Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Delaying Kindergarten Entry by a Year May do More Harm Than Good

  • 04/11/17

Cambridge, Mass. — Many parents believe “redshirting,” or delaying a student’s kindergarten entrance by one year, will give their child time to develop cognitive and social skills that will make him more successful in school. But in a new article for Education Next, Diane Schanzenbach, an education professor at Northwestern University, and Stephanie Larson, director of Rose Hall Montessori School in Wilmette, Illinois, weigh the evidence and conclude that postponing a student’s entrance into kindergarten does more harm than good.

The authors report that a redshirted student is likely to perform better on standardized tests in early grades, simply by virtue of being older, but that this academic advantage disappears by high school. Meanwhile, a redshirted student may find herself bored in class and socially isolated from less mature peers.

Using data from the Department of Education’s Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Schanzenbach and Larson find that among parents of the kindergarten class that entered in fall 2010:

  • 6.2 percent delayed their child’s entrance into school by a year, with that share 2 percentage points higher for boys than girls.
  • The redshirting rate is higher among children of highly educated parents, with college graduates approximately twice as likely to redshirt their sons as those with a high school degree.
  • The rates are particularly high for boys with summer birthdays. As many as one in five summer-born boys with college-educated parents was redshirted in 2010.

When it comes to the influence of peers, research shows that the advantage actually goes to younger students, who benefit in both the short and long run. Younger students gain an advantage by learning from and competing with older students, who tend to be higher achieving and better behaved.

For more details, see the full article"Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten? 'Redshirting' may do more harm than good," available now on educationnext.org and appearing in the Summer 2017 issue of Education Next in print May 24, 2017.

Featured

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 New Product Awards

    Spaces4Learning is happy to announce that we’re now accepting entries for the 2026 New Product Awards! The awards program recognizes the outstanding product development achievements of manufacturers and suppliers whose products or services are considered particularly noteworthy.

  • Utah Valley University Opens New Engineering Building

    Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, recently held a grand-opening ceremony for the new Scott M. Smith Engineering Building, according to a news release. The facility is one of the largest engineering buildings in the state at almost 200,000 square feet, and it plays home to the university’s Smith College of Engineering and Technology (SCET).

  • UT System Board of Regents Approves $108M Housing Complex

    The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently announced the approval of a new, $108-million housing complex at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), according to a news release. The facility will stand four stories and have a total of 456 new beds for freshmen students.