Oldest kids in class do better, even through college - NPR

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. My daughter's pre-K class is going to be more than 50% redshirters. Her preschool has hard a difficult time rearranging classes due to the number of unexpected redshirts -- it means there are several younger 3s who aren't able to move into 4 year old classrooms as expected.

Not to be dumb, but should a young 3 be in the 4 classroom??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most "summer birthday boys"? Summer birthdays range from part of June through part of September. Who would redshirt a June or July kid?

Private school families commonly red shirt kids born as early as May.

My child who went to an expensive private pre k and k was in the "spring" 4's- which ended up being 16 kids with April and may birthdays. Of those- TWO, TWO of 16 went to K the following year- 14 were redshirted. My late May boy went on time and is doing great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. My daughter's pre-K class is going to be more than 50% redshirters. Her preschool has hard a difficult time rearranging classes due to the number of unexpected redshirts -- it means there are several younger 3s who aren't able to move into 4 year old classrooms as expected.

Not to be dumb, but should a young 3 be in the 4 classroom??

Sorry, I got that wrong, I meant to say the room that they start at 3, but turn 4 in. It's probably technically the 3 year old room, but all the kids are now 4 since it's the end of the year so I called it the 4 year old room. In this particular preschool, there are 2 rooms for each age (so like younger 3s and older 3s). There are so many current pre-K kids (now 5 year olds) red shirting that they have to put kids that are currently in the older 3 year old room (that are currently older 4s) room into the younger pre-K room, which ripples all the way down into how many 2 year olds they can let in. Does that make more sense? I think I may have made it more confusing, sorry!!

[Anonymous]

Question:
IF people didn't redshirt (as often), do you think the disparity would be less.
Example: my late July 1st grader (so almost the youngest) has a couple of classmates who are more than a year older. She's not only there with 9mo+ older kids but additionally these that are a full year+ older.

[Anonymous]

Skewing things to their kid's advantage. A failure in basic parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a late September birthday and was always the youngest in my class. I was also always among the smartest in my class -- I went to a top 10 undergrad, top 5 grad school, and am still quite successful. So there's that.

Me too, my bday is the first week in October.

I've noticed now that I'm older
-hey wait..maybe I wasn't as mature. Maybe that did make me feel a hint of less confidence going off to college, at 17
-maybe that's why I tend to follow. (I've had leadership opps at work, and I do a good job..I just *prefer* to be a follower)
-maybe that's why I have felt socially different, maybe even over-serious. I had to actually more 'mature' and to me that meant being serious.

But I was reading before K, even being a young starter. So my parents made a good choice. I always did fantastic in school. Maybe I would have felt socially more secure in addition to being a high achiever.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean I should play the PK3 lottery again for my late August birthday DS o(having struck out this year) or try for PK4? Assuming that we will likely redshirt before K, that is. Or is it better to repeat PK4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be interested to know from a real researcher if this FL only data can be used as a proxy for nationwide outcomes.

Not a researcher but here is the paper the news story is based on:

http://www.nber.org/papers/w23660.pdf

Not a peer reviewed publication, though that doesn't mean it is wrong, just that they haven't gotten to that part of the process yet. Certainly I would place more weight on this than other "studies" I've seen with much smaller sample sizes.

Academic here: NBER papers are usually quality and a step toward publication

Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a late September birthday and was always the youngest in my class. I was also always among the smartest in my class -- I went to a top 10 undergrad, top 5 grad school, and am still quite successful. So there's that.

Me too, my bday is the first week in October.

I've noticed now that I'm older
-hey wait..maybe I wasn't as mature. Maybe that did make me feel a hint of less confidence going off to college, at 17
-maybe that's why I tend to follow. (I've had leadership opps at work, and I do a good job..I just *prefer* to be a follower)
-maybe that's why I have felt socially different, maybe even over-serious. I had to actually more 'mature' and to me that meant being serious.

But I was reading before K, even being a young starter. So my parents made a good choice. I always did fantastic in school. Maybe I would have felt socially more secure in addition to being a high achiever.

I also a Sept bday (young) who did well academically, went to Ivy League college etc. I liked being young and even appreciated that "extra" year as adult to figure out what I wanted to do as my career. But everyone has their own experiences! I sent my summer bday kid on time as well because I felt the only reason to hold back would be for competitive reasons. I had a lot of anxiety about it but now that kid is in FCPS AAP so I just don't think in hindsight I could have made another decision for possible boredom reasons. Yes the child is younger / smaller but that's just who DC is.

[Anonymous]

So for those who red-shirt - do you have your kids repeat a year of pre-school? I'm just wondering how this is done logistically. My son is in a Montessori preschool that offers kindergarten and he is on the young side of his class with a June birthday. If I wanted to red-shirt him would I have him repeat a year in his current classroom? Or do kindergarten twice? I can see the advantage of doing it but feel like it would be weird for him if all of his classmates moved up and he didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So for those who red-shirt - do you have your kids repeat a year of pre-school? I'm just wondering how this is done logistically. My son is in a Montessori preschool that offers kindergarten and he is on the young side of his class with a June birthday. If I wanted to red-shirt him would I have him repeat a year in his current classroom? Or do kindergarten twice? I can see the advantage of doing it but feel like it would be weird for him if all of his classmates moved up and he didn't.

I started him late from the very beginning. He didn't start preschool until he was four.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So for those who red-shirt - do you have your kids repeat a year of pre-school? I'm just wondering how this is done logistically. My son is in a Montessori preschool that offers kindergarten and he is on the young side of his class with a June birthday. If I wanted to red-shirt him would I have him repeat a year in his current classroom? Or do kindergarten twice? I can see the advantage of doing it but feel like it would be weird for him if all of his classmates moved up and he didn't.

You could either start late, or go to a preschool that has a "transition class." The transition class at my DS's preschool is like how K used to be, 5 days a week but only a half day and very play based. Then they go to kindergarten the year after that. So preschool at age 3 and 4, transition class at age 5, and K at age 6, for a summer birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So for those who red-shirt - do you have your kids repeat a year of pre-school? I'm just wondering how this is done logistically. My son is in a Montessori preschool that offers kindergarten and he is on the young side of his class with a June birthday. If I wanted to red-shirt him would I have him repeat a year in his current classroom? Or do kindergarten twice? I can see the advantage of doing it but feel like it would be weird for him if all of his classmates moved up and he didn't.

One of my kids has a December birthday and red shirting isn't an issue. That said I was able to start her in a preschool at 21 months. This year I'm having her "repeat" the 2s class because to me that seems easier than repeating the 4s (because I'm not gonna send her to kindergarten early).

I know someone at a Montessori school who is being redshirted and the child did the Montessori kindergarten year and will then do kindergarten at public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most "summer birthday boys"? Summer birthdays range from part of June through part of September. Who would redshirt a June or July kid?

Plenty. I've seen parents redshirt May birthday boys.

[Anonymous]

If I had sent my summer birthday kids a year later, they'd be bored half to death. One is already bored and not challenged as it is.