Anonymous wrote:To me the easiest way to deal with this is to separate the kids in early years (K-4) by age. That is, one K class has the youngest 1/3, the other has the middle set, the other has the oldest 1/3. You could even make the class size smaller for the younger kids. That would be an incentive to just get your child into school when they should.

This would take away the "advantage".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lot of schools around the DC area highly encourage, if not require, you to redshirt summer birthday boys - so often it's not the mom's decision or personality, it's the school.

GDS has several summer birthday boys who are in PK and K "on time." I assume, given GDS' competitiveness for admissions, that the school could have filled their classes with only red-shirted or non-summer boys, but that is not the case. I can't speak for other schools, but I applaud GDS' very sane approach.

Is 25% boys of the summer birthday boys? And you know that they are turning 6 and not 7, right? Also make sure they are not asked to repeat next year. I hope it is

Five years ago, I called GDS to ask about admission for my summer Birthday DC. I was told that they like for their K boys to be at least 5 and a half.

It looks like their policies have changed. Maybe based on the most recent research (indicating that red-shirting advantages phase out by early middle school, and that younger children tend to benefit the most in a mixed-age classroom)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lot of schools around the DC area highly encourage, if not require, you to redshirt summer birthday boys - so often it's not the mom's decision or personality, it's the school.

GDS has several summer birthday boys who are in PK and K "on time." I assume, given GDS' competitiveness for admissions, that the school could have filled their classes with only red-shirted or non-summer boys, but that is not the case. I can't speak for other schools, but I applaud GDS' very sane approach.

Is 25% boys of the summer birthday boys? And you know that they are turning 6 and not 7, right? Also make sure they are not asked to repeat next year. I hope it is

Five years ago, I called GDS to ask about admission for my summer Birthday DC. I was told that they like for their K boys to be at least 5 and a half.

Wow! Now I know why people don't like talking about redshiting. Ugly. I think there is value in it, kids will be more mature and can Participate in more interesting classes in schools that weren't available when we were kids. If you can afford it, another year before Going into dog eat dog world- why not.

Anonymous wrote:Tiger moms usually prefer acceleration rather than red-shirting their kids (for example: teach 3 year olds to do 3rd grade math or skip a couple of grade in elementary school.

No they don't move them up a grade. It is advocating for advanced academics in the current grade. AAP or GT. Yes I have known redshirted Tiger Mom kids.

I think we're missing the point a bit. Why are boys being redshirted so often? Because they are less 'mature'? In reality we need to be asking the school systems to accomodate the needs of our girls AND our boys. If schools are setting entry age ranges and have certain cut off dates, then they need to deal with the students they have in hand. The expectations that boys will sit still in circle time, will read at the same rate/stage as everyone else, will be able to hold a pencil and write in the same way is rediculous. But it's not really about boys it's about how schools and parents are pushing for achievement that is not developmentally appropriate. We need more mixed age grouping, more understanding of what the range of 'normal' is and less freaking out when a kid isn't a stepford child and does things their own way. Soooo tired of our culture trying to get all our children 'ahead' and be competetive. For what? So they can be rich, boring, self-centered, competetive 'winners" Get over yourselves!

Also, I always said that the SAT percentile rank should be based on birth date. Not, "you were in the ___ percentile when you took the test". I want to see, "for students born in X month in Y year, this was the percentile score"

To me the easiest way to deal with this is to separate the kids in early years (K-4) by age. That is, one K class has the youngest 1/3, the other has the middle set, the other has the oldest 1/3. You could even make the class size smaller for the younger kids. That would be an incentive to just get your child into school when they should.