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.

Schanzenbach is a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University and director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Along with Stephanie Howard Larson, Diane is the author of the article “Is your child ready for kindergarten?” which will appear in the Summer 2017 issue of the journal.

The EdNext Podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher and here every Wednesday.

—Education Next