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Have any of you had your kids return to public school after home schooling and how did that go?
We're considering sending our 8th grader back to public school next term, but he'd repeat Grade 8. I don't think he is ready to return to school AND deal with high school.
Have any of you had your kids return to public school after home schooling and how did that go?
We're considering sending our 8th grader back to public school next term, but he'd repeat Grade 8. I don't think he is ready to return to school AND deal with high school.
Do NOT have him repeat grade 8. There is a stigma attached to repeating a grade.
Although not the same situation, our son went from a small private school (10 kids in 5th grade class) to a large public middle school. In his case, he is very outgoing/gregarious, so transitioned well.
How does your son feel about the change?
IMHO, having him change schools for 8th grade, then again for 9th grade might be worse. In 9th grade, kids are (usually) coming from more than one middle school, and everyone is "new".
As for repeating 8th grade, no one would know if he didn't tell anyone. A relative of mine blamed it on the school, saying they wouldn't accept records from a school she attended the prior year. (of course, I'm sure people wondered why her brother, in the same situation, did not repeat...)
As a teacher, I have limited experience with returning homeschoolers (just a couple, and they were not American-born), but I can tell you that if you do send him to public school he will have the best chance at success if you do not have him repeat a grade. There are two reasons for this.
First, nearly all research on retention shows that it is rarely helpful, often harmful. One of the issues that comes up is the age placement. Being older than the other kids in the class has been shown to have a negative effect on students, including making them much more likely to drop out of high school. There are many reasons for this, but I won't go into them - suffice to say I have seen many students in the upper age range suffer a number of social and emotional difficulties as a direct result of their age. It may seem like only a year, but during puberty a year can be a big deal.
Second, it is actually easier to start high school than do the last year of middle school. The first year of high school lots of kids are new, maybe a number of schools are coming together, and everything is new for everyone. That would actually make it easier for him. He would not feel so left out. Also, there is considerably more freedom in high school, and a homeschooler might have an easier time dealing with high school than middle school for that reason.
So send him if you want, but don't have him repeat a grade. That would actually stack the deck against him.
As a teacher, I have limited experience with returning homeschoolers (just a couple, and they were not American-born), but I can tell you that if you do send him to public school he will have the best chance at success if you do not have him repeat a grade. There are two reasons for this.
First, nearly all research on retention shows that it is rarely helpful, often harmful. One of the issues that comes up is the age placement. Being older than the other kids in the class has been shown to have a negative effect on students, including making them much more likely to drop out of high school. There are many reasons for this, but I won't go into them - suffice to say I have seen many students in the upper age range suffer a number of social and emotional difficulties as a direct result of their age. It may seem like only a year, but during puberty a year can be a big deal.
Second, it is actually easier to start high school than do the last year of middle school. The first year of high school lots of kids are new, maybe a number of schools are coming together, and everything is new for everyone. That would actually make it easier for him. He would not feel so left out. Also, there is considerably more freedom in high school, and a homeschooler might have an easier time dealing with high school than middle school for that reason.
So send him if you want, but don't have him repeat a grade. That would actually stack the deck against him.
I know a family who had two sons repeat a grade when they moved or switched schools. They didn't do it for academic reasons; they did it for athletic reasons. Since they were going to a new school, there was no stigma. It didn't affect their athletic eligibility since they had not reached high school and they were would not reach age 19 by the time they graduated from HS. The "red shirt" year helps many boys who tend to mature later. It would have much less of an advantage for most girls.
I know a family who had two sons repeat a grade when they moved or switched schools. They didn't do it for academic reasons; they did it for athletic reasons. Since they were going to a new school, there was no stigma. It didn't affect their athletic eligibility since they had not reached high school and they were would not reach age 19 by the time they graduated from HS. The "red shirt" year helps many boys who tend to mature later. It would have much less of an advantage for most girls.
"I know a family..." is called anecdotal evidence. It is the unfortunate reason that many teachers continue to retain students, in spite of the overwhelming empirical evidence that it is rarely helpful. It is important not to base important life-altering decision on "I know someone who...." as opposed to "1000 students were carefully tracked from kindergarten to college....." Also, red-shirting is not the same as retention. It is the practice of having children with late birthdays (i.e. summer or early fall) begin school when they are 5 or 6 as opposed to 4 or 5. It is not the same as repeating a grade and does not typically result in a student who is much older than his or her peers.
"I know a family..." is called anecdotal evidence. It is the unfortunate reason that many teachers continue to retain students, in spite of the overwhelming empirical evidence that it is rarely helpful. It is important not to base important life-altering decision on "I know someone who...." as opposed to "1000 students were carefully tracked from kindergarten to college....." Also, red-shirting is not the same as retention. It is the practice of having children with late birthdays (i.e. summer or early fall) begin school when they are 5 or 6 as opposed to 4 or 5. It is not the same as repeating a grade and does not typically result in a student who is much older than his or her peers.
You interpreted what you wanted to interpret. Did I mention teachers retaining students? Did I say red-shirting is the same as retention? I used the term, "redshirting," the way it was originally invented. It has to do with holding college athletes out a year from competition to give them four years of eligibility over a 5-year period. The term as used with having kids with late birthdays starting school later was copied from college athletics.
You state that, "many teachers continue to retain students..." Do you have statistics to cite on that? I have rarely seen that happen in recent decades. I remember it happening in the 1960's, and it had a positive effect. In fact, my third grade teacher routinely held back students who did not learn their multiplication tables. I can assure you the ones in my class who had repeated third grade had no problem learning them with the same teacher the second time around.
The only option that would appear to be a better solution than retention is ability based classrooms as opposed to age based grades.
You interpreted what you wanted to interpret. Did I mention teachers retaining students? Did I say red-shirting is the same as retention? I used the term, "redshirting," the way it was originally invented. It has to do with holding college athletes out a year from competition to give them four years of eligibility over a 5-year period. The term as used with having kids with late birthdays starting school later was copied from college athletics.
You state that, "many teachers continue to retain students..." Do you have statistics to cite on that? I have rarely seen that happen in recent decades. I remember it happening in the 1960's, and it had a positive effect. In fact, my third grade teacher routinely held back students who did not learn their multiplication tables. I can assure you the ones in my class who had repeated third grade had no problem learning them with the same teacher the second time around.
The only option that would appear to be a better solution than retention is ability based classrooms as opposed to age based grades.
Yes, teachers continue to retain students. I'm a teacher. I have sat on the retention committee several times. In my last school I'd say about 10-15 kids per year were recommended for retention by their teachers (that's almost half the teachers in the school recommending at least one student), and of those the principal approved usually only 2 or 3.
When my family moved to our new state, I enrolled my then 2nd grader in a private school. It did not suit him well. He was in a combined 1/2 grade, and I enrolled him in public school in March of what was his second grade year. When he went to public school I requested that he be placed in a 1st grade class as he did not seem to have benefited AT ALL for the 3/4 of the year he attended his private school. It was the best thing I ever did for my child. He truly came into his own and has been a very successful student. He just recently graduated 5th grade with an excellency in science award and honor roll for all 4 quaters in reading. His birthday is in Sept. and did start school at age 5, and I had debated when to send him to kindergarten. As if played out I, he is where he would have been if I had waited till he was 6 to enroll him. For my child retention was a great gift after a poor placement.
This would seem to be a little different situation than most potential retentions: the student in question has been homeschooled, so no one would need to know that he was retained. That should lessen the social stigma. It might be just fine if he's not considerably older than the kids in the grade he'd be going into.
That said, I'd definitely be a lot more leery about sending my kid to middle school for his (I'm assuming) first public school experience as opposed to high school. Yes, if he's college bound he'd have to get up to speed quickly with the workload and teachers' expectations, because his grades will be on his transcript. But socially high school is easier than middle school in a lot of ways. And he'll have a lot more options of activities to get involved with, which will help him integrate.
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