Education Week - August 30, 2017 - 13

Study Adds Heat to Debate Over 'Redshirting'
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older when they start kindergarten
have a measurable advantage compared to their younger classmates
over the long term. They have higher
test scores later in their academic careers, are more likely to attend college,
and are less likely to spend time in the
juvenile justice system.
But there's a danger in trying to fit
an individual child into a statistical
analysis, one of the study's authors
cautions.
Krzysztof Karbownik, a postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern
University, said the study, which has
yet to go through peer review, should
not be taken as a green light to hold a
child out of school for a year.
"On average, it is the case that
August-born children are going to do
slightly worse than September-born
children," Karbownik said, but that's
not a reason to hold back an otherwise
prepared child for a perceived edge. To
do so "has real costs to them," Karbownik said.

Cutoff Dates
The researchers looked at children
in Florida, which has a robust data
set on its students and a Sept. 1 cutoff date for children to enroll in kindergarten. The researchers compared
children who were born in August and
therefore are newly turned 5 when

school starts, to children who were
born in September and start school
when they are almost 6. The study
focused only on children who were
"naturally" old for the grade or young
for the grade; children who were held
out of school for a year were not a part
of the overall analysis.
The difference in test scores between these "young" 5-year-olds and
"old" 5-year-olds was about two-tenths
of a standard deviation. That's equivalent to about 40 SAT points on a 1600point scale, the researchers said, or
about the same as the difference in
one-year learning gains between having a very strong teacher as opposed
to an average one, according to a 2010
study on teacher effectiveness.
This difference held true even when
the researchers took a look at siblings
who were born in August compared to
September, and it was also the same
regardless of gender, race, socioeconomic status or school quality.
In the National Bureau of Economics Research paper, the researchers
also used data in a large, unnamed
Florida county to analyze longerterm effects. In contrast to some other
studies, this analysis found that the
impact of being older-for-grade does
not fade out over time. For example,
September-born children-those who
are old-for-grade-are 2.1 percent
more likely to attend college compared
to their August-born classmates, 3.3
percent more likely to graduate from

college, and 7.2 percent more likely to
graduate from a competitive or selective college.
They are also 15.4 percent less
likely to be incarcerated for juvenile
crime before their 16th birthday.
These longer-run outcomes appear

You know your kid
best. Do what you
think is in his or her
best interest and it's
going to be OK."
DIANE WHITMORE SCHANZENBACH
Northwestern University

to be stronger among white children
than black and Hispanic children, the
researchers found.
The researchers also compared children in Florida counties where many
students are redshirted and in counties in the state where retention in
early grades is common.
Redshirting is far more common
among higher-income families, and
grade retention is more common
among children whose parents are

KINDERGARTEN AND SCHOOL STARTING AGES
All states offer kindergarten, and 19 of those states require that children turn 5 years old by Sept. 1 to enroll.
However, kindergarten attendance is not required in most states. In 42 states, compulsory school attendance
starts at age 6 or later.
Kindergarten entrance age (the date by
which a student must be 5 years old in
order to attend kindergarten)

Compulsory school age
(the age at which a child is
required to attend school)

Sept. 1
Sept. 1
Aug. 31
Aug. 1
Sept. 1
Oct. 1
Jan. 1 (of the school year)
Aug. 31
Sept. 30
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
July 31
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
Aug. 1
Sept. 15
Aug. 31
Aug. 1
Sept. 30
Oct. 15
Sept. 1
District decision
Oct. 1
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
July 31

Age 6
Age 7
Age 6
Age 5
Age 6
Age 6 on or before Aug. 1
Age 5
Age 5
Age 5
Age 6
Age 6
Age 6 by Jan. 1
Age 7 by the first day of school
Age 6 on or before Sept. 1
Age 7
Age 6 by Sept. 15
Age 7
Age 6 by Aug. 1
Age 7
Age 7
Age 5
Age 6
Age 6 by Dec. 1
Age 7
Age 6 by Sept. 1
Age 7

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri

low-income.
But the county analysis suggests
that children from lower-income families who are redshirted benefit more
from the practice, even though it is
rare among that group. Children from
well-off families benefitted more from
being held back than children from
poor families.
David Figlio, another study author
and the incoming dean of Northwestern's School of Education and Social
Policy, cautioned against drawing
strong conclusions from that part of
the study. But he said the findings do
merit additional research to see if they
hold true.

Raising Cautions
But if this information shouldn't be
used to drive a parent to hold their
child back one year, what should parents do?
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, a
professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, wrote
an article for the magazine Education
Next earlier this year arguing that
redshirting should not become a normal practice. The recent paper does
not change her view, she said.
"My kindergartner is young for
grade, so this is a topic that I'm super
into for lots of reasons, and not just for
research," Schanzenbach said.
Parents have to think about their
own child's needs, she said. For example, her daughter thrives on striving to do the same things as her older
siblings. Going to school with children
who are a few months older will give
her peers to look up to. Children with
a similar personality might be bored
if they are surrounded with younger

Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

classmates, she said.
Schanzenbach's paper also estimated the labor market effects of
holding a child back one year, saying
that a college-educated male who retires at 67 could lose out on $80,000 in
earnings. And her article cited other
studies of redshirting that have found
the benefits to holding a child back are
small and lessen over time.
Schanzenbach said she understands
that parents are filled with anxiety
over when to have their children start
school-she said she has received
more responses to that article than
to anything else she has written. Still,
4 out of 5 summer-born boys with
college-educated parents are starting
school on time, Schanzenbach notes.
"They're going to be OK," Schanzenbach said. "That's my mantra. You
know your kid best. Do what you think
is in his or her best interest regarding
redshirting, and it's going to be OK."
That's what Lea Ann Stundins, a
Dallas mother, believes.
When her summer-born son Quinn
was about to start kindergarten, she
hesitated for a moment about whether
she should send him to school on time.
She had no doubt he could handle the
academics. But her son was tiny, and
she said that in Dallas, holding back
boys born in the summer or fall for a
year before kindergarten is common.
But despite those brief misgivings,
she sent Quinn to school on time, as
she did with her gregarious younger
son, Luka, who also has a summer
birthday. With Quinn now a 20-yearold college student at Columbia University, and Luka, 11, a rising 6th
grader, she said her choices worked
out well for her family.
"There's too much doing what everyone else is doing, and comparing
your kid to other kids," Stundins said.
"You really just have to look at your
own kid."

Kindergarten entrance age (the date by
which a student must be 5 years old in
order to attend kindergarten)

Compulsory school age
(the age at which a child is
required to attend school)

Sept. 10
July 31
Sept. 30
District decision
District decision
Aug. 31
District decision
Aug. 31
July 31
District decision
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
District decision
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
Aug. 15
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
District decision
Sept. 30
Aug. 31
Sept. 1
Sept. 1
Sept. 15

Age 7
Age 6 by Jan. 1
Age 7
Age 6
Age 6
Age 5 by Sept. 1
Age 6
Age 7
Age 7
Age 6
Age 5
Age 6
Age 8
Age 6
Age 5
Age 6
Age 6
Age 6
Age 6
Age 6
Age 5
Age 8
Age 6
Age 6
Age 7

SOURCE: Education Commission of the States

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