Redshirting in Kindergarten Running Head: Redshirting in Kindergarten The Extent, Patterns, and Implications of Kindergarten ―Redshirting‖

Kindergarten ―redshirting‖—the decision to delay a child‘s kindergarten entry—may have consequences both for the redshirted child and for other children whose grade cohort will be affected. We use longitudinal data from a nationally-representative sample of children born in 2001 to estimate the prevalence of redshirting, its relationship to family and child characteristics, and its impact on the composition of kindergarten cohorts. We find that only 4% of children delay kindergarten entry, a lower number than reported in other studies and the media. Boys, white children, and children from homes with higher socioeconomic status are substantially more likely to delay kindergarten entry than their peers. However, delayed entry is not related to children‘s social or cognitive skills prior to school entry. Given the small number of students who delay entry nationwide, redshirting has only modest effects on the composition of kindergarten cohorts and the magnitude of kindergarten achievement gaps.