Redshirting is the practice of postponing entrance into kindergarten of age-eligible children in order to allow extra time for socioemotional, intellectual, or physical growth.
[3] In the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that academic redshirting occurs at the rate of about 9% per year among kindergarten-age children, according to surveys from 1993 and 1995.
Research on academic redshirting suggests that, in the short term, redshirting (1) raises the child's academic achievement (math, reading, general knowledge) and conduct on par with or above that of younger classmates;[15] (2) increases the child's confidence in social interactions and popularity among classmates;[16] and (3) may simply add to the normal mix of ages and abilities within the classroom.
Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers discusses the longterm positive effect of redshirting in men's ice hockey,[19] while an old-for-year advantage is not seen for many other sports, and appears to depend on intensive coaching of larger players in early childhood.
[20] In another large study, the youngest fifth-graders scored a little lower than their classmates, but five points higher in verbal I.Q., on average, than fourth-graders of the same age.
[21] These studies are consistent with the idea that the source of increased opportunity in this case is school itself, with effects that are more favorable to students who are surrounded by children who are older than themselves.
[8][9] Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt focus on redshirting kindergartners in relation to sports, rather than parental appeals to emotional and academic maturity.
Coaches often mistake this difference for natural aptitude and respond by giving the older children on their T-ball or soccer teams more opportunities to improve their skills.