Anonymous wrote:Redshirting was fine and nobody batted an eyelash until DEI came and said it inequitable and classist. As DEI wave is passing, in a year everyone will move on to something else and things will be back to redshirting being fine.

I am willing to bet that the Lafayette parents will get their way in the end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

We were pushed to redshirt one child who, at the time, we did not want to redshirt. In the words of the teacher, "I cannot have one child over there unable to sit while the rest of the children are in circle time." Our child is neurotypical with no documentable issues. Our child's due date was right after the cutoff. However, our child was born early, several weeks before the cutoff. Our child was technically full term and was not placed in the ICU. Was she right? I don't know. What I do know is that we did redshirt our child, and our child's classroom has been fine.

Is it possible that some parents redshirt to give their kids an advantage? Yes. Is it possible that other kids are redshirted, because they're not right for the class? Also yes. How do you get this perfect? You absolutely can't. So let the parents, teachers and administration in tandem make the best decisions they can for the edge cases and move onto solving the real problem, which is mold in the elementary schools EOTP. This amount of effort to exert control is counterproductive and is literally backfiring. Support for public education over policies like this is dying even amongst teachers.

This is all well and good except as far as the Lafayette lobbying appears they don't want teacher or admin to be involved, they want to make the decision unilaterally. And mostly based on the ability to send their kid to private school to buck the system.

Again if the school thinks it's appropriate and the teachers think it's appropriate then there should be leeway in holding kids back, but that's not what the issue is here. It's allowing parents to decide their kids can do it in no small part because they have money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

We were pushed to redshirt one child who, at the time, we did not want to redshirt. In the words of the teacher, "I cannot have one child over there unable to sit while the rest of the children are in circle time." Our child is neurotypical with no documentable issues. Our child's due date was right after the cutoff. However, our child was born early, several weeks before the cutoff. Our child was technically full term and was not placed in the ICU. Was she right? I don't know. What I do know is that we did redshirt our child, and our child's classroom has been fine.

Is it possible that some parents redshirt to give their kids an advantage? Yes. Is it possible that other kids are redshirted, because they're not right for the class? Also yes. How do you get this perfect? You absolutely can't. So let the parents, teachers and administration in tandem make the best decisions they can for the edge cases and move onto solving the real problem, which is mold in the elementary schools EOTP. This amount of effort to exert control is counterproductive and is literally backfiring. Support for public education over policies like this is dying even amongst teachers.

This is all well and good except as far as the Lafayette lobbying appears they don't want teacher or admin to be involved, they want to make the decision unilaterally. And mostly based on the ability to send their kid to private school to buck the system.

Again if the school thinks it's appropriate and the teachers think it's appropriate then there should be leeway in holding kids back, but that's not what the issue is here. It's allowing parents to decide their kids can do it in no small part because they have money.

Sometimes parents and teachers disagree. Sometimes one teacher gives one answer. Another gives a different one. This should not be the case but it does. At the end of the day the parents are the one responsible for their children. They should decide.

All of this aside, support for public is falling off a cliff. Doesn’t public have more important issues that making this one their priority? Our kids had CPS threatened on them because their edge case child was supposed to go from Pre-K to 1st, and they were pushing back. Now they’re paying $40K for a private. I will never vote for higher taxes to support public ever again.

Ahhhhh found the Lafayette grandparent.

No parents cannot unilaterally decide. If they want that they can homeschool or try private but no school system should exist solely to do the bidding of parents regardless of the child's best interest or the community as a whole.

The public isn't making this an issue anyways, the Lafayette parents are. The only group of people trying to take away time and money to focus on this sole issue is them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

We were pushed to redshirt one child who, at the time, we did not want to redshirt. In the words of the teacher, "I cannot have one child over there unable to sit while the rest of the children are in circle time." Our child is neurotypical with no documentable issues. Our child's due date was right after the cutoff. However, our child was born early, several weeks before the cutoff. Our child was technically full term and was not placed in the ICU. Was she right? I don't know. What I do know is that we did redshirt our child, and our child's classroom has been fine.

Is it possible that some parents redshirt to give their kids an advantage? Yes. Is it possible that other kids are redshirted, because they're not right for the class? Also yes. How do you get this perfect? You absolutely can't. So let the parents, teachers and administration in tandem make the best decisions they can for the edge cases and move onto solving the real problem, which is mold in the elementary schools EOTP. This amount of effort to exert control is counterproductive and is literally backfiring. Support for public education over policies like this is dying even amongst teachers.

This is all well and good except as far as the Lafayette lobbying appears they don't want teacher or admin to be involved, they want to make the decision unilaterally. And mostly based on the ability to send their kid to private school to buck the system.

Again if the school thinks it's appropriate and the teachers think it's appropriate then there should be leeway in holding kids back, but that's not what the issue is here. It's allowing parents to decide their kids can do it in no small part because they have money.

Sometimes parents and teachers disagree. Sometimes one teacher gives one answer. Another gives a different one. This should not be the case but it does. At the end of the day the parents are the one responsible for their children. They should decide.

All of this aside, support for public is falling off a cliff. Doesn’t public have more important issues that making this one their priority? Our kids had CPS threatened on them because their edge case child was supposed to go from Pre-K to 1st, and they were pushing back. Now they’re paying $40K for a private. I will never vote for higher taxes to support public ever again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

We were pushed to redshirt one child who, at the time, we did not want to redshirt. In the words of the teacher, "I cannot have one child over there unable to sit while the rest of the children are in circle time." Our child is neurotypical with no documentable issues. Our child's due date was right after the cutoff. However, our child was born early, several weeks before the cutoff. Our child was technically full term and was not placed in the ICU. Was she right? I don't know. What I do know is that we did redshirt our child, and our child's classroom has been fine.

Is it possible that some parents redshirt to give their kids an advantage? Yes. Is it possible that other kids are redshirted, because they're not right for the class? Also yes. How do you get this perfect? You absolutely can't. So let the parents, teachers and administration in tandem make the best decisions they can for the edge cases and move onto solving the real problem, which is mold in the elementary schools EOTP. This amount of effort to exert control is counterproductive and is literally backfiring. Support for public education over policies like this is dying even amongst teachers.

This is all well and good except as far as the Lafayette lobbying appears they don't want teacher or admin to be involved, they want to make the decision unilaterally. And mostly based on the ability to send their kid to private school to buck the system.

Again if the school thinks it's appropriate and the teachers think it's appropriate then there should be leeway in holding kids back, but that's not what the issue is here. It's allowing parents to decide their kids can do it in no small part because they have money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

We were pushed to redshirt one child who, at the time, we did not want to redshirt. In the words of the teacher, "I cannot have one child over there unable to sit while the rest of the children are in circle time." Our child is neurotypical with no documentable issues. Our child's due date was right after the cutoff. However, our child was born early, several weeks before the cutoff. Our child was technically full term and was not placed in the ICU. Was she right? I don't know. What I do know is that we did redshirt our child, and our child's classroom has been fine.

Is it possible that some parents redshirt to give their kids an advantage? Yes. Is it possible that other kids are redshirted, because they're not right for the class? Also yes. How do you get this perfect? You absolutely can't. So let the parents, teachers and administration in tandem make the best decisions they can for the edge cases and move onto solving the real problem, which is mold in the elementary schools EOTP. This amount of effort to exert control is counterproductive and is literally backfiring. Support for public education over policies like this is dying even amongst teachers.

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

I don't think anyone has a problem with the school taking these things into account and making these kinds of decisions. What people have a problem with is parents unilaterally making the decision based on vibes and no actual criteria. Some of those decisions — not all, but certainly at least some — are fundamentally based on wanting to give their kids an advantage in academics, sports, or for something like the equitable access preference — which absolutely should not be available to kids who are voluntarily redshirted without some sort of documented issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And it sounds like one of the families moved into DC over a year ago and is trying to use that as an excuse. No explanation why they didn’t enroll in K this year.

They complain a lot that they didn’t learn that the school wouldn’t let them enroll in K next year until just months ago (so they didn’t have a chance to choose to enroll in K at the beginning of last year) — but did any of them check with the school that they could hold their kid back? It sounds like they all just unilaterally decided to redshirt and now are surprised pikachus.

Or you could just mind your own business and not worry about other people’s kids.

I don’t understand what the big deal is. Let them redshirt if they want to. Pages and pages of nothing burger.

So, my kid who is on the young side but fits the age criteria has to be a confidence-builder prop for your redshirted kid who is 13 months older. Eff that, go to private school if you want to play games like that.

Exactly. Absent a genuine developmental reason, redshirting disadvantages the kids who enroll when they are supposed to.

How are those kids disadvantaged? They know what they know, focus more on your kids knowledge instead of their rank in the class.

I’d rather my kid is average in a class of brilliant kids rather than the smartest in a class full of dummies.

The held back kids are also at a disadvantage as they are not with age appropriate expectations or academics.

The expectations and academics of the modern-day kindergarten classroom are not age appropriate. That's the issue.

Of course they are? My kid has sn and if anything it helped. Why did you not prepare your kids if you thought it would be too hard for them?

It's not that it's too hard, it's not developmentally appropriate. 5 year olds should still be painting, playing with play dough, yes, learning to read, but also playing blocks, dress up, etc.

My DCPS kindergarten did all of these things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An eleven month old and a 13 month old might both be early walkers. If you’re having a class for early walkers, it would make sense for the 10 month old and 13 month old to start together. (Not that this class would exist. It would be silly).

If you’re teaching math, it would make sense to have all the kids ready to learn the same concepts at the same time in the same way with the same attention. This is what private schools do that apparently is beyond the comprehension of public school age advocates. This is why the classrooms are so much more chaotic than private. Because the people designing them are not focused on learning.

A private school is able to have smaller classrooms and not admit or kick out kids with behavioral or learning disabilities. And they absolutely do. A lot. Same with charters. Your local DCPS school cannot. Of course private schools can skew classes, and do, in no small part to help themselves and their test scores and rankings and alumni donations.

Comparing what a private school can do with how a public school manages to try and find a balance is counterproductive to your argument.

No one, and I mean no one, is telling Lafayette parents they can't send their six year olds to private kindergarten. They are welcome to do whatever with private school tuition they please. But there are so many functional and logistical differences it's silly and offensive to claim that because a private school does something a public school should do the same.

Also public schools do have different levels of math and reading they teach to kids within one grade? Whittier, for example, uses Title 1 funding to pay for both a reading acceleration and separate reading intervention teacher to address needs of both students. And the age, which yeah there has to be some kind of cutoff, is not what places kids in either.

Fine, there are a million kids public schools have to take, but they don’t have to take a disruptive child who would not be disruptive if put just one class down. They don’t have to make their lives more challenging than it is. Many public school systems make his adjustment easily. In fact many public schools will also accelerate kids that are ready. This is just red tape that DCPS is taping themselves with.

And this is why public loses support, because it tapes itself with red tape that doesn’t benefit education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And it sounds like one of the families moved into DC over a year ago and is trying to use that as an excuse. No explanation why they didn’t enroll in K this year.

They complain a lot that they didn’t learn that the school wouldn’t let them enroll in K next year until just months ago (so they didn’t have a chance to choose to enroll in K at the beginning of last year) — but did any of them check with the school that they could hold their kid back? It sounds like they all just unilaterally decided to redshirt and now are surprised pikachus.

Or you could just mind your own business and not worry about other people’s kids.

I don’t understand what the big deal is. Let them redshirt if they want to. Pages and pages of nothing burger.

So, my kid who is on the young side but fits the age criteria has to be a confidence-builder prop for your redshirted kid who is 13 months older. Eff that, go to private school if you want to play games like that.

Exactly. Absent a genuine developmental reason, redshirting disadvantages the kids who enroll when they are supposed to.

How are those kids disadvantaged? They know what they know, focus more on your kids knowledge instead of their rank in the class.

I’d rather my kid is average in a class of brilliant kids rather than the smartest in a class full of dummies.

The held back kids are also at a disadvantage as they are not with age appropriate expectations or academics.

The expectations and academics of the modern-day kindergarten classroom are not age appropriate. That's the issue.

Of course they are? My kid has sn and if anything it helped. Why did you not prepare your kids if you thought it would be too hard for them?

It's not that it's too hard, it's not developmentally appropriate. 5 year olds should still be painting, playing with play dough, yes, learning to read, but also playing blocks, dress up, etc.

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Anonymous wrote:And it sounds like one of the families moved into DC over a year ago and is trying to use that as an excuse. No explanation why they didn’t enroll in K this year.

They complain a lot that they didn’t learn that the school wouldn’t let them enroll in K next year until just months ago (so they didn’t have a chance to choose to enroll in K at the beginning of last year) — but did any of them check with the school that they could hold their kid back? It sounds like they all just unilaterally decided to redshirt and now are surprised pikachus.

Or you could just mind your own business and not worry about other people’s kids.

I don’t understand what the big deal is. Let them redshirt if they want to. Pages and pages of nothing burger.

So, my kid who is on the young side but fits the age criteria has to be a confidence-builder prop for your redshirted kid who is 13 months older. Eff that, go to private school if you want to play games like that.

Exactly. Absent a genuine developmental reason, redshirting disadvantages the kids who enroll when they are supposed to.

How are those kids disadvantaged? They know what they know, focus more on your kids knowledge instead of their rank in the class.

I’d rather my kid is average in a class of brilliant kids rather than the smartest in a class full of dummies.

The held back kids are also at a disadvantage as they are not with age appropriate expectations or academics.

The expectations and academics of the modern-day kindergarten classroom are not age appropriate. That's the issue.

Of course they are? My kid has sn and if anything it helped. Why did you not prepare your kids if you thought it would be too hard for them?

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Anonymous wrote:I don't care about redshirting -- there are redshirted kids in my kid's class, it's fine, I don't even thing about it.

However as the parent of a kid with an August birthday, I also think parents worry WAY too much about their kid being youngest. Is it because of that stupid Gladwell book? It's really fine. My august birthday kid (not redshirted) is on the mature side of the grade in some things, on the immature side in others. Does well academically and I've never felt the academics are too much.

I figure most people redshirting are doing so because of some kind of delay and I'm sure that's fine. But the way it gets talked about on here, some parents seem to think that if your kid is the youngest in the grade, they are somehow disadvantaged for life. It's dumb. Kids mature at different rates anyway. Also some kids are on the small side or need extra help in math or reading even if they get he extra year.

I just think a lot of you overthink this. As long as the kids are all around the same age, it's fine, and it's more important to just support your kid at home and address any issues that come up, than worrying that their relative age will somehow be this be-all-end-all advantage or disadvantage. It's really not that big of a deal and becomes less of one as they get older.

Not at my son's private school. Everyone will be 18.

At DCPS, students will range from 17-19.
this was my opinion, until he got to fifth grade, and then the difference in maturity started to pop up, mainly in how much the social order was being decided by the kids who were most confident, had phones first, had video games first, etc. DS was always one of the larger kids in the class but by sixth grade it was getting bad—he was going to school with some kids kids who were 12-13 years older than him—thanks to redshirting!—and it was having a detrimental effect.

We still didn't connect the dots until we applied to a private—for academic not social reasons—and the admissions office pointed out how incredibly young our son was, even before they saw his grades or saw him physically. He red-shirted and is now one of the older kids and it's like night and day. A kid who we always thought was doing fine is now doing great—now the comments from teachers are things like "unusual maturity" and 'really knows who he is" and "confident with the other kids" instead of "he's trying to fit in" and "He'll be okay with a bit more of a confidence boost"...

Obviously not right for everyone and sometimes beign around more mature kids can be a positive experience—if they're the kind of kids who mature into decent people and not mature into bullies. But, some kids can really benefit, especially if they're young for the grade.

Malcom Gladwell's book has nothing to do with this, because it's not about whether all kids will benefit from being an older kid, it's about whether the kids who are younger than their peers—by a substantial margin—in a grade will benefit from not being in that position.

Just so you realize though, there are now kids in his class that are 13+ months younger than him. I'm glad you worked it out but this is one of the arguments against redshirting is that it's a never ending cycle with people constantly fighting not to be the youngest.

There's no question some kids do need to be held back, but a blanket allowance to start K late is what is being asked for by these parents and it's just not conducive to the system as a whole.

well, actually, now he's in a private school that has control over the ages of the students in each grade and the flexibility to build the class as they see fit. His birthday is early July, and the youngest kid in the class is nine months younger than him.

But, you are not wrong...

That said "blanket red shirting" is just shifting the age requirements for grades. I don't really know how to fix DCPS' system but it does seem to have some problems.

The youngest kid in the class has an early April birthday?

I feel like this is just proving why DCPS has the policy they do.

I dunno, makes sense to me. On the day of graduation, every kid will be 18.

As it was in DC, some kids would be 18, a number of kids would still be 17 and a few kids would be weeks from turning 19. Seems effed up to me.

Actually no. On the day of graduation, many kids would still be 17.

At my son's private school (where he was redshirted), all kids in the class will be 18 when they graduate. At the DCPS where he was before, he would've been 17 when he graduated while some of his classmates would be days from turning 19.

ALL the kids are 18? Come on. There are variety in Privates, too. It's a range. In private is also a mix of redshirts and "typical" age. My kid will graduate at 17 and two boys in her class will be 19.