This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 42 of the Cult of Pedagogy

podcast. In this episode we're talking about the long-term effects of

kindergarten red-shirting.

My son has an August birthday, so a few years ago in this spring before he turned

five. My husband and I had to make the decision about kindergarten. Our district

website told us our son would qualify for kindergarten that fall just a few days

after he turned five. The cutoff date was September 30th, so any four-year-old

who would turn five by that date was eligible for kindergarten. But we had talked

to lots of other people and it seemed like more and more families were

opting to hold off to delay their child's entrance into kindergarten for another

year. At the time we had never heard the term academic red-shirting, but it

turns out this is what it's often called. The term comes from college athletics

where coaches delay some athletes participation on a team until their

sophomore year when they're called red-shirt freshman and have better

developed skills. The thinking in kindergarten is that this delay will allow

the child to grow physically, cognitively, and emotionally, making their

eventual kindergarten experience better. Many parents struggle with this

decision as we did, so when I heard about the research of Dr. Suzanne Jones, I was

curious. In her dissertation, Academic Red Shirting perceived life satisfaction

of adolescent males. She looked at how boys fare in adolescence depending on

whether or not their parents opted to redshirt them in kindergarten. Rather than

focus on academic success, which has been covered by a number of other studies,

...