Repeating a grade/age

We were moderately surprised how many repeat freshman there were at our child’s BS. We expected some significant reclassing for male athletes, but we also saw more than we expected on the girl’s side. Based solely on birth year (some may have reclassed prior to freshman year), there are as many 15-year old matriculating freshman as 14-year olds. There are very few 13 year-olds, and there are actually some 16-year old freshman (boys).

My view is that this should be primarily done for academic reasons unless money and time are of no object to your child or your family. If they would feel more academically confident with an extra year, that’s a good reason, but if he/she is capable of the work, don’t hold them back. Social maturity is in the eye of the beholder, and a lot of that will come down to fit. The school itself may give you guidance on this point if they like your kid but think it’s a little early.

One of the posters makes an interesting point about the correlation between the extra year in high school and the better matriculation rates in college. My personal view is that the correlation of good outcomes that comes from extra seasoning is highest on the athletic side, not academic side. Remember, by junior year–assuming your child is entering as a freshman–everyone will have caught up and be leveled into equally challenging classes. That is the biggest year that colleges look at. The “repeater edge” fades over time.

Even what we have seen thus far is that most of the kids that are repeating 9th grade are not, in most cases, visibly academically ahead of those that have not. The one exception is kids from overseas who repeated in order to augment language skills. They are absolute stars–working two, three, or even four years ahead in math and science.

I was going to mention @mr.Wendel’s point about foreign students. Many repeat to develop language skills, and as most BS have a fair number of foreign students, this can really move the needle in terms of percent of the class repeating. And many of these kids, given a relative weakness in English (relative to native speakers), tend to be rock stars in math and science.

Another hazard of stats…

Interesting how it can vary from school to school. At my kids’ school, I’d say the vast majority of international students weren’t older than their grade.

Actually, @doschicos, I don’t know what it is at my son’s school either. (His school had a robust ELL program, so it’s hard to say if kids would find this necessary). But over the years, for various non-school reasons, I have gotten to know quite a few families with kids in the States, and this approach (often using JBS) seems to have been common for English language learners, and I never gave it much thought because it seemed like a sensible solution to the language issue. I would be really curious to know how much it differs by school.