I think we are on the same general page. Unfortunately, school politics and regulatory snarls, create the need for subject and grade acceleration to accommodate certain intellectual needs in our current age-graded educational platoon system. We need an education-graded platoon system not an age-based system. This will create a generation of students and their parents not suspicious or afraid of younger or older, taller or shorter, bigger or smaller classmates.

Anonymous wrote:If you're interested in research, there is a lot out there -- http://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=0&q=age+entry+school+delay+redshirting&hl=en&as_sdt=1,21

Some examples are below. My own takeaway is that anti-redshirters should not be so afraid and defensive about delayed entry children gaining some competitive advantage. If there is some advantage to be gained, it's relatively small. Those parents who redshirt to gain some competitive academic advantage are not really making much progress. Those who delay entry for other reasons (size, maturity, general readiness) should not be criticized.

Also, anyone who claims the research definitively supports one side is absolutely full of shit.

We find that younger children score substantially lower than older peers at the fourth, the
eighth and the tenth grade. The advantage of older students does not dissipate as they grow older

http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP01_2011.pdf (2011)

Taken together, data suggest that there appear to be little or no motivation, engagement, or performance advantages to being markedly older-for-cohort, having delayed-entry status, or being retained in a grade.

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/101/1/101/ (2009)

This study gathered follow-up data from the Terman Life Cycle Study (N = 1023) to examine how age at first reading and age at school entry relate to grade school academic performance, lifelong educational attainment, midlife health and mental adjustment, and longevity across eight decades. Early reading was associated with early academic success, but less lifelong educational attainment and worse midlife adjustment. Early school entry was associated with less educational attainment, worse midlife adjustment, and most importantly, increased mortality risk.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397308001597 (2009)
[Ed: My personal favorite!]

Our review of 14 recent studies on the short- and long-term effects of entering
kindergarten at an older age suggests that increasing California’s entry age will likely have a
number of benefits, including boosting student achievement test scores.

http://ewa.convio.net/docs/Changing%20the%20Kindergarten%20Cutoff%20Date.pdf (2008)

We find robust and significant positive effects on educational outcomes for pupils who enter school at 7 instead of 6 years of age: test scores at the end of primary school increase by about 0.40 standard deviations and the probability to attend the highest secondary schooling track increases by about 12% points.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k248328293683832/ (2008)

With family background factors and experience in child care in the first 54 months of life controlled, hierarchical linear modeling (growth curve) analysis revealed that children who entered kindergarten at younger ages had higher (estimated) scores in kindergarten on the Woodcock—Johnson (W-J) Letter-Word Recognition subtest but received lower ratings from kindergarten teachers on Language and Literacy and Mathematical Thinking scales. Furthermore, children who entered kindergarten at older ages evinced greater increases over time on 4 W-J subtests (i.e., Letter-Word Recognition, Applied Problems, Memory for Sentences, Picture Vocabulary) and outperformed children who started kindergarten at younger ages on 2 W-J subtests in 3rd grade (i.e., Applied Problems, Picture Vocabulary). Age of entry proved unrelated to socioemotional functioning.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10409280701283460 (2007)

The authors evaluated large-scale test data from Grades K-8 to investigate the difference in performance between younger children (summer birthday) and older children (fall birthday). The performance gap evident in kindergarten decreased rapidly in Grades 1-3 but persisted up to Grade 5, until leveling off at middle school.

http://heldref-publications.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,5;journal,28,79;linkingpublicationresults,1:119936,1 (2006)

Our findings indicated statistically significant but relatively small achievement differences between oldest and youngest children when cognitive ability scores were controlled. Redshirts, however, did not appear to gain any advantage in achievement as a result of delaying school entry.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1520-6807(199007)27:3%3C260::AID-PITS2310270313%3E3.0.CO;2-V/abstract (2006)

The results of this study suggest that delaying kindergarten does not create any long-term advantages for students.

http://epa.sagepub.com/content/28/2/153.short (2006)

The evidence suggests that within the five- to six-year-old range in which most children
begin school in the U.S. (where most of the studies cited were conducted), age is not a
significant predictor of ultimate academic success. ... To the contrary, time in school appears to contribute more to
young children’s academic skills than time engaged in other activities outside of school.

http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/StipekANGxp.pdf (2003)

Results indicated a modest advantage in academic achievement for children who entered kindergarten at a relatively older age during the first year of school, but this advantage disappeared by third grade. The only advantage found in kindergarten and third grade for children who were relatively old when they entered school was in more positive feelings about their teacher.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397301000752 (2001)

We find that younger children score substantially lower than older peers at the fourth, the
eighth and the tenth grade. The advantage of older students does not dissipate as they grow older

Taken together, data suggest that there appear to be little or no motivation, engagement, or performance advantages to being markedly older-for-cohort, having delayed-entry status, or being retained in a grade.

This study gathered follow-up data from the Terman Life Cycle Study (N = 1023) to examine how age at first reading and age at school entry relate to grade school academic performance, lifelong educational attainment, midlife health and mental adjustment, and longevity across eight decades. Early reading was associated with early academic success, but less lifelong educational attainment and worse midlife adjustment. Early school entry was associated with less educational attainment, worse midlife adjustment, and most importantly, increased mortality risk.

Our review of 14 recent studies on the short- and long-term effects of entering
kindergarten at an older age suggests that increasing California’s entry age will likely have a
number of benefits, including boosting student achievement test scores.

We find robust and significant positive effects on educational outcomes for pupils who enter school at 7 instead of 6 years of age: test scores at the end of primary school increase by about 0.40 standard deviations and the probability to attend the highest secondary schooling track increases by about 12% points.

With family background factors and experience in child care in the first 54 months of life controlled, hierarchical linear modeling (growth curve) analysis revealed that children who entered kindergarten at younger ages had higher (estimated) scores in kindergarten on the Woodcock—Johnson (W-J) Letter-Word Recognition subtest but received lower ratings from kindergarten teachers on Language and Literacy and Mathematical Thinking scales. Furthermore, children who entered kindergarten at older ages evinced greater increases over time on 4 W-J subtests (i.e., Letter-Word Recognition, Applied Problems, Memory for Sentences, Picture Vocabulary) and outperformed children who started kindergarten at younger ages on 2 W-J subtests in 3rd grade (i.e., Applied Problems, Picture Vocabulary). Age of entry proved unrelated to socioemotional functioning.

The authors evaluated large-scale test data from Grades K-8 to investigate the difference in performance between younger children (summer birthday) and older children (fall birthday). The performance gap evident in kindergarten decreased rapidly in Grades 1-3 but persisted up to Grade 5, until leveling off at middle school.

Our findings indicated statistically significant but relatively small achievement differences between oldest and youngest children when cognitive ability scores were controlled. Redshirts, however, did not appear to gain any advantage in achievement as a result of delaying school entry.

The results of this study suggest that delaying kindergarten does not create any long-term advantages for students.

The evidence suggests that within the five- to six-year-old range in which most children
begin school in the U.S. (where most of the studies cited were conducted), age is not a
significant predictor of ultimate academic success. ... To the contrary, time in school appears to contribute more to
young children’s academic skills than time engaged in other activities outside of school.

Results indicated a modest advantage in academic achievement for children who entered kindergarten at a relatively older age during the first year of school, but this advantage disappeared by third grade. The only advantage found in kindergarten and third grade for children who were relatively old when they entered school was in more positive feelings about their teacher.

Are you and your kids the exception or the rule? Are you average? Are your kids? Do you think most kids can do what you and your kids have done? A professional athlete could say how they could compete with kids several years older than them without any issue but the average to slightly above average person could not. Professional athletes are the exceptions not the rule.

Anonymous wrote:When one looks at the conflicting results in this morass; confounders such as the educational preparation and rigor in the home well before some children even walk through the brick and mortar doors of a Kindergarten classroom and ongoing supplemental education and tutoring outside of the traditional elmentary classroom, it becomes clear why these are all flawed studies with inadequate control groups.

So, I am left to fall back to my own anecdotal experience.

I did not suffer one iota from being 2 to 3 years younger than my classmates throughout formal education. In fact, it may have benefitted me providing me an advantage! My children are not suffering presently and lead the academic and extracurricular pack 1 to 2 years younger than their respective classmates. Older children in our classrooms had no adverse effects on our academic performance and socialization. Until valid, well designed and controlled studies are done I do not support the conclusion that young children suffer adverse effects in classrooms with older children. Paradoxically, I have no personal experience of being an elder in a classroom of youngsters and short and longterm effects on academic and social performance; but, I would not, by strategic parental design, impose such an order on any of my children. I could care less if redshirt dinosaurs hang out in their classrooms for some concocted yet unproven perceived advantage or benefit provided they are orderly and follow the class rules (this also applies to the young tadpoles in the class).

Anonymous wrote:Articles differ a bit in value from actual research papers such as that discussed in recent posts above.