This is an interesting question. I would love to see what, if anything,
the research shows, but can add a couple of anecdotes from my own
family.
Both of my children did an extra year in school, for different reasons.
My son, now a junior in college, repeated first grade because his fine
motor skills were so immature. Once I got by the "Oh no, my child's not
perfect and there must be something wrong with me as a parent" phase, it
was a no brainer. The population at St. Christopher's tends to be an
older population, with a number of families choosing to wait to enroll
their kids (we also have a junior kindergarten program). I think that
trend has developed as a response to our rigorous program, rather than
the program becoming more rigorous in response to older kids. What
convinced me to hold back my son was seeing the struggles of one of my
seniors who was one of the youngest in his class and always behind the
developmental curve. By staying back my sone ended up being the oldest
student in his class. He struggled academically through his sophomore
year, then the light went on and he ended up being a very good student
by his senior year. The extra year bought him time that didn't pay off
until the end of high school.
My daughter has a December birthday, and St. Catherine's, our sister
school, had a cut-off date of October 1 for kindergarten. We lived in a
county with a junior kindergarten option, so we decided to send her to
public school for a year. Her testing was strong enough that she was
placed in kindergarten. When we applied to St. Catherine's the
following year, they told us that she was academically ready for first
grade and that they would consider her if we insisted, but advised us to
have her repeat kindergarten, as she would be the youngest girl in first
grade by eight months. They said that wouldn't be an issue for 7 or 8
years, but that it would become an issue when she hit puberty or when it
was time to drive. We had her repeat, and she was a superstar
throughout school, becoming the first girl in 55 years to win the two
top senior prizes. I think she would have been a huge success either
way, but the hidden issue that we couldn't have known was that she ended
up in a much better, nicer class, and I have always believed that class
chemistry can be a huge issue in an independent school.
As an administrator, I have never seen the extra year hurt a child, but
the youngest students can be at a developmental disadvantage in our
program. The most important fact is that the student must buy into the
value of the extra year (that's an issue for older kids).
Jim Jump
Director of Guidance
St. Christopher's School
Richmond, Virginia
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Karen Padilla
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 9:41 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Academic "Redshirting"
I am writing an article about the trend of letting kids with summer (and
now spring and even late winter) birthdays wait a year before starting
Kindergarten.
I am trying to find information on the high school and middle school
performance of kids who enrolled in Kindergarten "on time," turning 6
during the school year or summer after Kindergarten, compared with those
who waited and turned 7 during the Kindergarten school year. =20
I have read a lot of articles and statistics about the benefits and
concerns with this trend, but most of the information about later
performance deals with kids who are from underperforming public schools,
economically disadvantaged families, etc. I am looking at the current
trend of parents who can afford to keep their kids out of school for
another year. These parents aren't necessarily delaying Kindergarten
because their kids are not ready; they often see an opportunity for the
child to be the oldest and perhaps to excel in the classroom. It is
also
viewed as a way for kids to have better social skills when they enter
schoool. In the past the trend was for boys with summer birthdays to
wait.
Now, it seems, even girls with summer or late spring birthdays are
waiting
a year. Is this broader range of ages having an effect on classroom
dynamics in the early elementary grades?
I am also interested in how programs have adapted to such trends (there
was a Newsweek article last year about Kindergarten being the "new 1st
grade"). Are programs becoming more rigorous to accomodate the older
children, making it harder for the younger kids to keep up? What about
when these older kids are in middle school? Is there a difference
between
the older kids and their classmates? Are the older kids still
performing
better, do they have higher confidence levels, etc. than their peers?=20
I'm not sure that there has been much research on this, so I doubt there
are any real statistics. I'm interested in personal antecdotes,
opinions,
any information that might be out there. =20
Also, do any elementary schools have policies/statements about when
it's
best for a child to start Kindergarten? I know that most independent
schools keep their listed enroll dates in line with whatever the state
public school requirements are (anywhere from 6 by December of
Kindergarten to 6 by June before the start of Kindergarten). Are there
any schools that make recommendations that kids start later?=20
Thanks so much for any information you can provide! =20
Karen Padilla
Middle School Librarian
Baylor School
Chattanooga, TN
karen_padilla@baylorschool.org
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a Creative Commons license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a Creative Commons license.
