Re: study of red****rting (late entrance to kndergarten)

In article <snu784pk3qieagmctoq4hmm2sa11t68vrn@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, toto says...
>
>On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:57:24 -0700 (PDT), Beliavsky
><beliavsky@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>NBER has a new study on the effects of red****rting. The abstract is at
>>http://papers.nber.org/papers/w14124
and the full paper at
>>http://www.nber.org/~dynarski/Deming_Dynarski_Childhood.pdf
. Overall
>>the authors appear negative about it:
>>
>>"We show that the decreased grade attainment of six-year-olds
>>reverberates well beyond the kindergarten classroom. Recent stagnation
>>in the high school and college completion rates of young people is
>>partly explained by their later start in primary school. The
>>relatively late start of boys in primary school explains a small but
>>significant ****tion of the rising gender gaps in high school
>>graduation and college completion. Increases in the age of legal
>>school entry intensify socioeconomic differences in educational
>>attainment, since lower-income children are at greater risk of
>>dropping out of school when they reach the legal age of school exit."
>
>I am too old for all the red****rting that is currently being done,
>but..
>
>Personal experience.  I went to school at 4.  This had to do with
>*wanting* to go, a promise from my dad and the local Catholic School's
>saying yes.   Academically, I was advanced and had no problem keeping
>up.  In elementary school, I was bored enough to read books during
>class behind my work and to finish work early.  My elementary school
>grades were all As.   In middle school, however, the social scene came
>into play and I was a very unhappy kid in junior high.  All the other
>girls were into *boys* and I was not.  High school was also an unhappy
>time socially, though less so than middle school.  Academically, I
>still did well, though I didn't make much effort and consequently was
>not in the most advanced cl***** I could have taken.  I graduated HS
>just after turning 17 and was very happy to go on to college.  

That's pretty much *my* story.  Except for the detail that it was a
Baptist
primary school was willing to take me early, then when I entered 2nd grade
after
a transfer the Texas public schools were obliged to let me continue.

Consider, though, if a lot of the awkwardness was from being a *smart*
kid, and
furthermore a smart *girl*.

>
>In the early 70s, I red****rted my son.  He was beyond the cutoff date,
>but he was small for his age and socially inept.  He was academically
>advanced, but the red****rting did not hurt him because they had
>multiage classrooms starting in 1st grade and they were willing to
>keep his academics advanced through cross-teaming where necessary.

Yep - with multiage classrooms this red****rting concern is greatly
attenuated,
as is the incentive for some parents to red****rt just to give their kids a
leg
up.

>His elementary school was still miserable, middle school less so and
>high school much better socially.  Academically, he had two years of
>calculus, AP physics, AP chemistry, AP biology and AP American History
>completed in HS.  He took a double major in chemical engineering and
>systems science with a minor in economics in 4 years of college and
>did quite well.
>
>His sister who was 3 years younger than he was went to K on time.  She
>had a good experience in elementary school, a horrible one for the
>first year of middle school, then things got better because we
>switched her to a school across town.  Her HS experience was pretty
>decent and she is still friends with many of the kids she hung around
>with in HS.  Academically, she too had no problems.  She graduated and
>went to college and did well there too.
>
>My granddaughter was one of the youngest in her K class, but her best
>friend is about 6 months older than she is and he was red****rted (he
>made the cutoff, but has a December birthday.  So far she is doing
>well, but we will see as she gets older.
>
>I do think that these things are individual and depend a lot on the
>particular child.  

Yep.  And there's the not knowing the path not taken.  People tend to say
"I
shoulda" but there's usually no real knowing.

>I tend to believe in red****rting for social
>reasons, but not for academics.  

Well, that was the given reason for my son's 2nd grade teacher's
recommendation.
But, it doesn't make sense.  If a kid takes a little while to catch up,
he's
being academically (from what he coudl have been if he continued) stuck
for
good.

>That's just my personal opinion and
>experience of the *beast.*

LOL, school as "the beast".  I think of it sometimes as something for me
to see
how to get my son to survive as unscathed as possible.  Only two years of
the
gauntlet to go  :-)

Banty