Hi there,
I was curious to see if there is any research-based backing for "redshirting"/having children repeat a year of preschool. This is something I've been thinking a lot about after an interesting and somewhat disheartening preschool observation experience for my child (he will be 4 at the end of this month - May).
For context, the kindergarten cutoff in my state is September 1. Our state also offers optional PreK-4 (partially funded hours) for children who turn 4 by September 1. My son has been attending a local preschool since he was 1. This preschool has a good reputation, seems to be a healthy blend of developmentally appropriate play and academics, and is located in a unique setting (I won't give a lot of details so as not to out myself!). The waiting list is generally lengthy. The area where we live has long waiting lists for most preschools, so my son has been on another waiting list as well. We were offered a spot there for this year (3/4s class) but declined it to stay at our current school. They reached out again to offer us a spot for the final PreK-4 year, so we decided to try out the observation day (which was presented to us as a "fun" day to see the classroom and meet some of the teachers with the current class).
After the observation (about 2.5 hours), the teacher told me that based on my son's late May birthday, she would recommend repeating the 3/4s class. She shared that most children in their school who are born in April or later are "redshirted" so they will get an extra year and be the oldest in their Kindergarten classes. I believe part of this is to give an advantage for private school admissions (of which we have several in our area). My son's current school has suggested nothing to this effect and he is on track to move up to PreK-4 in August with his cohort. He is on the younger side of his class now with a lot of the children having turned 4 in the winter, but in the other 3/4s class there are several children younger than him who won't be 4 until the summer. I feel this is very typical.
I teach Kindergarten very locally to the school where he went for the observation and in a typical year, may have 1 or 2 students who repeat PreK because their birthdays are extremely close to the cutoff (I'm talking August or even after the first day of school closer to September). It does not seem to be the norm to redshirt any birthdays starting in April. It sounded very absurd to me, tbh.
Is there any research out there that supports this mass redshirting of preschoolers? I know lots of parents want to give their child "the gift of time" or a leg up as being older in the class, but at this point I feel deciding to have my child graduate high school at 19 based solely on his birthday is a bit extreme.
The director of the school will be reaching out to me to discuss enrollment, and at this point I feel it is likely they will be pushing us to repeat 3/4s if they are wanting us to enroll there. I'd like to have some solid research to back my position (aside from just "he's a May born boy!")
Also curious to hear any similar experiences or opinions!
I was curious to see if there is any research-based backing for "redshirting"/having children repeat a year of preschool. This is something I've been thinking a lot about after an interesting and somewhat disheartening preschool observation experience for my child (he will be 4 at the end of this month - May).
For context, the kindergarten cutoff in my state is September 1. Our state also offers optional PreK-4 (partially funded hours) for children who turn 4 by September 1. My son has been attending a local preschool since he was 1. This preschool has a good reputation, seems to be a healthy blend of developmentally appropriate play and academics, and is located in a unique setting (I won't give a lot of details so as not to out myself!). The waiting list is generally lengthy. The area where we live has long waiting lists for most preschools, so my son has been on another waiting list as well. We were offered a spot there for this year (3/4s class) but declined it to stay at our current school. They reached out again to offer us a spot for the final PreK-4 year, so we decided to try out the observation day (which was presented to us as a "fun" day to see the classroom and meet some of the teachers with the current class).
After the observation (about 2.5 hours), the teacher told me that based on my son's late May birthday, she would recommend repeating the 3/4s class. She shared that most children in their school who are born in April or later are "redshirted" so they will get an extra year and be the oldest in their Kindergarten classes. I believe part of this is to give an advantage for private school admissions (of which we have several in our area). My son's current school has suggested nothing to this effect and he is on track to move up to PreK-4 in August with his cohort. He is on the younger side of his class now with a lot of the children having turned 4 in the winter, but in the other 3/4s class there are several children younger than him who won't be 4 until the summer. I feel this is very typical.
I teach Kindergarten very locally to the school where he went for the observation and in a typical year, may have 1 or 2 students who repeat PreK because their birthdays are extremely close to the cutoff (I'm talking August or even after the first day of school closer to September). It does not seem to be the norm to redshirt any birthdays starting in April. It sounded very absurd to me, tbh.
Is there any research out there that supports this mass redshirting of preschoolers? I know lots of parents want to give their child "the gift of time" or a leg up as being older in the class, but at this point I feel deciding to have my child graduate high school at 19 based solely on his birthday is a bit extreme.
The director of the school will be reaching out to me to discuss enrollment, and at this point I feel it is likely they will be pushing us to repeat 3/4s if they are wanting us to enroll there. I'd like to have some solid research to back my position (aside from just "he's a May born boy!")
Also curious to hear any similar experiences or opinions!