This article examines the age position debate concerning the school performance of intellectually gifted students who have started school on time (as opposed to early or delayed entrants). All students in this study (grades 2–8) had obtained a minimum score of 129 on the Cognitive Abilities Test (Thorndike & Hagan, 1986). Dependent measures included performance on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (Hieronymous, Hoover, & Linquest, 1986), teacher checklists of classroom behavior and handwriting skill. Data were obtained for two groups: older students (with birthdates in the four months immediately following the legal cutoff school entrance date) and younger students (with birthdates in the four months immediately preceding that date). Data analysis (ANOVA) did reveal a significant but nonmeaningful difference between older and younger groups in academic achievement and no significant differences in classroom behavior or visual-motor skill, thus refuting findings of earlier studies on this issue.
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