Editorial: 'Redshirting' kindergartners getting out of hand

More states now require children to turn 5 before they enroll in kindergarten. And more parents are voluntarily delaying their kids' entry into kindergarten — a step sometimes called "redshirting," after the college athletes who practice in red shirts but do not compete in games as freshmen, giving them an extra year of eligibility. Theoretically, the redshirted child gains by being the oldest rather than the youngest in the class. Not only might he or she be better prepared for classwork, being older might also make the child more confident or likely to be a leader.

In the early 1990s, about 9% of kindergartners were redshirted, according to data from the National Household Education Survey. Today, the percentage is double that — and the trend isn't necessarily a healthy one.

Certainly, parents are the best judges of whether a child should be held back or, in the parlance of advocates of delay, "given the extra year." Parents are in the best position to assess the quality of the school, the maturity of the student and the value of a pre-kindergarten alternative.

All well and good, to a point. The problem arises when everyone in a neighborhood starts to redshirt their children, leading to a bordering-on-ridiculous arms race to see who can have the biggest and most mature kid in kindergarten. So before you end up with elementary students old enough to drive themselves to school, here are some facts to consider: 

The performance gap between older and younger students becomes much narrower and might disappear completely at higher grades. This has led some researchers to conclude that differences between 5- and 6-year-old kindergartners result not from their relative ages but from the skills and experiences they acquired before kindergarten. Because these skills represent a shrinking proportion of total experiences as children grow up, older students gradually lose their relative advantage.

•Whatever the age and educational background of the child, a kindergarten classroom is almost always the place most conducive to learning. Children gain academic and social skills not through merely aging but through the activities and stimulation their parents and teachers provide. Entering earlier can be an advantage. And, of course, the child who starts school a year earlier eventually moves into the workforce a year younger, a career advantage.  

•Starting kindergarten later is especially likely to be detrimental to low-income households. Because those families cannot afford to send children to preschool or hire a devoted caregiver, the year is lost. The children are left to compete against redshirted children from better-off families who've been more thoroughly prepared.

•Since the point at which a student can legally drop out of school is determined by age, not grade, delaying the start of kindergarten means the student can legally drop out in, say, 10th grade rather than 11th grade, depending on the state law. Starting kindergarten at an older age can therefore mean one less year of total schooling for those who drop out.

• When the average age of students increases, kindergarten teachers might use a curriculum more suited to 6-year-olds, putting classmates as much as 18 months younger at a disadvantage and making teachers' jobs even harder.

It is the focus on a child's classmates, rather than the child's own readiness for kindergarten, that ultimately makes rampant redshirting detrimental. School districts across the nation handle the issue in different ways, with a variety of cutoff dates and policies for delayed entry. If parents in a particular area are unable or unwilling to control redshirting for purely competitive reasons, districts need to get tougher about enforcing deadlines while allowing reasonable flexibility for those who truly need the extra time.