3-18 ‘Educational Processes, Competence Development, and Formation of Educational Decisions in Preschool and School Age’ longitudinal study looked at the transition from preschool settings to primary school from multiple perspectives. One focus was on analysing parental decisions to enrol their child in school at the standard school starting age or a year early or late. The goal was to identify the criteria that parents use when making school entry decisions and what this process and its outcomes look like for parents who enrol their children early or late, as well as for parents with a Turkish migration background. In this context, we also studied the ideas of school readiness among those involved in the transition, as well as collaborative activities between preschools and primary schools to help bridging the gap between these two areas.

2 Theoretical Foundations on School Entry

To date, there is no comprehensive theory of school entry. Theoretical approaches so far have been based on different paradigms, each describing the transition process from a different perspective (Pohlmann-Rother and Then 2023).

Models of education economics focus on economic aspects of educational processes, institutions, and systems: it is questioned how (financial, personal, etc.) resources can be distributed and invested most efficiently in the education system (Weiß 2012). With respect to school entry, the ‘optimal’ age for starting school is of particular interest, whereas the behaviour of the stakeholders involved in the transition (e.g., children, parents) is neglected. Therefore, approaches of educational economics are not sufficient to systematize the transition to school in all its facets.

Another understanding of educational transitions can be derived from theories of stress, e.g., the transactional theory of stress offered by Lazarus (1966). According to Lazarus (1966), individuals perceive changes in their lives (e.g., transition to school) as stressful events if they think their individual resources are not sufficient to cope with these changes. Therefore, theories of stress focus on the individual’s competences to cope with the transition process and changes in its context.

Following eco-systemic models, successful educational transitions depend on the adequate interactions between the ecosystems involved in the transition (Rimm-Kaufman and Pianta 2000). The model by Bronfenbrenner (1979) served as the basis for the development of what is currently the most influential theory of transition in the German educational context: the IFP transition approach (“Transitionsansatz”) by Griebel and Niesel (2004). In this model, transitions are understood as co-constructive processes that require the cooperation of all actors involved to be successful. The guiding assumption is that transitions in people’s educational biographies are accompanied by developmental tasks at different levels (Griebel and Niesel 2004). However, as a theoretical framework to explain the transition to school, the IFP transition approach needs additional qualification. First, it takes insufficient account of the special features that characterize the transition to primary school. Second, the transition model assumes school entry to be a crisis event for children—an assumption that lacks sufficient empirical support (Beelmann 2006; Kluczniok et al. 2015). These limitations notwithstanding, the eco-systemic model does provide valuable input for developing a systematic theory of school entry by conceiving of the transition as a process involving actors from all relevant ecosystems.

Furthermore, transitions may be described from the perspective of general transition research. In this perspective, transitions in the educational system are studied against the background of an individual’s entire life span (Tillmann 2013), taking account of both the general structural conditions governing the transition and the subjective processing of the persons involved in the transition. The eco-systemic perspective is integrated by looking at the interplay of the various ecosystems (Faust 2013). Based on these theoretical concepts, general transition research offers a comprehensive approach to analysing educational transitions that considers both the systemic and the biographical level. In doing so, general transition research provides a very broad approach to systematize transitions. Therefore, a specification is necessary if general transition research is used to conceptualize school entry process.

3 State of Research

3.1 School Readiness: Theoretical Concept and Parents’, Preschool Teachers’, and Primary School Teachers’ Subjective Perspectives

Entry into the formal school system in Germany is framed by specific institutional requirements. Aside from age, the educational policy discourse of the past decades has identified school readiness as a key criterion for school entry. That concept has also been incorporated in school law (Plehn 2018). In the legal provisions, school readiness is primarily linked to the child’s physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development and can still be found in this form in the majority of state laws today.

In scientific discourse, the concept of school readiness has undergone significant changes over the last century. Maturationist views focusing on children’s innate abilities and theories based on child characteristics were succeeded by a conceptualization of school readiness from an eco-systemic perspective (Nickel 1981). Building on the eco-systemic view of educationally relevant transitions, school readiness in this conceptualization is understood as a target dimension that can only be reached if all those involved in the school entry process work together (Kammermeyer 2014). This means that what characterizes school readiness in the eyes of those providing guidance and making decisions with respect to school entry (i.e., parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers) is critically important. Hence, in the research on school readiness, the subjective perspectives of parents and pedagogues are of high interest.

Recent studies indicate that parents (Ring et al. 2016) as well as preschool teachers (Niklas et al. 2018) and teachers in school-based settings (Hustedt et al. 2018) identify socio-emotional skills as an important, sometimes even the most important, criterion to determine school readiness. In addition, a child’s linguistic development is considered critically important by parents (Wesley and Buysee 2003), preschool teachers (Flender 2009), and primary school teachers (Kammermeyer 2000). Likewise, cognitive skills play a key role in school readiness according to parents (Altun 2018), preschool teachers (Niklas et al. 2018), and primary school teachers (Kammermeyer 2000). Unlike these child-related criteria, characteristics of the ecosystem (e.g., the family environment) are considered less important with respect to a child’s school readiness in the majority of studies (for an exception, see Flender 2009).

Differences in the school readiness concepts of parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers emerge primarily in how the school readiness criteria are weighted. Cognitive skills as school readiness criteria, for example, tends to be considered less important by preschool teachers and more important by parents (Piotrkowski et al. 2000). Pre-academic skills (e.g., basic spelling skills) tends to be considered less important by primary school teachers and more important by preschool teachers (Abry et al. 2015) and parents (Piotrkowski et al. 2000).

3.2 Parental Decisions on School Entry

When it comes to school entry, parents have to decide whether or not to enrol their child in school at the standard school starting age. This means that children either start school by the time they reach the compulsory schooling age or they start school although they have not yet reached school age (early school entry) or have already passed it (delayed school entry) (Plehn 2018). The children of immigrants are a group that is often disadvantaged in the school entry process, for instance through high rates of delayed school entry (Kratzmann and Schneider 2009). The following analysis will therefore focus not only on the two non-standard school entry variants but also on the school entry of children with a migration background.

As the formation of parental decisions is not an explicit focus of pedagogic transition theories, additional theoretical approaches are needed to describe parental decision making in the context of school entry. For this purpose, models grounded in Expectation-Value-Theories (e.g., Eccles 1983) are widely referred. According to these theories, parental decisions for early or delayed school enrolment depend on the value the parents assign to (early or delayed) enrolment as well as their expectations how their child will succeed in school because of the (early or delayed) school starting point (Faust 2013). The assigned value results from the calculation of costs and benefits the parents associate with the early or delayed enrolment.

3.3 Early School Entry

Currently, 2.7% of all school enrolments in Germany are early enrolments (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2022), with especially strong rates among children from academic backgrounds (Kratzmann and Schneider 2009) and girls (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2022). The study by Tietze (1973) provides information on the decision-making criteria that parents use when deciding whether to enrol their child early. The study shows that parents in favour of early school enrolment cite early academic support for their child as an important reason. Parents who argue against early school enrolment explain, among other things, that they do not want to reduce their child’s playtime in its preschool setting. They view school as stressful for their child and free play in preschool as an important context for personal growth. Recent studies show that this distinction between school as a demanding institution and preschool as a ‘place of good childhood’ is still sometimes found in parental attitudes (Andresen et al. 2013). On the one hand, studies focussing on the effects of early school enrolment find that, within a school entry cohort, children enrolled early are more likely to repeat a year than children enrolled at the standard age (Bellenberg 1999). On the other hand, studies on the competence development of children enrolled early show that they tend to be equal or superior to their older peers (Gold et al. 2012). In addition, children who start school early often receive a recommendation to attend a university-preparatory high school (Gymnasium) at the end of primary school (Fina 2017) and are more likely to attend a higher-level secondary school type than children enrolled late, for example (Seyda 2009).

3.4 Delayed School Entry

Currently, 6.6% of all school enrolments in Germany are delayed enrolments (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2022). Children of low social status or from non-academic backgrounds (Liebers 2011), boys (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2022), and children of immigrants (Tuppat et al. 2016) are especially likely to start school late. Donath et al. (2010) find that the main reasons for parents who prefer delayed enrolment include, aside from their child’s date of birth, the desire to strengthen their child’s self-confidence and to protect their child from problems arising from school-based learning. Likewise, Liebers (2011) finds that parents tend to name child-related aspects such as a lack of skills (primarily cognitive and linguistic skills) as the most important reasons for enrolling their child late. Studies focussing on the effects of deferred school entry offer a divided picture. Despite the delay in their educational biography, children enrolled late tend not to experience disadvantages in their competence development compared to children enrolled at the standard age (Hong and Raudenbush 2005; Jaekel et al. 2015). The rate of children repeating a year is about the same among those enrolled late and those enrolled at the standard age and even lower than among children enrolled early (Bellenberg 1999), but it is reasonable to attribute this not so much to their superior academic performance but rather to their advanced age, which may keep teachers from further delaying their school career by requiring them to repeat a year. However, delayed school entry does seem to have positive effects on the children’s socio-emotional development (Hong and Yu 2008).

3.5 School Entry of Children with a Migration Background

The rate of delayed school entry is twice as high among children with a migration background as among children without a migration background (Kratzmann and Schneider 2009; Tuppat et al. 2016). This is particularly true for children with a Turkish migrant background. To explain this phenomenon, previous research has pointed out individual and institutional reasons. At the individual level, the lower linguistic skills of immigrant children are seen as the most important reason (Schöler et al. 2004). In addition, some Turkish parents see delayed school entry as an opportunity to better prepare their children for their first year in school (Rachner and Unger 1994). Reasons against delayed school entry, on the other hand, are found in parents’ general ideas about education. An upbringing based on authority and reproduction, as frequently found in Turkish immigrant families, might be in conflict with German early childhood education and care, which is characterized by self-determination (Jäkel and Leyendecker 2009).

At the institutional level, the school system is considered to contribute to migration-based inequalities in school entry. In that line of thinking, immigrants are already disadvantaged in the German education system because of the lack of recognition for their original language and culture (Gomolla and Radtke 2009). According to the argument of institutional discrimination (Gomolla and Radtke 2009), immigrant children are more likely to start school late or be transferred to remedial classes than non-immigrant children because schools want to preserve the (presumed) homogeneity of achievement in primary school classrooms. Moreover, there is a possibility for immigrant children to experience prejudice and stereotyping from primary school teachers and preschool teachers, resulting in an unfair assessment of their performance (Alexander and Schofield 2008). In addition, their exposure to stereotypes about their social group may cause immigrant children to experience lower levels of self-confidence and motivation compared to non-immigrant children, regardless of whether they actually subscribe to the stereotype—a phenomenon known as ‘stereotype threat’ (Steele and Aronson 1995).

3.6 Cooperation of Preschools and Primary Schools

The question of how to bridge the gap between the two educational settings of preschool and primary school is among the most heavily discussed issues in the context of school entry. Cooperation between the institutions is repeatedly emphasized as the most suitable measure to ensure seamless educational biographies. In German education policy, this trend has led to the adoption of a ‘Common Framework for Early Education in Preschool Settings’ (‘Gemeinsamer Rahmen für die frühe Bildung in Kindertageseinrichtungen’) (Meyer-Siever 2015, pp. 21 f.). The need for cooperation is also stated in most of the 16 federal states’ curricula, educational plans, and school codes.

The most widely used model for categorizing different types of cooperation is the model by Gräsel et al. (2006), which distinguishes three levels of cooperation: exchange, division of work, and co-construction. Exchange is the least intensive level, and studies have shown that this type of cooperation is most common in the transition to school. For example, giving preschool children the opportunity to visit a primary school is the most frequent collaborative activity in Germany (Hanke et al. 2013; Meyer-Siever 2015). Classroom visits by preschool children are also a common transition practice in the international context (Choy and Karuppiah 2016; Cook and Coley 2017). Collaborative activities that are at the level of co-construction and thus constitute more intensive collaborative relationships (e.g., the joint implementation of observation and diagnostic procedures by preschool teachers and primary school teachers) are realized less frequently (Hanke et al. 2013). Yet it is these intensive forms of cooperation that have an influence on how children manage the transition, whereas measures that merely aim to familiarize the children to the changed living environment at school are less relevant (Ahtola et al. 2011; LoCasale-Crouch et al. 2008).

4 Goals and Research Questions

The present project of the BiKS-3-18 longitudinal study (principal investigator: Gabriele Faust) was linked to the research strands outlined above. Our research interest was focused on the effects of the general structural conditions of school entry on the school enrolment process and on the attitudes of the actors involved in that process. This resulted in different questions, which were investigated in four sub-studies.

  1. 1)

    Actors’ ideas of school readiness: In this sub-study, we analysed the school readiness criteria that parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers believe to be important. The actors involved were interviewed about their ideas of school readiness, their reasons for choosing these criteria, and the relevance they assign to each criterion.

  2. 2)

    Formation of parental school entry decisions: In this topic area, we analysed parents’ decision-making processes with regard to early or delayed school entry and with regard to the school entry of children with a migration background. The focus was on the formation of parental school entry decisions and on the criteria parents use to make these decisions.

  3. 3)

    Outcomes of school entry decisions: In this sub-study, we looked at whether the school entry decisions have proven successful over time. For this purpose, we collected information on children’s competence development up to second grade and measured parent’s degree of satisfaction with their school entry decision.

  4. 4)

    Cooperation between preschools and primary schools: This sub-study focused on the types and frequency of cooperation practices. In this context, we also analysed the attitudes of preschool teachers and primary school teachers towards cooperation, the factors that influence their cooperation, and the effects of various cooperative practices on how children manage the transition.

5 Method

In this project, we used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. To combine both strands of research, the project was set up in a ‘concurrent mixed method’ design (Tashakkori and Teddlie 2003). Accordingly, quantitative and qualitative research data were first collected separately in order to subsequently integrate the interim results from both surveys into the respective other research strand (Faust et al. 2013, pp. 33 ff.).

5.1 Sample

In the initial sample of the ‘BiKS-3-18’ study (547 families), 21 children were enrolled early and 24 children were enrolled late. The extended sample, which included the classmates of the original BiKS-3-18 children, comprised (without drop-outs: 992 families) 61 early and 63 late enrolments. For 149 children, the time of enrolment could no longer be determined. Of the parents of the children from the extended sample, 17 per cent had no or low educational qualifications at the time of their children’s enrolment (September 2008), 32 per cent had medium educational qualifications, and 49 per cent had high educational qualifications. 2 per cent of the sample provided no information about their educational qualification. Table 1 offers an overview of structural, family-, and child-related characteristics and their distribution in the extended total sample.Footnote 1

Table 1 Description of the extended total sample (excluding reception classes) by structural, family-, and child-related characteristics
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Aside from the children, the educational professionals interviewed for this study formed separate sample pools. The total sample of preschool teachers consisted of 97 individuals; the total primary school teacher sample consisted of 142 individuals from 87 primary schools.

Different sample sizes were implemented in the sub-studies. Whereas the quantitative sub-studies aimed at interviewing the total sample, the qualitative sub-studies were limited to sub-samples. Two qualitative interview studies focused on non-immigrant parents for whom early (N = 23) or late enrolment (N = 20) was an option. For the sub-sample of children enrolled early, we selected children from the total sample who had reached the age of six no later than two months after enrolment and showed medium- or high-level skills compared to children of the same age. For the sub-sample of children enrolled late, we selected children from the total sample who had reached the age of six no later than two months before the cut-off date and showed low- or medium-level skills compared to children of the same age. We randomly drew children from both groups; their parents then formed the samples for the interview studies. A third interview study focused on parents of Turkish-speaking origin (N = 25), operationalised by parents’ first language. In this study, all parents with a Turkish migration background who had agreed to be interviewed were taken into account (Faust et al. 2013, pp. 35 ff.). Table 2 shows the structural, family-, and child-related characteristics of the subsamples.

5.2 Data Collection and Analysis

The quantitative surveys took place every six months from September 2005 (Faust et al. 2013, p. 41). The actors’ ideas of school readiness were collected using questionnaires developed on the basis of Kammermeyer (2000) and supplemented with findings from qualitative interview studies (see Pohlmann-Rother et al. 2011, for a detailed description).

In the quantitative surveys on school entry decisions, we used scales from the BiKS-3-18 parent surveys, which addressed family stimulation processes, structural characteristics, subjective attitudes, and child-related ability assessments (Kluczniok 2012, p. 94). The surveys on the enrolment decisions of parents with a Turkish migration background focused on parents’ educational aspirations, their attitudes towards academic support, and their level of information, as well as their enrolment decisions and the outcomes of these decisions (Kratzmann 2011, p. 95 ff.). The extent to which school entry involves psycho-social stress for children was measured using a shortened version of the ‘child behaviour checklist’ (Döpfner et al. 1998).

Table 2 Description of the samples of the qualitative sub-studies by structural, family-, and child-related characteristics (first survey date)
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The outcomes of the school entry decisions were measured through the children’s linguistic-cognitive and social-emotional competencies, as well as their volitional characteristics based on the questionnaire for measuring the emotional and social school experiences of primary school children in the third and fourth grades (Rauer and Schuck 2003). As a second measure of outcomes, we used parents’ level of satisfaction with their school entry decision, collected in telephone interviews at the end of each primary school year.

The frequency and perceived importance of cooperation was measured through questionnaires using scales on cooperation-related statements and activities based on Huppertz and Rumpf (1983).Footnote 2

The quantitative data material was analysed by computing correlations and performing regression analyses and tests for group differences, as well as latent change models and latent growth models (Faust et al. 2013, p. 46).

In the qualitative surveys, parents were interviewed at three measurement points in problem-centred guided interviews. The interviews on the first survey date, conducted one or two years prior to school enrolment, focussed on parents’ tentative preference for standard or non-standard school entry and the reasons for that preference, parent’s level of information about school enrolment, and parents’ understanding of school readiness (Faust et al. 2013, p. 45). The surveys of parents with a Turkish migration background additionally included questions on parental educational aspirations, child-related ability assessments, expectations of the education system, and parents’ attitudes towards academic support (Kratzmann 2011, pp. 90 f.). At the second measuring point, three or fifteen months prior to school enrolment, the survey focussed on the decision-making process, the role of authorities offering information and guidance on school entry, parents’ assessment of their child’s preschool, and their expectations of the school. At the third measuring point, three months after school entry, interviewers asked parents about their child’s first few weeks at school and their degree of satisfaction with their school entry decision. The interviews were analysed in a deductive and inductive manner using summarising and structuring and, in some cases, also scaling content analysis methods (Mayring 2003).

6 Key Findings

6.1 Ideas About School Readiness Among the Actors Involved in the Transition

Parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers agree that a child’s ability to concentrate and their social behaviour are key school readiness criteria. All three groups of respondents also assign great importance to cognitive development, as well as to the child’s interest in learning and their linguistic development (Pohlmann and Kratzmann 2008; Pohlmann-Rother and Plehn 2010). Prior knowledge of numbers and letters as a pre-academic skill, in contrast, is considered less important by respondents (Pohlmann-Rother et al. 2011).

Whereas the ability to concentrate is unanimously named as the most important criterion, respondents differ in their weighting of the other criteria. Teachers believe that, for children starting school, social skills and an interest in learning are the second and third most important criteria. For parents and preschool teachers, in contrast, the child’s independence and its level of intellectual and cognitive development are more important. Parents think intellectual development is more relevant, whereas preschool teachers give more weight to independence. In addition, primary school teachers and preschool teachers attribute even less importance to knowledge of numbers and letters than parents (Pohlmann-Rother et al. 2011).

6.2 Parents’ School Entry Decisions

6.2.1 Early School Entry

The descriptive data of the BiKS-3-18 sample show that, in accordance with the findings of the education statistics presented in Sect. 3.2, girls more often started school early than boys, Hessian children more often than Bavarian children, and children from households with high levels of parental education more often than children from households with a low level of parental education (cf. Table 1).

To be able to make statements about relevant decision-making criteria and their role in the decision-making process, Kluczniok (2012) performed a quantitative study to examine the aspects in which parents who enrol their child in school early differ from parents who do not. It became clear that parents who enrol their child early hold higher expectations for their children’s academic achievement, have a more positive idea of school, and are better informed about school enrolment legislation. What matters most for parents preferring early school entry are child-related reasons (e.g. when the child is bored in preschool). Cost-benefit calculations and specific opportunity structures (e.g., the child should go to primary school with friends) play a subordinate role. The qualitative results deepen and complement these findings. For example, it becomes clear that parents who enrol their child early also justify their preference with the fact that their child was born close to the cut-off date. Other decision-making criteria include the child’s desire and interest in school. The advice and assessment of the child’s abilities provided by preschool teachers are another influential decision-making criterion (Faust et al. 2007; Pohlmann et al. 2009).

6.2.2 Delayed School Entry

In the BiKS-3-18 sample, boys were more often enrolled late than girls, Bavarian children more often than Hessian children, and children of parents with low educational qualifications more often than children of parents with high educational qualifications (cf. Table 1).

The criteria that parents use when deciding to delay school enrolment are revealed in a recent qualitative study by Wehner (2015). Parents who prefer delayed enrolment cite age as a main criterion, arguing that their child is ‘too young’ for school entry. When deciding whether their child is ready for school, parents consider the child’s general level of development and its interest in school. In general, parents who enrol their child in school late tend to adopt a deficit-based perspective towards their child, which focuses on the child’s developmental deficits (e.g., in social skills). This view is accompanied by an idea of school that is strongly narrowed to the aspect of academic achievement, which is prevalent among parents who delay their child’s school enrolment. Finally, the institutional conditions, such as the recommendations by preschool teachers, also have an influence on the school entry decision.

6.2.3 School Entry Decisions of Parents with a Turkish Migration Background

Whereas the rates of early and late enrolment were similar among children without a migration background in the BiKS-3-18 sample, children with a one-sided migration background (i.e., with one parent speaking a non-German first language) more often started school early rather than late. Among children with a migration background on both sides of the family, on the other hand, delayed enrolment occurred more often than early enrolment (see Table 1).

The criteria that parents with a Turkish migration background use when deciding when to enrol their children in school were examined in the study by Kratzmann (2011). The results show that child-related decision-making aspects, such as the child’s age and skills (e.g., German language skills) are among the most influential criteria. Parents with a Turkish migration background tend to oppose deferred school entry, because it is often seen as a social stigma. One reason for parents with a Turkish migrant background to send their children to school earlier or not to delay enrolment is the fact that German public primary schools do not charge fees. The thought that their child could start school with their friends or siblings also plays a role for parents with a Turkish migration background, as does the desire to find the best possible place for their child to receive support. In addition, Turkish immigrant parents are often dissatisfied with the pre-school support their child received in early childhood settings. Therefore, one reason why standard enrolment is sometimes preferred is that parents hope their child will find a more adequate supportive environment at primary school.

Education-related motives are also important for parents with a Turkish migration background when making their school entry decisions. Preferences for early school enrolment are primarily based on a child’s higher learning ability in early childhood and pragmatic motives such as the thought that children enrolled early will also complete their school career earlier. Almost all parents with a Turkish migration background express concern that educational opportunities for their children may be limited because of their migration background. Their own bilingualism is a main concern here, leading to a desire for German language support in preschools.

6.3 Outcomes of School Entry Decisions

To analyse the outcomes of the school entry decisions, we looked at two criteria: the development of a child’s skills from the last year of preschool to the second year of primary school and parents’ satisfaction with their decision over the first two years of school attendance.

When comparing children in the same year, the academic skills of children enrolled early are initially lower than those of their classmates who were enrolled at the standard age. This applies to both mathematical and linguistic skills. However, by the time they reach second grade, systematic differences are no longer found between children who started school early and those who started school at the standard age. In contrast, a comparison of children of the same age shows that those enrolled early achieve on average higher scores in numeracy through the first school year than their peers at the same time in their last year of preschool. These advantages also persist in the two subsequent years. With respect to linguistics skills, hardly any differences are found (Kratzmann et al. 2013).

The skills of children enrolled late are on average higher in the first year than those of children who were enrolled at the standard age. With regard to mathematical skills and passive vocabulary, this effect continues and becomes even stronger in the second year. When comparing children of the same age, children enrolled late achieve on average lower scores in mathematics and listening comprehension through their last year of preschool than their peers through their first year in primary school. No differences are found with regard to passive vocabulary, however (Kratzmann et al. 2013).

Our findings on children’s psychosocial stress do not suggest that children experience a school entry crisis. On all three scales (anxious-depressive behaviour, attention problems, physical complaints), the level is low even nine months before school entry. The changes over the first one and a half years show only very slight fluctuations. Only in the case of anxious-depressive behaviour there is a tendency towards significant change during the first year of school, indicating a decrease in stress. Moreover, the low values for physical complaints are especially worth mentioning, indicating that this type of problem occurs only very rarely during the transition to primary school (Faust et al. 2012).

With regard to parents’ satisfaction with their school entry decision, the analysis reveals three types of developmental trajectories. The first and largest group of parents (82.1%) is satisfied with their enrolment decision across all measurement points. The second and smallest group of parents (5.1%) is dissatisfied with their decision from the start. The third group of parents (12.8%) is initially satisfied but becomes increasingly dissatisfied with their decision over time. Predictors of satisfaction include the child’s sex (parents of boys are overrepresented in the group of those who are dissatisfied from the start) and the child’s linguistic and written language skills, as assessed by their preschool teachers. The child’s social-emotional characteristics (e.g., attention deficits) are relevant for parental satisfaction as well. The majority of parents (90%) would make the same school entry decision. Of those who would revise their decision, the majority would rather enrol their children at a later time point. Satisfaction with the decision was not systematically related to the time of enrolment (Kratzmann et al. 2013).

6.4 Cooperation Between Preschools and Primary Schools

Collaborative activities between preschools and primary schools are best described as low-intensity ‘exchanges’. Preschool teachers and primary school teachers report that school visits by preschool children are the most frequent cooperation practice, followed by the general exchange of information. More intensive forms of cooperation (e.g., joint professional development programmes), in contrast, are realized less frequently (Faust et al. 2011).

Generally, preschool teachers and primary school teachers believe that cooperation is important. Both groups attach particular importance to sharing not only general information but also specific information about each child’s strengths and weaknesses. They also strongly support joint parent counselling and school visits by preschool children. Whereas primary school teachers attribute the highest value to cooperation at the interprofessional level (e.g., joint teacher training), preschool teachers think that cooperation between the professions and collaborative activities at the children’s level (e.g., school visits by preschool children) are equally relevant. Overall, preschool teachers attach slightly more importance to cooperation than primary school teachers. Obstacles that can make cooperation more difficult include preschool teachers’ professional secrecy and primary school teachers’ fear of being prejudiced if they receive advance information about a child from its preschool teacher. A lack of time and the size of the primary school district are also named as obstacles (Faust et al. 2011).

Analyses of the effectiveness of cooperation show no positive effects of the exchange between preschool teachers and primary school teachers on the children’s ability to master the transition. The same is true of the children’s visits to each other’s institutions. This practice even had a negative influence on the children’s willingness to make an effort (Faust et al. 2012).

7 Discussion and Outlook

7.1 School Readiness and School Entry

In line with existing research (e.g., Hustedt et al. 2018; Niklas et al. 2018; Ring et al. 2016), our findings prove that parents, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers attach great importance to social-emotional skills as school readiness criteria. Likewise, the high value attributed to cognitive and linguistic skills, as documented in previous research (e.g., Altun 2018; Flender 2009; Kammermeyer 2000; Niklas et al. 2018; Wesley and Buysee 2003), is confirmed in the results of the BiKS-3-18 study (Pohlmann-Rother et al. 2011). Furthermore, again in line with existing research, our findings suggest that pre-academic skills tend to be a stronger indicator of school readiness in the eyes of parents than in the eyes of pedagogues (e.g., Piotrkowski et al. 2000). In addition, our analyses of the qualitative data show that, even though the eco-systemic model of school readiness is well-established in research, parents and educational professionals continue to be guided by criteria-based concepts that primarily define school readiness in terms of the child’s characteristics. There seems to be a need for intervention here, for instance by giving preschool teachers and primary school teachers the opportunity as part of their professional training to understand the importance of environmental factors for a child’s academic success.

Even though preschool teachers, primary school teachers, and parents think that social-emotional skills are significant school readiness criteria, a major contribution of social-emotional skills to the child experiencing successful school adjustment has not been proven (Duncan et al. 2007). Furthermore, despite the consensus on the school readiness criteria, it is unclear how these skills are understood in detail by each actor. Here too, following the eco-systemic model, exchanges between all actors should be strengthened and a shared understanding of school readiness criteria should be developed.

7.2 School Entry Decisions: Formation and Outcomes

The findings of the BiKS-3-18 study regarding the links between sex, social status, and migration background and parents’ school entry decisions are in line with previous studies (Kratzmann and Schneider 2009; Liebers 2011; Tuppat et al. 2016). Existing research results were also confirmed with regard to the decision-making processes and the criteria used by parents. Child-related aspects are found to be the central criteria (Donath et al. 2010; Liebers 2011; Tietze 1973). Whereas parents who enrol their child in school early highlight their child’s desire to learn and its interest in school, parents who delay their child’s enrolment emphasise their child’s existing deficits. In addition to these child-related criteria, parental attitudes towards school are found to be important.

In the sub-samples on early school enrolment, parents see school primarily as a place of support for their child. Parents who prefer late enrolment have a narrow view of school, conceiving of academic expectations as problematic. Preschools, in contrast, are seen as places for play and free development. This discrepancy – school as a demanding institution on the one hand and preschool as a ‘place of good childhood’ (Andresen et al. 2013) on the other hand – is a key moment for parents’ school entry decision. Their weighing of the costs and benefits and the expectations of success associated with a given choice is informed by their ideas of school-based learning and the associated attitudes towards child development. In particular, parents are anxious to find the right fit between perceived school requirements and the abilities and skills they see in their child. In this context, the focus of future interventions should be on parents’ ideas about school, their evolution, and the way the institutions involved in the transition influence these ideas. Possibly, the rather critical ideas of school among parents who prefer delayed school entry might be changed by facilitating more intensive encounters with schools and teachers. Dockett and Perry (2007) have already shown that this contributes to a more positive attitude towards the transition among parents.

The BiKS-3-18 findings show that age and children’s skills are influential criteria in the school entry decisions of parents with a Turkish migration background as well (Kratzmann 2011). For parents with a Turkish migration background, the fear of being discriminated in the education system also plays a special role in the decision: Whereas some Turkish-speaking parents want their child to start school as early as possible if they have the impression that their child does not receive adequate support in preschool, others hope that delayed school entry and hence extended preparation in preschool will improve their child’s opportunities and help them escape the expected discrimination in school. The child-centred educational arguments of Turkish-speaking parents reported by Rachner and Unger (1994) are thus also reflected in the BiKS-3-18 study. However, Turkish-speaking parents who prefer late enrolment for these reasons are not aware of the possibility of equating late enrolment with performance deficits, as claimed by the proponents of institutional discrimination (Gomolla and Radtke 2009), who argue that delayed school entry might work to diminish opportunities in the school system in the long term. The category ‘migration background’ was thus shown to be significant for parents’ school entry decisions in the BiKS-3-18 study. Concerns about educational disadvantages played an important role. Interventions should therefore be found that help reduce this fear. One possible starting point might be a diversity-aware pedagogical approach that could be incorporated into the curricula of preschool institutions and schools following the eco-systemic model of school readiness. However, further empirical evidence is needed to clarify the extent to which this type of pedagogy actually helps reduce fears of discrimination and contributes to the goal of equal educational opportunity in the long term.

Our findings on the success of enrolling children in school at a non-standard age were collected via skills assessments and subjective attitudes. Previous mixed findings on the skills development of children enrolled in school early and late may possibly be explained by different perspectives: When comparing children of the same age, those who start school early achieve higher skills than their peers who do not start school. When comparing children in the same grade in their first year of school, those enrolled early are found to have lower skills than their peers; that difference, however, disappears by the end of the second year. This is in line with previous research, which does not show any serious long-term problems in academic achievement for children enrolled early (Fina 2017; Seyda 2009). In contrast, children enrolled late show a disadvantage in the skills assessed when compared to children of the same age. Positive effects, on the other hand, can be found when comparing children in the same grade, and these positive effects become even stronger for some skills in the second year of school. Delayed school entry thus enables children to build additional skills, facilitating not only their school entry but also their subsequent primary school career. This contradicts most previous findings, which have tended to show no advantages in the development of academic skills (Hong and Raudenbush 2005; Jaekel et al. 2015). It is possible that the advantages balance each other out later in school.

Our findings on the outcomes of school entry decisions from the parents’ perspective revealed three types of parental satisfaction. The majority of parents were consistently satisfied with their enrolment decision. Relatively few parents were dissatisfied from the start or became so in the course of time. Their dissatisfaction was not related to the time of enrolment, but rather to child-related characteristics (Kratzmann et al. 2013). This result is in line with existing research on the prediction of successful school careers, which considers the child’s individual characteristics (e.g., academic skills) to be central (Duncan et al. 2007). The idea that school entry is a crisis event, as proposed in the transition approach, could not be confirmed. Rather, the BiKS-3-18 results suggest that syndromes remain stable; new difficulties arising from the transition could not be found.

The BiKS-3-18 results suggest that the school entry decision should not be based on timing alone. Successful school entry seems to depend less on a short-term decision than on longer-term developmental conditions and processes. In future, the focus should be on specific groups, such as children with multiple disadvantages. There is also a need for more long-term studies of school entry decisions that go beyond the primary school years and are not only retrospective in scope.

As a general principle, the individuality of each child and its family must be taken into account when making school entry decisions. One limitation of the BiKS-3-18 sample is that all children were born close to the cut-off date, which meant that the issue of early or delayed enrolment was more strongly on parents’ minds.

7.3 Cooperation Between Preschools and Primary Schools

The BiKS-3-18 results on the prevalence of various forms of cooperation between preschools and primary schools are in line with existing research (e.g., Hanke et al. 2013; Meyer-Siever 2015). Less intensive forms of cooperation are practised extensively, especially school visits by preschool children. More intensive forms of cooperation, however, take place less frequently. Based on our findings, we were able to add to existing research by identifying some factors that are essential for the formation of collaborative structures. For example, the attitudes of preschool teachers and primary school teachers towards cooperation emerged as one influential factor. Current studies suggest the existence of further factors influencing cooperation between preschools and primary schools. Meyer-Siever (2015) concludes that professional experience among preschool teachers and primary school teachers has a positive effect on their desire for cooperation; among primary school teachers, it also has a positive effect on how they perceive cooperation practices that have actually taken place.

The results of the BiKS-3-18 study on the effectiveness of individual cooperation practices are also consistent with the findings of previous research. As proposed in earlier studies (Ahtola et al. 2011; LoCasale-Crouch et al. 2008), our results also question the positive effects of less intensive forms of cooperation on the development of children’s skills at the beginning of school (Faust et al. 2012).

Future research on this issue should take a closer look at the intensity and quality of individual formats of cooperation (including domain-specific formats) and analyse their effects on students’ skills development over the course of their primary school years.