MCFARLAND, Wis. -- "Redshirting" is a common term in sports. It's the practice of having the youngest players on a team sit out their first year in order to gain another year of eligibility when they're older and most likely stronger.

VIDEO: Watch The Report | TALKBACK: What Age Is Right Age For Kindergarten?

The University of Wisconsin Badgers count basketball star Mike Wilkinson and football standouts Tyler Donovan and P.J. Hill among their recent redshirts.

Now, the term is being applied to children whose parents hold them out and enter them into kindergarten at age 6, rather than age 5.

Studies have found the practice happens more often for boys with birthdays in June, July and August. The practice means the youngest children in a class will then become the oldest in the class the following year, WISC-TV reported.

"They'll look at the kindergarten entrance age and say, 'My child is not ready yet. I'll wait a year and then have them go to kindergarten the following year,'" said UW professor Beth Graue.

After researching the practice for nearly 20 years, Graue is an expert in kindergarten readiness. The former kindergarten teacher is also the mother of a son with a summer birthday.

"When I was five months pregnant, I was asked if I was going to redshirt my child because I knew he was going to be a boy born in August," explained Graue. "I said, 'You know, I think I should look at him first.'"

Graue said on average, between 7 and 9 percent of students are redshirted each year in the country.

Parents make the choice for various reasons. Some believe their child isn't ready socially, emotionally or physically. Some believe their child needs more time to focus on behavior or academics before kindergarten. For others, it's family beliefs.

"You'll have a dad who was always the youngest and smallest in class and doesn't want that for his child," said Graue.

She said the decision to hold or send can start even before the child is born.

"There are people that don't make the decision until the first day of kindergarten," said Graue. "There are people who make the decision the year before as they get advice from various experts, pediatricians, preschool teachers. There are people who make the decision before they have a baby."

Brad and Nicole Pavelec said they didn't think about school age until the year their oldest child was about to go.

Their daughter would have turned 5 the day before school started.

"Nicole and I were going back and forth in terms of what we should do," said Brad Pavelec. "We took a look; is she mentally ready? Is she physically ready?"

The Pavelecs said it was a difficult decision.

"As a parent, you don't want your child to struggle in school," said Nicole Pavelec.

The Pavelecs polled friends, family and their children's caregivers.

"The final decision as we were holding back Libby was that we met a girl who would have been in Libby's kindergarten class who had roughly a November birthday, who would have been about nine months older," said Pavelec. "We took a look at the maturity level difference and that was the final straw. We said yes, we are holding her back."

Their daughter is now a thriving first-grader and the decision to hold their son came much easier.

"I think one more year of maturity is definitely going to help them out," said Pavelec.

"There is no evidence that there is a perfect age that is going to guarantee that children are going to do well," said Graue.

Graue advocates for sending children to school on time. She said the practice of redshirting creates several problems in the classroom once 5-year-olds and redshirts are placed together.

"If you look at the big picture of who gets redshirted, the kids who get redshirted tend to be the more affluent, more well-educated parents so they tend to be the ones who've had enriched preschool experience and high quality day care programs so not only do they have the advantage of age, but they also have the advantage of enriched time during that period," said Graue.

"That sets up a disparity that makes the older child look even more ready, actually kind of an artificial one," she said. "Relative to a 5-year-old who, this may be their first time in any kind of schooling program, so you get the socioeconomic gap laid on top of the age gap."

The age gap can be up to 15 months difference.

"What that does is it pulls the kindergarten curriculum into a more first-grade like program that then takes just 5-year-olds and it can be a problem if you don't have skilled teacher who can differentiate to meet all those needs," she said.

Nancy Walsh-Boeder, who's the McFarland School District's reading specialist and a former teacher, said that she has seen the change on the classroom.

"The whole kindergarten feel is changing because we have so many children coming much more academically prepared than they had in the past," said Walsh-Boeder.

Walsh-Boeder said the age gap in kindergarten can be tough for teachers.

"It's very hard to reach all of those kids when you have all of that," she said. "You have to be able to meet all of those needs within your own classroom setting."

"I think kindergarten teachers are vastly underrated," said Graue. "You have to be conditioned like an athlete because physically it's such hard work. You need to have a sense of humor and patience. I think you have to be a fine intellect because you're having to knit together a program that meets so many complex needs at so many levels, bringing in so many resources. It's a big cognitive job."

Former WISC-TV anchor Pam Tauscher has blogged and talked openly about her decision to send her son Jake to school on time. Jake has an August birthday.

"At some point last year, he asked me if he was the youngest in the classroom and I said, 'Yes, I bet you are because your birthday is two weeks before school starts.'"

Tauscher said she never considered not sending him to school on time.

"During our last months at preschool, I discovered that two of his friends who had summer birthdays were not going to go to school in the fall and I was dumbfounded. I wondered if we should be doing that," Tauscher said.

She said that she gave the idea some thought, checked with Jake's teachers and friends then decided to stick with her original plan to send him to school.

"He had a really good kindergarten year," said Tauscher. "Just like any kindergartener he had some issues, had issues with lunch, had some issues with how long the day is because it's a full day."

Jake is now a successful first-grader.

"He's doing all the benchmarks he's supposed to do," said Tauscher. "Socially he fits in well. He has no apparent issues with being the youngest. He's the youngest at home, too."

When asked whether she'll ever second guess her decision, Tauscher answered, "When they drive, when they go off to college, he'll just be turning 18, I think we'll probably second guess it forever."

But, she added that she knows in her heart he made the right decision for Jake.

"He wanted to go. He was ready to go. His preschool teacher said all of his testing showed he was ready to go. I just felt like it was the right thing to do for him to go to school when it was time, and it was time," she said. "You just have to know your child."

Graue recommends that parents do their research before making a decision.

"Listen to the caregivers and teachers that your child currently has, their preschool teachers, their day care providers, Sunday school teacher, anybody that can give you information on how they are in a group," she said.

The studies done on kindergarten age readiness give conflicting results.

A study by the National Center for Education Statistics showed that by middle school, redshirted boys had an academic advantage over the younger boys in the class, especially in reading, but the findings are statistically small.

Graue said some of her research has found that redshirted students could end up with more social or emotional problems in high school because they are older than their peers.

Again, she cautions the findings are small.

Overall, Graue said the academic and age difference tends to level out by about third grade.

The issue isn't simply black and white. For many families, there are shades of gray, WISC-TV reported.

"The people that went early, some of them had regrets and the ones who held back, none of them had regrets," said Pavelec. "We thought there was no downside for holding them back."

"We decided we need to do what's right for Libby. We know her better than anyone else," said Nicole Pavelec.

School District Policies Regarding Kindergarten Age

Janesville

The Janesville School District offers Early Childhood, Pre-K and 4-Year-Old Kindergarten as part of its early learning.

Coordinators in those programs work closely with parents and teachers to screen and evaluate student placement," said district public information specialist Sheryl Miller.

The programs help to place students at the age and academically appropriate level of entrance into kindergarten. Parents and staff also work closely together to evaluate the developmental and academic needs of a student prior to placement.

Baraboo

Baraboo School District had more than 200 students enrolled in kindergarten this school year.

Of those enrolled, only three were age-eligible for kindergarten last year

"We don't see a large number of students held back in our district," said Baraboo Director of Curriculum and Instruction Crystal Ritzenthaler. "We actually get more requests for early entry into kindergarten."

Ritzenthaler said if parents have questions about kindergarten readiness they meet with the Baraboo school psychologist. Some testing may also be done at the parents or psychologist's request.

Baraboo holds a kindergarten round-up in the spring for parents and students at the kindergarten center so parents and students can see what the expectations are for the fall.

During that time, teachers might pick up on students who have special needs.

Monroe

Monroe School District Administrator Larry Brown said the decision to redshirt a child for kindergarten or send them on time is strictly a parent choice issue.

"Our building principals and their staff will make recommendations and help parents if asked," said Brown. "We do initiate meetings with parents of our 4k students if we feel there are significant educational issues to be considered."

This school year, approximately 11 percent of the kindergarten class, or 18 students, have birthdays which would have allowed them to enroll in school last year.

For More Info:

Education World
Kidsource.com
Education.com
Wisconsin Center For Educational Research