redshirting ( academic )
research on academic redshirting suggests that in the short term, redshirting has largely positive effects. these include :
as the los angeles times reported in 2006, results for academic redshirting have been a mixed bag .
according to lilian katz from her article, “academic redshirting and young children, ” redshirting has been traditionally common in affluent neighborhood and for children attending private schools .
the concept behind academic redshirting is that withholding a child from school one year will allow them to mature and have physical, social, and academic advantages over the younger children in the classroom .
academic redshirting refers to postponing entrance into kindergarten for age - eligible children. much like redshirting in sports, the idea is that holding children back allows extra time for socioemotional, intellectual or physical growth .
at this point, academic redshirting will not hurt or help a child. even the college version doesn’t mean the athlete will become success or failure in the next season or beyond. still, both forms of redshirting have helped some achieve while hindering others .
redshirting may be declining, as more colleges increase the number of freshmen playing .
thus redshirting — the practice of delaying the start of kindergarten — was born .
the negatives part of academic redshirting seems to show up when examining its long - term effect. according to katz, adolescents who had been redshirted were more likely to have behavioral problems than their classmates .
no evidence that redshirting is being used less or more frequently. about 9% of
bassok, daphna and reardon, sean. “academic redshirting” in kindergarten: prevalence, patterns, and implications” american educational research association, 35: 283 (2013): 283 - 297. web. 13. april. 2014 .
... redshirting has been traditionally common in affluent neighborhood and for children attending private schools .
still, other studies suggest that there are no negative effects in the long - term. again, the data and studies made from them don’t paint a distinct picture of the positives and negatives of academic redshirting. as the los angeles times reported in 2006, results for academic redshirting have been a “mixed bag. ” all studies - including a federal study that included 21, 000 youngsters in may of 2006 - failed to definitively to show if it worked or not .
research on redshirting has so far failed to provide a clear picture of its short - and long - term effects. some studies have examined the effects of redshirting that occur immediately or within the early elementary years. others have examined its long - term effects. proponents and opponents of redshirting often use the same evidence but reach opposite conclusions. it is therefore unclear whether redshirting solves problems of school readiness .
redshirting arose, by name, as a public issue in the early 1980’s and since, studies have shown that redshirting has steadily increased in the past three decades. there is no single explanation for what caused the shift, but there have been many factors that influenced the increase in redshirting. redshirting has also come with consequences, causing a greater disparity of knowledge in kindergarten and changes in school curricula .
i can keep going with the studies showing negative effects of redshirting if anyone is interested... .
further, the authors cite research to claim that the opposite may be true and that younger students actually have steeper academic gains from learning with older students .
1 - it puts the child' s academic achievement —math, reading, general knowledge — and conduct on par with or above that of younger classmates .
rates of redshirting vary, and in fact, according to the atlantic, the perception of how common redshirting is may be overblown. but parents may be more likely to hold kids back a grade if it appears that redshirting is the norm — and if they believe that their child could actually be at a disadvantage starting kindergarten on time .
long term: there is no direct evidence that redshirting causes either harm or benefit in the teen years. one study did find, however, that when adolescents were old for their grade due to redshirting, they misbehaved more .
when i was 4 years old, my parents faced a decision. my birthday is in late november, so should they send me to kindergarten as the youngest kid in my class? or, wait another year to enroll me? — a practice referred to as academic redshirting .
. in 2016 the ncaa starts enforcing new, stricter admissions requirements for incoming freshman athletes. under these new rules, a student - athlete who meets the school' s own academic admission requirements, but does not meet the ncaa' s new requirements (primarily a 2. 3 gpa in 4 years) can enter school as an academic redshirt. this student can receive an athletic scholarship and practice with the team, but may not participate in competition. an academic redshirt does not lose a year of eligibility, but can take a later injury redshirt. academic redshirts must complete nine credit hours in their first semester and can participate fully in the second year .
kathryn debros reports on studies that suggest redshirting kindergartners may not give them the competitive edge that parents think it does .
despite evidence suggesting that redshirting may do more harm than good, the practice continues to gain traction in some communities .
in this new academic kindergarten, math stations have replaced sand tables, and fitting in time for recess is an ongoing struggle. focusing less on the development of social skills and more on the development of academic skills represents a seismic shift in the traditional purpose of the kindergarten year, and one that can prove harmful to many students .
a child held back from starting kindergarten for one year, the practice of which is believed by some parents to give the child academic, athletic, and social advantages .
the practice of academic redshirting—delaying entrance to kindergarten by a year—is weighing on my mind this month as we' re deciding whether to register my youngest child, with a late - september birthday, for kindergarten next year. (while kindergarten cutoff dates around the country vary as widely as july 31st to
parents are not the only ones who' ve expressed their opinions on the matter. teachers have indicated some support for academic redshirting. according to a national survey published in 1998 (ncedl), kindergarten teachers indicated that 48% of their students were not ready for the rigors and curriculum of this grade .
thinking of waiting a year to enroll your child in kindergarten? these researchers say, don' t: npr ed academic redshirting, the practice of holding kids back a year before enrolling them in kindergarten, has been debated for years. a new article attempts to clear up some of the confusion for parents .
the new york times: kindergarten ‘redshirting’ gets tougher in n. y. c. , with repercussions -
the issue here isn’t about the haves and have - nots. it’s about flaws in the system. making kindergarten mandatory is a good thing. now let’s advocate for changing the admission cutoff date and lightening the academic load. with these two problems solved, the contentious issue of redshirting could finally, happily, be laid to rest .
some claim that parents redshirt their kids not because their kids aren’t ready for school, but because holding them out might give them an academic, social, and athletic edge over their peers .
they call it “redshirting, ” like college athletes kept on the bench until they’re bigger, stronger. except it' s “academic redshirting” - for kindergarten kids. five - year - olds held out of starting school – kindergarten - until they’re six. maybe it’s because they’re a little slow in maturing. maybe their parents imagine they’ll be the big kingpin in the class, the star of the soccer team. research is decidedly mixed on whether it works. but it’s spreading. and it’s controversial. this hour, on point: redshirting kindergarteners, for a bigger, older start of school. - tom ashbrook
arguments for redshirting abound in academic journals, opinion pages, and parenting forums; arguments attempting to debunk those those theories are almost just as widespread. on top of a slew of academic studies, it’s been the subject of multiple posts in the new york times “motherlode” blog, as well as the wall street journal, slate, and abc’s good morning america, among others. the huffington post even has an entire landing page devoted to the topic. it’s clear parents (and educators and economists and policymakers) want a verdict on the merits of the practice .
but research on redshirting suggests that the benefits are tempered by the costs, from an extra year of childcare for parents to a year less in the workforce for kids. even the size of the benefits is up for debate. for that reason, many education experts and economists are wary of redshirting .
the two recently published an article on the emotional and economic toll that redshirting can have on students, despite all its praise from writers like malcolm gladwell .
so, is there any research that suggests redshirting is helpful? yes—but again, this research does not actually tell us much about redshirting. elizabeth dhuey, an economist at the university of toronto at scarborough, has published a number of studies suggesting that the older kids are in a class, the better they fare academically, the more leadership roles they have in high school, and the more likely they are to attend elite universities —pretty much exactly the opposite of what the redshirting studies show. but even though her work has been used to support redshirting, “my findings relate only to a child’s age relative to their classmates—not the act of redshirting, ” dhuey explains. “these are different things altogether. ” because dhuey’s work pools the impact of natural age differences across the school year—comparing how kids born in may fare to kids born in december—it’s dishonest to cite her work as evidence that redshirting itself is helpful, even though there were probably some redshirters in her samples .
also, many teachers indicated that half their students lacked important skills, including following directions, academic skills, and the ability to work independently (katz, 2000). however, it’s not the teacher who ultimately makes the decision .
safer, morley. “redshirting: holding kids back from kindergarten. ” cbs. n. p. , n. d. web. 6 apr. 2014 .
in the article, you write that redshirting can even have a financial effect on students — an $ 80, 000 decrease in earnings. can you elaborate on that ?
what redshirting means for individual kids is tough to determine. some studies find that redshirted kids are academically on par with their classmates. others detect a slight academic boost. a 2005 study by the rand corporation, for example, found that kids who delayed entry by a year scored 6 points higher than their classmates on standardized math tests and 5 points higher on reading tests, an effect that persisted to first grade .
what’s more, a growing body of research suggests that redshirted kids might not enjoy benefits over the long run, anyway. a 2007 paper for the national bureau of economic research argues that “contrary to much academic and popular discussion of school entry age—being old relative to one’s peers is not beneficial. ” (also, unpublished research from 2012 found that the advantages of redshirting “fade out and appear to reverse by eighth grade. ” )
one of my best friends has a son who turned 5 two days after scott. she and her husband are high school and middle school science teachers, and both of them believe that holding their son back will do nothing but benefit his academic future .
schmidt, michelle. “kindergarten ‘redshirting’: a leg up or an unfair advantage? ” sparkpeople. n. p. , n. d. web. 06 apr. 2014 .
also, it appears more frequently among boys and for those born in the latter half of the year (between september and december) than with those girls or those born earlier in a year. also, the statistics from nces reveals that more white families than any other ethnicity will use academic redshirting. parental concerns play a crucial role. in most cases, it’s a judgment call. still, other factors may play a role in this decision .
immediate effects. research on academic redshirting suggests that in the short term, redshirting (1) raises the child' s academic achievement (math, reading, general knowledge) and conduct on par with or above that of younger classmates (west, denton, & germino - hausken, 2000); (2) increases the child' s confidence in social interactions and popularity among classmates (spitzer et al. , 1995); and (3) may simply add to the normal mix of ages and abilities within the classroom. however, there is also some speculation that, in classes where there are children who have been redshirted, some older children may feel alienated from their younger classmates, and some older classmates may have an unfair advantage over younger classmates in size and in psychomotor and social skills. the presence of children of a wider age span may also make the class too diverse for a teacher to manage well .
athletes may be asked to redshirt if they would have little or no opportunity to play as an academic freshman. this is a common occurrence in many sports where there is already an established starter, or too much depth at the position the freshman in question plans to play .
proponents of redshirting argue that there is no definitive evidence that redshirting harms children in the long term. however some researchers found that adolescents whose school entry was delayed exhibit more behavioral problems than their peers. redshirters also have higher use of special education programs. this leads some researchers to speculate that many children who are redshirted as kindergartners may have had special needs that were misdiagnosed as immaturity .
adding to my overall discomfort with the practice of redshirting is this: it' s an option for those with the resources to do it. research from connecticut' s department of education shows a redshirting rate of just 2 percent in poorer districts, and 27 percent in wealthier ones. one california study showed parents who redshirted their kids earned 40 percent more than those who don' t .
aliprantis, dionissi. “redshirting, compulsory schooling laws, and educational attainment” american educational research association, 37: 316 (2012): 316 - 338. web. 14. april. 2014 .
indeed, many studies have found that redshirted kids lose their head start over time, some as early as third grade. the university of illinois' lubotsky looked at kids in kindergarten through eighth grade and found that older kids maintained a slight academic gain throughout elementary and middle school .
the term redshirt freshman indicates an academic sophomore (second - year student) who is in his first season of athletic eligibility. a redshirt freshman is distinguished from a true freshman (first - year student) as one who has practiced with the team for the prior season. the term redshirt sophomore is also commonly used to indicate an academic junior (third - year student) who is in the second season of athletic eligibility. after the sophomore year, the term redshirt is rarely used, in favor of fourth - year junior and fifth - year senior .
redshirting borrows its name from a college sports euphemism for athletes sitting out a year and prolonging their eligibility, so that they will be older, larger and stronger when they finally do take the field .
some context: like private school, redshirting is most prevalent among white, asian, and relatively wealthy families. here’s 2010 data from the national center for education statistics on the percentages of kids delaying kindergarten :
yet some experts say that redshirting can be extremely appropriate and helpful for certain kids, and they aren’t convinced by the research pooh - poohing the practice. that’s because the impact of redshirting is very difficult to evaluate, as kids who are held back are fundamentally different in many ways from kids who go to kindergarten on time, so the conclusions of some studies might be flawed. and even if redshirting might not be beneficial when effects are averaged, there could be a subset of kids who really benefit from the extra “ gift of time. ” but before i get into that, let me summarize some of the studies .
the practice, called redshirting — from the term for allowing college athletes to delay participation in sports to prolong their eligibility — also has a connection to children’s sports. as sports - minded parents know, physical maturity allows older children to perform better. coaches often mistake this difference for natural aptitude and respond by giving the older children on their t - ball or soccer teams more opportunities to improve their skills. and those athletes tend to gain a lasting competitive advantage. does a similar approach work for academic achievement ?
they don’t do redshirting here (that i’m aware of) … although to be honest, whenever i see that term i think in terms of star trek. kinda the opposite effect than what you’re describing: )
over time, i think the effect of being in school becomes more dominant than your age effect ,
datar told livescience .
so one might expect that these [ redshirting ] effects might fade off .
sorry, don’t know why i’m rambling about that. but i’m a big advocate for the “redshirting” now. i will not hesitate to do it with my other children if i have to, especially after this experience .
no one disputes the immediate results of “redshirting, ” a phrase borrowed from the sports world. six - year - olds categorically test better than five - year - olds in kindergarten, and they enjoy greater social and physical maturity that helps them make friends and win at tag. but there’s a growing debate about the effectiveness of redshirting in the long term—not only for the kids held back, but for their peers, as well .
still, there are limited instances where redshirting provides benefits for students, according to schanzenbach and larson. in instances of illness or trauma, students may benefit developmentally from having time to recover before being placed in the classroom .
some families also have concern about changing the spacing in school years between siblings, especially when the older child is only one grade ahead of the younger child and a redshirting decision would place both children in the same grade .
apparently, the term redshirting is some sports metaphor when they would put a redshirt on a jv and let him play with the varsity team but the varsity players were not to hit the kid. the result is that the redshirted younger players had an unfair advantage. they redshirt quarterbacks at practices today. [ and additional definition from my dad: “red shirting” as it is understood in sports today is having a player practice but not play, retaining a year of eligibility. so the expression “red shirt freshman” would be an academic sophmore who was red shirted the previous year. ] redshirting in this context is holding your school - aged child back an extra year, and starting them in kindergarten at the age of 6 (or first grade at the age of 7) .
ultimately, at the core of the argument over redshirting are questions about how children learn. do they develop social and cognitive skills according to automatic internal clocks that are unaffected by environmental influences—which would suggest that kids become ready to learn on their own time? or do kids develop key learning skills based on their interactions with others and how stimulating their environments are—which would suggest that redshirting harms the children who could benefit from kindergarten the most? no one knows for sure .
effects in grades 1 - 3. researchers have observed other effects of redshirting within the first three years of elementary school, including (1) academic achievement that is nearly equal to that of their grade - level peers (west, meek, & hurst, 2000), (2) a lower likelihood of receiving
negative feedback from teachers about their academic performance or conduct in class
( cromwell, 1998; west, meek, & hurst, 2000), and (3) less need for special education than classmates who were retained as kindergartners (kundert et al. , 1995; may et al. , 1995). however, there is also evidence that some first - through third - graders who were redshirted as children required greater use of special education services than their non - redshirted and non - retained classmates (graue & diperna, in press; may et al. , 1995) .
in united states college athletics, redshirt is a delay or suspension of an athlete' s participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. typically, a student' s athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, a number derived from the four years of academic classes that are normally required to obtain a bachelor' s degree at an american college or university. however, in a redshirt year, student athletes may attend classes at the college or university, practice with an athletic team, and dress for play but may not compete in games. using this mechanism, a student athlete has up to five academic years to use the four years of eligibility, thus becoming a fifth - year senior .
the schools usually don' t allow children who have not completed 5 years of age at the time of admissions to first grade class. so, those born in the later half of the year naturally get detained for the next year. this makes the child elder than other students in his class when he joins the school at the commencement of the next academic year .
i’ve kept in touch with many of these women on facebook. now that all of our “september babies” are turning five (despite scott being born in july, he is still one of the “september babies”) i’ve noticed a major tendency to discuss redshirting the kids .
diperna, james and graue, elizabeth. “redshirting and early retention: who gets the ‘gift of time’ and what are its outcomes? ” american educational research journal, 37. 2 (2000): 509 - 534. web. 15. april. 2014 .
in this era of hypercompetitive parenting, more families are choosing to delay their children’s entry into kindergarten, under the impression that the kids will have an academic and social advantage. in fact, a 2008 study by harvard researchers claims that since the late 1960s, the number of six - year - olds in first grade has dropped by 9 percent because they are increasingly likely to be enrolled in kindergarten .
another negative part of redshirting deals with students with special needs. the study seems to indicate that redshirted youths who later ended up in special education may have been misdiagnosed as being immature, and were redshirted for this reason. as a result, they missed a chance at early and direct intervention
one small but important spelling point: learn when to write “parents” versus “parents’ “ (with the apostrophe, which shows plural possession, something that belongs to all of the parents). contrast these examples: parents may not have come up with the idea. parents’ ideas about redshirting have changed .
we use two nationally representative data sets to estimate the prevalence of kindergarten
redshirting
—the decision to delay a child’s school entry. we find that between 4% and 5. 5% of children delay kindergarten, a lower number than typically reported in popular and academic accounts. male, white, and high - ses children are most likely to delay kindergarten, and schools serving larger proportions of white and high - income children have far higher rates of delayed entry. we find no evidence that children with lower cognitive or social abilities at age 4 are more likely to redshirt, suggesting parents’ decisions to delay entry may be driven by concerns about children’s relative position within a kindergarten cohort. implications for policy are discussed .
if questions arise about a child' s social or academic readiness, parents should turn to a professional for advice, said donald easton - brooks, a professor of education at the university of north texas. in the absence of a diagnosable problem, most kids will do fine in school, he said, especially if they' ve gone to preschool or had lots of opportunities to develop their social skills during play - dates .
until more - conclusive research emerges, well - meaning parents are likely to continue redshirting their children. and depending on the individual child, that could be the right choice. but as harvard researcher david deming says, it’s crucial that parents “make a decision with the whole life course in mind. ”
not surprisingly, some parents are turning to “redshirting” when it’s time for kindergarten: delaying their children’s entrance by a year, a practice once reserved for college athletes seeking a competitive advantage. some schools have even supported such an approach by moving their “cut - off” dates to september, or even to june .
the term
redshirting
originally referred to postponing the start of a college athlete' s participation in games for one year to give him extra time to grow and practice with the team, hopefully improving a player' s skills for future seasons. but college athletes aren' t the only ones who can redshirt .
slate: can your kid hack it in kindergarten? -
the practice has become even more controversial in recent years over claims that some parents do it for the wrong reasons: they redshirt their kids not because their kids aren’t ready for school, but because, in the age of parenting as competitive sport, holding them out might give them an academic, social, and athletic edge over their peers .
the wall street journal: should children be held back for kindergarten? -
according to the national center for education statistics, some 6% of kindergartners are redshirted nationally. but the numbers can vary by neighborhood. data from connecticut' s department of education show the incidence of redshirting ranging from 2% in poorer school districts to 27% in wealthier ones .
on the surface, redshirting seems to make sense in the academic realm, too. the capabilities of a child’s brain increase at a rapid pace; the difference between five - year - olds and six - year - olds is far greater than between twenty - five - year - olds and twenty - six - year - olds. an extra year can allow a child to excel relative to the younger students in the class. “especially for boys, there is thought to be a relative - age effect that persists across sports and over time, ” said friedman. “early investment of time and skill developments appears to have a more lasting impact. ” older students and athletes are often found in leadership positions—and who can doubt the popularity of the star quarterback relative to the gym - class weakling ?
the trend seems to be to have kids start later without much thought to the cost versus the benefits ,
said darren lubotsky, an economist at university of illinois at urbana - champaign who has studied redshirting .
there might be some benefits, but there' s a really big cost to kids starting later .
there are also several factors that most researchers agree call into question the efficacy of redshirting. if children with late birthdays are very bright, they may be bored if held back simply because they are chronologically young. if older upon entrance, they may also have difficulty relating to younger classmates, and may be found intimidating by them .
so, while it may not clear up the redshirting debate, the new research might help spur the socially conscious parent to resist the temptation to redshirt—on the grounds that doing so is not only unnecessary but can put educational attainment further out of reach for the child’s less - fortunate peers. maybe the outliers is right in “drawing attention to [ the ] ways in which individual success is interdependent within an ‘ecology’ of others’ activities, ” suggest kniffin and hanks. but it’s far from clear whether relative age has much to bear on a child’s future success. and absent a consensus, it may be best to hold off on redshirting, if only in the interest of playing it safe .
this essay asks a provocative set of questions about the rise of “redshirting” practices in public education and their frequency, factors, and larger consequences. the introductory thesis tells us that the issue arose in the 1980s and its practice has increased over time, but a richer introduction would lay out the types of factors that contributed to this shift, to help frame the rest of the essay for readers. for example, a stronger thesis might have argued that redshirting has been caused by a combination of state & district fears about standardized testing and parental fears about child retention, and may have greater consequences for lower - income families, since these three large ideas appear in the body of the essay .
in fact, redshirting could mean that a preschool - educated 6 - year - old is learning alongside a low - income 4 - year - old who’s never stepped foot in a classroom—a kid whose vocabulary may be 30 - million words smaller than her wealthier peers. even if that 6 - year - old was indeed a little “underdeveloped” at age 5, delaying his entry into school could contribute to the kind of incongruity that fuels detrimental discrepancies in achievement—gaps that expand and evolve over time. the society for research in child development reported in 2002 that, notwithstanding some evidence in favor of redshirting, doing so may be “disadvantageous for low - income children, who already begin school with relatively poor cognitive skills. ”
there’s also the fact that kids are sometimes redshirted because they have behavior or learning problems that parents mislabel as immaturity— i’m sure kalee’s tendency to throw chairs at adults will go away once she turns 6, so we’ll just wait a year. this could explain why redshirted kids often need special education services and also why they’re more likely to drop out of school and not go to college. in other words, redshirting might not actually increase the risk of these problems—it may just be a sign of existing problems. yet redshirting these types of kids “can in fact make the problems worse, in that the child’s access to support is delayed as the family and school wait for maturity to kick in, ” graue says .
boys are definitely wired differently from girls from the get go although that doesn’t mean that girls don’t benefit from redshirting as well. my eldest daughter probably would have been better with another year at home for maturity reasons although she has always loved school (social aspect) and yet her younger brother’s birthday is 3 days earlier and he’s done great and really has blossomed .
chances are, this wasn' t a big deal when you were small. for decades, a child who turned five within a calendar year was generally accepted into kindergarten in september. as long as you turned five by around december 1, you started school along with everyone else. but that was also when kindergarten was not the academic place it is now. while a successful year in 1978 may have meant mastering blocks and paint, today it includes handling pencil, paper, books, and playground rules, too .
huang in particular offers compelling data against the practice of redshirting. according to his study, redshirted students are more likely to be placed in special education programs or have behavior or substance abuse issues. students who were relatively old for their grade because of redshirting were described as less engaged in school, and had lower rates of homework completion, lower scores on standardized tests, and a higher likelihood of dropping out of high school. compare this to students who were relatively young for their grade, who were described as valuing school more, with better attendance rates. in fact, according to a 2007 study from the national bureau of economic research, there’s evidence to suggest that kids may perform better when they are in classes with older students .
it should be pointed out that ‘reshirt’ has been extended to apply to providing an extra year of eligibility in non - sports, but still mostly in school situations ‘to get them eligibility for additional schooling: under the redshirt plan, special education students could extend their high school program by at least one year. ’— learning disabilities association newsbriefs; ‘a student who successfully completes the program should be prepared to enter directly into the college engineering curriculum. further information on our redshirt program options can be obtained from the school of engineering office of academic programs .
the practice has become even more controversial in recent years over claims that some parents do it for the wrong reasons: they redshirt their kids not because their kids aren’t ready for school, but because, in the age of parenting as competitive sport, holding them out might give them an academic, social, and athletic edge over their peers. if little delia is the star of kindergarten, they scheme, maybe she’ll ride the wave all the way to harvard. gaming the system this way, of course, puts other kids at a disadvantage .
the economic and academic disparities widen when we consider that many students don’t have access to kindergarten — redshirted or not — at all. even though it’s optional in 35 states, kindergarten provides an important year for exposing kids to key concepts that will prepare them for first grade. in kindergarten, kids learn basic reading, writing, and math, as well as certain social skills and habits, like sitting still and following directions, that help children become successful students. because of its importance, kids are at a definite disadvantage if they don’t attend .
because families who wait before sending their kids to kindergarten tend to be relatively affluent, they can often afford an extra year of preschool. in practice, then, a child who is 6 years old could end up in the classroom with a child who is 4 years old. unsurprisingly, the older student would likely score higher on standardized tests, a pattern that would make redshirting appear to work .
in the midst of what feels like a wealth of data, it’s still difficult to parse out some of the key effects of redshirting. there is a difference between a child who is relatively old for a particular grade and a child whose parents have expressly delayed the start of kindergarten. redshirting can send a message to a child that, right from the start, achievement is the top priority, and the parents don’t think she is good enough to be in a grade with her peers. if children are kept from school because they don’t meet a parent’s expectation for what a kindergartner should look like, they may miss the opportunity to develop the skills they need at the appropriate time. and if a student does have a developmental delay, then access to individualized educational support services should be provided sooner rather than later .
the emphasis on high - stakes testing of education - reform initiatives such as no child left behind exacerbated what researchers in 1988 identified as escalating academic demand in kindergarten classrooms. in part because of those public - policy changes, though also because of fiscal incentives and mindset changes, more and more states started moving up their cutoff dates. in 1975, just nine states required students to be 5 by the start of the school year; by 2005, the number had grown to 33. data from 2008 shows that 17 percent of children entering kindergarten that year were 6 years or older .
of course, the goal of this article was to try and present more information so that parents feel equipped to make the decision that they think is best for their kid. certainly, we don' t think never redshirting is the right idea, but we did think it was going to be useful to provide additional info, especially to the type of parent who wants to understand [ what the data shows. ]
parents who want to give their young children an academic advantage have a powerful tool: school itself. in a large - scale study at 26 canadian elementary schools, first graders who were young for their year made considerably more progress in reading and math than kindergartners who were old for their year (but just two months younger). in another large study, the youngest fifth - graders scored a little lower than their classmates, but five points higher in verbal i. q. , on average, than fourth - graders of the same age. in other words, school makes children smarter .
my brother - in - law is a high school math teacher. he’s been a high school math teacher for longer than i’ve been a parent. his son was born two weeks after scott, and they’re redshirting him. he told us that he sees the difference in boys’ math scores between the older and younger boys, and the difference is major enough often enough for him to be a proponent of boys being older when they enter school .
one small point about evidence: you claim that redshirting “has become a recent phenomenon, with scarce mention before the early 1970’s, ” but never explain how you know this to be true. recall that in class, we conducted searches for the phrase in education index retrospective, a database of education journal articles from the 1920s - 1983, and found only one instance. a richer essay would have explained this as evidence of the rise of the term .
in his analysis, gladwell overstates the benefits of redshirting to some degree ,
the article reads .
in fact, a balanced look at the research suggests that while children derive a short - term gain from being redshirted, that advantage dissipates quickly over time .
it notes that while a year marks a huge proportion of a 5 - year - old' s life, it is a less significant amount of time for an 18 - year - old .
researchers discovered that relatively more mature students didn’t have an academic edge; instead, when they looked at their progress at the end of kindergarten, and, later, when they reached middle school, they were worse off in multiple respects. not only did they score significantly lower on achievement tests—both in kindergarten and middle school—they were also more likely to have been kept back a year by the time they reached middle school, and were less likely to take college - entrance exams. the less mature students, on the other hand, experienced positive effects from being in a relatively more mature environment: in striving to catch up with their peers, they ended up surpassing them .
curious john, they had to pick some color or shirt design to distinguish them from the herd and maybe red was as good as any. also, i wouldn’t necessarily say that redshirting applies mostly to football. ‘the redshirt year was created largely to give football and basketball players an extra year to mature — usually taken advantage of by freshmen. ’ [ august 2002, on a proposal to throw out the ncaa redshirt rule and allow athletes to play for 5 full years ]
redshirting (as term is often known) derives its name from a common practice in college athletic programs, in which, a college athlete postpones - - or is chosen to postpone - - his / her participation in regular season games for one year in order to further practice and prepare with the team. this is done in hopes preserving a year of eligibility to play collegiate sports, as well as to improve his / her skills for future seasons (katz, 2000) .
perhaps the most concerning aspect of redshirting, at least in my experience, is that, in retrospect, it is often done disproportionately to children with undiagnosed special needs who at the time were judged to be developmentally behind, but in fact were in need of special education services, not another year to mature. children with learning disabilities who are redshirted or retained in kindergarten lose any accrued benefit very quickly and are then simply older children with special needs that still must be addressed .
athletes may also use a
grayshirt
year in which they attend school, but cannot enroll as a full - time student, and do not receive a scholarship for that year. this means that they are an unofficial member of the team and do not participate in practices, games, or receive financial assistance from their athletic department. typically, grayshirts are players who are injured right before college and require an entire year to recuperate. rather than waste the redshirt, the player can attend school as a part - time regular student and join the team later. this is also used by players with religious or military obligations that keep them out of school for a full academic year .
as with research on the early benefits of redshirting, research on long - term benefits is mixed. one 2006 study published in the quarterly journal of economics looked at age at kindergarten entrance in an international sample of children and found the youngest kids in each grade lagged behind in test scores through eighth grade, though the gap shrank over time. the researchers also found that the oldest kids in each grade were about 10 percent more likely to go to a four - year college than younger peers .
there are several factors at play here, including the traditional wisdom, backed up by research, that shows little boys to be particularly fidgety in kindergarten. that said, the most striking disparity is also the most worrying. for families earning the least in this country, redshirting is cost - prohibitive (pdf). as higher - income families delay their kids’ kindergarten entry, children from lower - income families end up “competing” against older and more - prepared classmates—at a crucial time for learning and development .
the first athlete known to extend his eligibility in the modern era of redshirting was warren alfson of the university of nebraska in 1937. alfson requested that he be allowed to sit out his sophomore season due to the number of experienced players ahead of him. in addition, he had not started college until several years after graduating from high school, and thus felt he needed more preparation. the year off worked; alfson was all - big six conference in 1939 and an all - american guard in 1940 .
but schools enjoy the higher - averaged standardized test scores achieved by older students. this is troubling, because the more affluent middle - and upper - middle - class school districts have parents who can financially afford the extra year of childcare that comes with the territory of redshirting, while districts comprised of poorer families have parents who can' t afford to make the same advantageous decisions for their children. this obviously increases the achievement gap between wealthier and poorer school districts, a divide that also often falls along racial lines .
when the harvard sociologist hilary levey friedman was expecting her first child, one thing worried her: her due date, january 3rd. it was uncomfortably close to january 1st, an often - used age cutoff for enrollment in academics and sports. “i was determined to keep him in until after january 1st, ” she said. and if the baby came early? “i actively thought about redshirting, ” she said. given the choice, she wanted him to be the oldest kid in his class, not the youngest .
teachers may encourage redshirting because more mature children are easier to handle in the classroom and initially produce better test scores than their younger classmates. in a class of 25, the average difference is equivalent to going from 13th place to 11th. this advantage fades by the end of elementary school, though, and disadvantages start to accumulate. in high school, redshirted children are less motivated and perform less well. by adulthood, they are no better off in wages or educational attainment — in fact, their lifetime earnings are reduced by one year .
it' s easy to see what the states are up to: they' re worried about test scores, and they figure that older kids plus academic kindergarten will produce better ones. but this approach turns out to be extremely shortsighted, according to new research by david deming of harvard' s kennedy school of government and susan dynarski of the university of michigan. the authors find that starting kindergarten late correlates with dropping out of high school and earning less afterward .
there is substantial evidence that entering school later reduces educational attainment (by increasing high school drop out rates) and depresses lifetime earnings (by delaying entry into the job market) ,
the authors write. also ,
recent stagnation in the high school and college completion rates of young people is partly explained by their later start in primary school .
let me answer you with an anecdote. when stephanie and i were writing — this was back in december and january — at the time, my daughter is finishing up preschool and going to start kindergarten the next year. we were not thinking about redshirting her, but the thought crossed my mind because she was not talking. it was very upsetting that she wasn' t talking, and we had taken her to speech therapy and that didn' t really go anywhere. she just wouldn' t talk. and between january and today, some switch has flipped in her .
benefits or not, kindergartners are an increasingly older bunch these days. according to a 2008 paper published in the journal of economic perspectives, 96 percent of 6 - year - olds were enrolled in first grade 40 years ago. now, 84 percent of 6 - year - olds are in first grade. the missing 12 percent haven' t dropped out — they' re enrolled in kindergarten instead. about a quarter of the shift is due to state and school district policies that push age cut - off dates earlier in the year, the researchers reported. the rest is due to voluntary redshirting .
so what should you do? this is a good time for an honest, loving look at your child. if you have reason to think that kindergarten will be overwhelming, and especially if his or her birthday is after the start of the school year, you may have good reason to wait. but if you’re just looking for competitive advantage, redshirting probably isn’t the right path; early successes can give way to boredom. if your child is generally on track, you’re probably best off taking a traditional path: send your kid to school with a hug, a kiss and a loving wish for a healthy, happy year.
redshirting is the practice of postponing entrance into kindergarten of age-eligible children in order to allow extra time for socioemotional , intellectual , or physical growth . this occurs most frequently where children 's birthdays are so close to the cut-off dates that they are very likely to be among the youngest in their kindergarten class . 
redshirting is the practice of postponing entrance into kindergarten of age-eligible children in order to allow extra time for socioemotional, intellectual, or physical growth. this occurs most frequently where children's birthdays are so close to the cut-off dates that they are very likely to be among the youngest in their kindergarten class.
redshirting is the practice of postponing entrance into kindergarten of age-eligible children in order to allow extra time for socioemotional, intellectual, or physical growth. this occurs most frequently where children's birthdays are so close to the cut-off dates that they are very likely to be among the youngest in their kindergarten class.