As American public schools have begun moving towards greater accountability and more high-stakes testing, many states and districts have grown their expectations of kindergarten students. Parents also advocate for redshirting because of the changing nature of kindergarten. Redshirting Gives Students Time to Prepare for an Academically Rigorous Kindergarten These findings seem to indicate that redshirting can provide a child with a competitive edge that lasts well beyond the first few years of school. The study’s authors also found that the relatively oldest students were 11.6 percent more likely to enroll in four-year colleges or universities. As Elizabeth Weil explained in the New York Times magazine, the study found that relatively older students performed four to twelve percentiles better than their younger peers in the fourth grade and two to nine percentiles better in the eighth grade. Relatively Older Students Outperform Their Younger PeersĪ study published in 2006 by UC Santa Barbara’s Kathy Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey seems to provide support for the belief that redshirting can give a child an academic edge. This video examines the question of the best time to start kindergarten. For parents with children approaching kindergarten age, the question of whether or not to redshirt looms large. The practice of holding a child back so that he or she is slightly older than some of the other students in a classroom is known as “redshirting.” The popular Newsweek blog Nurtureshock reports that the proportion of students who are redshirted has doubled since 1980, going from 10 to 20 percent. Birthday cutoff dates vary greatly the Times reports that in Indiana, a child must turn five by July 1 of the year he or she starts kindergarten, while in Connecticut, a child must turn five by January 1 of the year he or she is enrolled in kindergarten.Īlthough children are generally not allowed to enroll in kindergarten earlier than the cutoff date dictates, they are allowed to wait and enroll a year later if their parents so choose. The practice of “redshirting,” or delaying a child’s enrollment in kindergarten so that the child is slightly older than some of his or her peers, is commonĪs an article in the New York Times Magazine explained, American children are eligible to start kindergarten based on a birthday cutoff date that is determined by the state, or in some cases, by the local school district. However, for parents whose children’s birthdays fall in the latter half of the calendar year, the question of when to enroll a child in kindergarten becomes more complicated. If a child turns five in March or April of a given year, it is highly likely that he or she will start kindergarten the following September. In the United States, the typical kindergartener is five years old.
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