Reply to Did you redshirt your August girl? Why or why not?

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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I feel like the following PSA should be posted to all redshirting threads on DCUM:

[list]Anyone who says that studies show that redshirting is vastly helpful or harmful to students (either those redshirted or those not redshirted) is wildly exaggerating the available research and their opinions should be disregarded.[/list]
[list]For all the ranting and froth the topic causes, there aren't very many good, rigorous, statistically valid studies about redshirting. Often when people say "studies say," you need to ask them for the exact cite, and they usually can't provide it, or when they do, it turns out they're outright wrong about the studies. Ask for cites, if people start babbling about "the studies," and read them yourself. [/list]
[list]In general, publications in social science journals are analytically weaker than those in medical journals and don't go through the same level of peer review, so judge them accordingly.[/list]
[list]The only large population studies (that I know of) that somewhat concern redshirting have to do with the studies on relative age effect and  ADHD diagnosis. To summarize at a very high level, those studies link an increased probability of diagnosis of ADHD and/or prescription of ADHD medications with being younger in the class. The studies occur across populations that both do and do not redshirt. If you want to review the studies yourself, [url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00787-018-1229-6]here's a meta-analysis[/url] of the studies; you can get to some of the individual studies through this meta-analysis. Not all studies found the same degree of impact, and not all studies were of the same level of rigor, but you can evaluate yourself. Also, to be clear these studies were not about redshirting; however, if you have a concern about ADHD you should consider talking to your pediatrician.[/list]
[list]It pains me that this even has to be spelled out, but based on lots of observations of DCUM's redshirt discussions, it does need to be spelled out: private schools can redshirt as much as they want, because they can set their own admissions rules. [/list]
[list]A follow-up point to the point above: if you do not like a private school's policy on redshirting, you do not need to apply to that school. To most people this is obvious but years of reading DCUM has taught me it is not obvious to everyone. [/list] 
[list]Public schools vary in their rules with respect to redshirting; it doesn't make sense to talk in general about "the rules" with respect to public schools because they vary by state and in some cases by districts.[/list]
[list]Cutoff dates vary by state. Again, this does seem to be misunderstood on DCUM.[/list]
[list]Go to the actual studies cited in popular media rather than the popular media articles themselves; the studies are usually easily available. You can decide for yourself if you want to make a decision based on about a questionable sample of students from a specialized Italian university or not.[/list]
[list]Redshirting discussions on DCUM attract a lot of truly crazy people. Evaluate your feedback accordingly.[/list]
[list]In the end, you know your child. It's not "not having faith in them" to redshirt. It's not "putting your ego ahead of their needs" to not redshirt. Anyone who says that nonsense (and there are a lot of them on DCUM) should just be ignored as they are likely not great parents themselves.[/list]
[list]If you encounter someone who is wildly anti-redshirting but sends their child to private school, moves to an expensive school district, hires outside tutors, or who engages in outside academic enrichment, they're probably hypocrites and you should ignore them.[/list]
[list]If you encounter someone who is wildly pro-redshirting but who doesn't support the right of kids to enter school early to the same degree as they might delay, they're probably hypocrites and you should ignore them.[/list]
[list]Other than citations to studies, you're probably not going to get a lot of use out of these discussions given the crazies that they tend to attract. Evaluate them accordingly.[/list]

HTH.[/quote]

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