For many parents, a child’s completion of kindergarten is a milestone that represents the foundation of formal education. Over many decades, theorists and researchers have attempted to identify the best circumstances that maximize early learning. Therefore, the age at which children enter kindergarten has been a topic of considerable debate. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a relatively late kindergarten entry age cutoff date of December 1 on the development of children’s reading skills during their first year of schooling. Additionally, the relationship between student age and gender on literacy achievement was investigated. Archival data was used for the current study, which represented scores from a standardized literacy assessment. Two-way multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) were conducted to test for significant differences between group means as well as an interaction effect between age and gender. Results revealed that age had a statistically significant impact on initial literacy performance, but not growth over the course of the school year. There was no evidence of a statistically significant interaction between kindergarten entry age and gender, nor did gender have a statistically significant impact on literacy achievement. Overall, findings demonstrate that while school entry age did put younger kindergarten students at an initial academic disadvantage, it dissipated over time as they demonstrated typical skill growth.