Between September and January, she said, most kindergartners learn to operate as functional members of a community. But decisions about when to start children in kindergarten can be complicated, even in the best of times. Parents tend to hold boys back more than girls, perhaps based on the perception that boys are less mature than girls at that age. Waiting can have benefits, particularly for children who have trouble self-regulating, said Thomas Dee, Ph.D., an economist who studies education policy at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. But redshirting isn’t necessarily the best choice for every kid, even when it seems like the right thing to do in the months leading up to kindergarten, Schanzenbach said.

Source: New York Times July 23, 2020 15:45 UTC