Ep. 81 - April 19, 2017: Should You Hold Your Child Back from Kindergarten?

Each year, millions of parents nationwide must make a seemingly life-altering decision for their soon-to-be kindergartener: to redshirt or not to redshirt. Many parents believe that so-called “academic redshirting,” or the act of delaying a student’s kindergarten entrance by one year, will give their children a leg up not only when they first enroll in school, but throughout their educational careers and later in life. But is redshirting preschoolers really advantageous? Could it do more harm than good? In this week’s episode, Marty West talks with Diane Schanzenbach, about the down side of academic redshirting. Read her article, "Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?," co-written with Stephanie Howard Larson, here: http://educationnext.org/is-your-child-ready-kindergarten-redshirting-may-do-more-harm-than-good/