![]() “The reason that most parents who struggle with the decision end up going ahead and sending their child (is) because they do seem ready. This was the early years of my doctoral studies, and I latched on to this topic while doing my own research.” “Both of my boys were summer birthdays,” Jones explained, “and I was having to make that decision. Rather than focus on academic success, which has been covered by a number of other studies, Jones wanted to learn about her subjects’ overall life satisfaction-in other words, how happy they were-years after the decision was made. In her dissertation, Academic Redshirting: Perceived Life Satisfaction of Adolescent Males, Jones looked at how boys fare in adolescence depending on whether or not their parents opted to redshirt them in kindergarten. I interviewed her for my podcast to talk more about her findings on how adolescent boys and their families feel-many years down the line-about their decision to redshirt…or not to redshirt. So when I heard about the research of Dr. With so much conflicting information out there, many parents struggle with this decision, as we did. This overview of the research on redshirting shows little to no academic advantage to redshirting, and cites other research that redshirted students may have poorer academic and behavioral outcomes than non-redshirted students (Huang). The practice is controversial, because it creates significant challenges for schools, who have to differentiate for a wide range of maturity and ability levels, and the results on student success are mixed. The thinking in kindergarten is that this delay will allow the child to grow physically, cognitively, and emotionally, making their eventual kindergarten experience more successful. ![]() The term comes from college athletics, where coaches delay some athletes’ participation on a team until their sophomore year, when they are called “redshirt freshmen” and have better-developed skills. At the time, we’d never heard the term “academic redshirting,” but it turns out this is what it’s often called. The cut-off date was September 30, so any four-year-old who would turn five by that date was eligible.īut we had talked to lots of other people-both parents and teachers-and it seemed like more and more families were opting to hold off, to delay their child’s entrance into kindergarten for another year (Bassok & Reardon). Our district website told us our son would qualify for kindergarten that fall, just a few days after he turned five. So a few years ago, in the spring before he turned five, my husband and I had to decide whether to send him to kindergarten. Listen to my interview with Suzanne Jones ( transcript) Years later, how do these students and their parents feel about the decision? ![]() ![]() More parents are opting to delay their child’s entry into kindergarten. ![]()
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