
I’m not the PP but my reading of the limited studies out there is that I’d like parents to have a greater range of time available to them, and that mixed-age classes are actually better overall. I reject your entire premise, in other words, and I think parents have a good sense of when their kids are ready for school and should be trusted with that. |
Or take their own advice get help, smaller class size, counseling, tutoring, etc. |
Why would that be the case? Redshirted kids being better able to handle academics and the social interaction of school in no way makes it harder for your kid to do well. It's not a zero sum game or some competition. The rest of your post makes no sense, because your basic premise is wrong. |
+1 It is the solution recommended by many, many experienced clinicians. |
I’m ok with the June-August redshirting, hopefully in consultation with pediatrician and preschool teacher thoughts.
I’m not ok with it sliding to March, April, may kids. If a school is allowing that I would hope they are transparent and publish the grade breakdowns so future parents can make informed plans for their children - when starting K or moving to a new district. It would be a difficult situation to have a good student and move to a district with significant holdbacks and a large composition of older students. I wouldn’t want to be blindsided by that, but it would be a struggle to know what to do with my own children who have summer birthdays. It is not clear how it plays out for girls or boys in grade 6-12. |
You have such a twisted world view. I am so sorry for you and your kid. It must be awful to go through life living with that level of anxiety. |
I missed it here. So everyone redshirting is holding back a suspected ADHD kid or a potentially short kid or a kid “not yet ‘ready’”. |
One of the only countries in the world that doesn’t see the relative age in class impact likelihood of ADHD medication prescription also allows greater flexibility in entrance age and greater parental discretion.
https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12243 From the study authors:
|
You can ask the schools. They do tell you, both private and public. For what it’s worth one of my (non-redshirted) teen’s closest friends was a redshirted February kid. I don’t know why he was redshirted, not my business. But he was clearly in the right grade for him, and is a wonderful kid. I do not think rigidity is a good answer here. |
Since NYC has had rigid cutoffs for many years now and should have plenty of outcome data to work with, I would appreciate it if one of DCUM’s anti-redshirt posters could link to all the studies demonstrating that rigid cutoff policies lead to better educational outcomes for kids. TIA. |
My daughter's private in NYC will also tell parents if they think children are ready (even if parent wants to redshirt). My daughter has an early May birthday as does her friend. The school's cut off for Pre-K is that children need to turn 4 by June 1. Both my daughter and her friend got into pre-k as the youngest in the grade. My daughter's friend's parents didn't want her to be the youngest and asked the school for a breakdown of the class and if they could defer and enroll her in Pre-K the following year. The school said that their daughter would need to reapply next year and that when she reapplied they would recommend/consider her for K and not Pre-K. Essentially the private said she was ready and they wouldn't be ok with her parents redshirting. Not sure if that's unique to this private, but it happens. |
There is no common core testing. Common core is a set of guidelines so when kids change schools all schools are doing the similar material per year so the kids can transition well. We found k-7 painfully slow and it skipped a lot of foundation work like teaching spelling, vocabulary, grammar and math facts. We had to do that at home. Math became accelerated for sone starting in 6th. |
It’s not unique. One of the advantages of private is that they can do individual readiness assessments. |
The discussion is about how the kids feel? You all are making it about how you feel and justifying your choices by attacking those who do not have the same viewpoint as you. No one is talking about the impact on the kids. Sure, it may make academics easier. Easier is not always better. For the parent whose 8th grader struggled that makes sense if they got tutors and provided lots of support as things really start to ramp up. But, for a child doing well in school, with no academic issues or on the advanced track, how do they, not you feel about it? Do you stop and think about the other long term impacts? If a school, mainly privates don’t offer accelerated math, what if your kid needs it if they are older and more advanced or younger and more advanced? What if they don’t start algebra until 8th or 9th and your child wants it and can handle it younger? What about the opportunities after calculus and what does the school offer? That was what we faced looking at privates in middle school. For an average kid those things will not matter but for a smarter kid it may. |
In NY, they obviously do but not all schools do. Some just tell you to hold back based off age alone without looking at the grades or testing. So, is that for them or the child? We found some privates very flexible and accommodating and others very ridged about age. Math tracking was a huge issue for us in privates. |