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It has been around at least 15 years or so... maybe even more. My oldest is in college and even back then the private schools had pushed the date back into the summer. My cousin, whose child is a senior about to graduate Pace, held her back because they wouldn't have taken her anyway and the private school counselor they used said the same thing that someone's school told them, if you don't hold them back there can be an 18 month difference in the classroom and you don't want your child to be the youngest.
To me, it has never seemed like such a big secret, but I guess it is all about who you are talking to and what your friends experiences are. Many of my friends have had to make difficult decisions.
I happen to believe that it is self serving on the part of the private schools. A huge percentage of their kindergarten students are actually 6 when school starts. (At some schools it is as high as 65 percent and I know they call it pre-first not K, but still.) While there isn't much research that shows the effects of this, there is much speculation that taking the SAT at 18 results in higher scores.
I think that the bolded part says it all. However, empirical data would say a lot.
I think the thing with it not being a secret is that the schools do not readily admit this. Parents and others who have gone through the process in the past know this, but the schools do not advertise it. In fact, I was pretty shocked that the school I talked to this morning admitted that it was solely because of her birthday.
With respect to the 15 years, that surprises me. I graduated from a private high school less than 15 years ago, and all of my friends had birthdays from Sept (oldest) through August (youngest). Of course, we had an odd one or two kids who were held back or moved from a state with a later cutoff date. By and large, my school followed the public school cutoff dates. Maybe this "trend" started in the entry level grades and not in high school. Prior to you saying this, I thought that it started some time in the past 5 to 10 years, but honestly, I have no idea.
Does the holding back trend apply to the older grades, and if not, at what grade does it begin to phase out (generally speaking)? I have to imagine that it phases out at some point, but I am not in the know. It would seem crazy to deny admissions to a student in the ninth grade because he/she does not turn 15 until July. Thank you to all who have contributed to this discussion.
Being interested in education, I'd like to see data also.
Back in the day, I moved internationally three times as a child, which caused me to advance rapidly at school, so that I eventually graduated from high school in Canada, shortly after my 15th birthday (I have a May birthday). I placed second in the province on the government scholarship exams for high school graduates. The girl who placed first was a private school student.
While I wouldn't really recommend being quite as young as I was in high school (socially, it was hard) this personal history makes me suspicious of any hard-and-fast rules about how old a child should be in order to undertake some activity, scholastic or otherwise. Evaluating the individual child ... wouldn't that be a great idea?
The red-shirting trend started at least 15 years ago with the birth of the "Pre-first" phenomenon. Many private schools started inserting a year in between kindergarten and first grade for the "immature" kindergarteners who weren't ready for first grade. They channeled many of their summer boys into this class and also used it to accept first grade applicants who didn't quite make their first grade criteria. As time went on, it became more and more the norm for most summer birthdays and many late spring birthdays to hold back. My 16 year old son was the second youngest boy in his grade one year and he has a JANUARY birthday!
My skeptical husband said pre-first was just one more tuition year...
I think that the bolded part says it all. However, empirical data would say a lot.
I think the thing with it not being a secret is that the schools do not readily admit this. Parents and others who have gone through the process in the past know this, but the schools do not advertise it. In fact, I was pretty shocked that the school I talked to this morning admitted that it was solely because of her birthday.
With respect to the 15 years, that surprises me. I graduated from a private high school less than 15 years ago, and all of my friends had birthdays from Sept (oldest) through August (youngest). Of course, we had an odd one or two kids who were held back or moved from a state with a later cutoff date. By and large, my school followed the public school cutoff dates. Maybe this "trend" started in the entry level grades and not in high school. Prior to you saying this, I thought that it started some time in the past 5 to 10 years, but honestly, I have no idea.
Does the holding back trend apply to the older grades, and if not, at what grade does it begin to phase out (generally speaking)? I have to imagine that it phases out at some point, but I am not in the know. It would seem crazy to deny admissions to a student in the ninth grade because he/she does not turn 15 until July. Thank you to all who have contributed to this discussion.
Right, when you graduated it was probably just starting at the lower grades and Pinetree Lover has it right -- the invention of pre-first (though implemented differently at different schools) has a lot to do with it. Also, as the admission pool grew, so did a school's flexibility to pick and choose.
As to the older grades question, we have a neighbor who is in his early 20s, who went to parochial school on time though he had an August birthday (last child, mom was done). When it was time for middle school, they moved schools and put him back in 5th grade to make sure he could get in the high school of their choice. BUT he wasn't performing well academically or behaviorally and needed a chance to clean up his act.
I have heard that the birthday is still considered even as kids get older (we saw here that one school put a should be 3rd grader in second grade next year) but again I have no proof of that.
Here is a little research on this
NCLD - Research Roundup: Redshirting — A "Moving" Experience (August 2006) (http://www.ncld.org/content/view/1058/480 - broken link)
In this national study, it shows that income has little to do with redshirting. This is probably because in the midwest, many families do it because of athletics. However, in Atlanta, my experience is that you rarely find it in public schools and if you do,it is mostly in affluent ones. There is a definitely an income tie in here.
Right, when you graduated it was probably just starting at the lower grades and Pinetree Lover has it right -- the invention of pre-first (though implemented differently at different schools) has a lot to do with it. Also, as the admission pool grew, so did a school's flexibility to pick and choose.
As to the older grades question, we have a neighbor who is in his early 20s, who went to parochial school on time though he had an August birthday (last child, mom was done). When it was time for middle school, they moved schools and put him back in 5th grade to make sure he could get in the high school of their choice. BUT he wasn't performing well academically or behaviorally and needed a chance to clean up his act.
I have heard that the birthday is still considered even as kids get older (we saw here that one school put a should be 3rd grader in second grade next year) but again I have no proof of that.
Here is a little research on this
NCLD - Research Roundup: Redshirting — A "Moving" Experience (August 2006) (http://www.ncld.org/content/view/1058/480 - broken link)
In this national study, it shows that income has little to do with redshirting. This is probably because in the midwest, many families do it because of athletics. However, in Atlanta, my experience is that you rarely find it in public schools and if you do,it is mostly in affluent ones. There is a definitely an income tie in here.
Thank you for the link! I enjoyed reading the article as I am absolultely enthralled with the whole redshirting idea.
That makes perfect sense about it starting in the lower grades. Plus, as a high schooler, I can assure you the furthest thing from my mind was whether or not other private schools were redshirting their entry level students! I am just surprised that it has been around that long.... UGHHH, I am getting old :-)
The introduction of pre-first explains a lot. I was actually talking to my husband about this last night, and the pre-first program allows these schools to easily redshirt. I also agree that the large applicant pools (as well as the relative small number of spots/openings) makes redshirting easy.
CMMom, I wanted to follow up on one thing you said yesterday. You mentioned that redshirting in mostly a self-servicing practice for the private schools (loose paraphrase). I agree with you, but the really sad part is that "self-serving" interest comes at the expense of those people who the schools purport to educate. In theory, the main purpose of these schools is to educate and cultivate children into young men and women. With the introduction of redshirting, many highly qualified children are being ignored by the system.... left to either wallow in boredom for another year or become part of the public school system. I truly sympathesize with all parents who have this very difficult decision to make!
Another reason why you don't see redshirting as much in Georgia public schools is secondary to the restrictions on the state-funded Pre-K. If you send your child to one of the state, Hope-funded Pre-Ks, he or she can only attend one year. So, if after that year of Pre-K, you don't think he is ready to move on to Kindergarten, your only option is to repeat Pre-K in a private setting. I think this begins the public school trend of just sticking with your grade level as opposed to the option of "Pre-first" that many of the private schools offer.
Of note, at least one private school, Westminster, does not have a grade level called Kindergarten. They call that year before first grade "Pre-first" though it is not an extra, inserted year like it is at other private schools.
Pinetreelover, I think one if the main reasons that you do not see redshirting at the public schools is because of the lack of a selective admissions procedure. To enter a specific public school Kindergarten, you need to meet two requirements - age and residency. In that sense, the parents feeling that the child is not ready is the only reason a student would be held back. On the other hand, the private schools decide who they will admit. If a particular school decides not to take a child becuase he is too young (despite the parents thinking he is ready), it has created a "redshirt" that would not have existed in its public school counterpart.
I have heard that the birthday is still considered even as kids get older (we saw here that one school put a should be 3rd grader in second grade next year) but again I have no proof of that.
Yep. Yepper. Yessiree. Roger that. Can confirm. Si, si.
I wonder if, later on, down the road, the competitive private schools might end up regretting going down this path. Time will tell.
"What's good for General Motors is good for America." - GM Chairman and CEO, Charlie Wilson, 1955.
"What's good for [_________]* is good for the children who go here." - fake headmaster quote I just made up that seems to fit the bill here.
Yep. Yepper. Yessiree. Roger that. Can confirm. Si, si.
I wonder if, later on, down the road, the competitive private schools might end up regretting going down this path. Time will tell.
"What's good for General Motors is good for America." - GM Chairman and CEO, Charlie Wilson, 1955.
"What's good for [_________]* is good for the children who go here." - fake headmaster quote I just made up that seems to fit the bill here.
* insert school name of choice
Hex, did you decide to end up putting your child in second grade again at W? If so, what are your thoughts on this as you have had a few weeks to think this over? Your original post about your child being accepted for 2nd grade when you applied for 3rd grade was what really got me pulled into thus thread.
Also, I do think that the redshirting probably hold for all of elementary school. Any thoughts on if this true at the high school (or even middle school level)? I would think that a some point a child's proven academic record (and extracurriculars) becomes more important than a birthday. It is like applying for a job - at some point your job experience becomes much more important than where you went to college.
Question for waitlisted people...we were waitlisted at all 3 schools we applied to. Summer b'day so not the end of the world but still disappointing. We have a back up plan but really are not interested in holding our child back if not necessary as we feel that our child is very ready for school. Anyway- one of the waitlist letters had a very positive hand written note regarding my child's status as being near the top of the waitlist. Anyone else have anything like this? Wanting to know if this is standard at some schools or not so I don't set my hopes too high And how does this make sense if they don't rank the waitlists
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