Kindergarten Redshirting: Implications for Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues and concerns related to academic redshirting in kindergarten and to discuss implications of this practice for children with disabilities. Although parents cite a variety of reasons for redshirting their child, only limited evidence of academic or social benefit can be found. A search was conducted to identify studies relevant to academic redshirting and inclusive of children with disabilities published within the past 20 years, and 17 articles were identified related to the topic. From these articles, three central topics emerged: (a) prevalence, predictors, or parent motivations for kindergarten redshirting, (b) the impact of redshirting on academic achievement and post-secondary outcomes, and (c) the impact of this practice on a child’s behavior. While assumptions can be made based on the research conducted using a general education population, the impact of kindergarten redshirting on the success of children with disabilities is unclear due to the limited amount of research that currently exists. Implications for children with disabilities are discussed.

Socio-Demographical Factors on Academic Redshirting as Perceived by School-going Adolescents with Special Needs

This study investigated some socio-demographical on academic redshirting as perceived by school-going adolescents with special needs in Ibadan, Nigeria. As a quantitative study, the principles of descriptive design of correlational type was adopted. The results revealed that academic redshirting had significant positive correlation with age, and negatively but significant with interest in schooling, parental involvement and community support. It was concluded that early enrolment of children with special needs is critical to initiate adolescents with special needs' interest in schooling and sense of belonging.

First in the Class? Age and the Education Production Function

We estimate the effects of relative age in kindergarten using data from an experiment where children of the same age were randomly assigned to different kindergarten classmates. We exploit the resulting experimental variation in relative age in conjunction with variation in expected kindergarten entry age based on birthdate to account for negative selection of some of the older school entrants. We find that, holding constant own age, having older classmates on average improves educational outcomes, increasing test scores up to eight years after kindergarten, and raising the probability of taking a college-entry exam. These findings suggest that delaying kindergarten entry, or so-called academic “redshirting,” does not harm other children—and may in fact benefit them—consistent with positive spillovers from higher-scoring or better-behaved peers.