Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It by Richard V. Reeves

Author:Richard V. Reeves [Reeves, Richard V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Men's Studies, Gender Studies, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Policy, Political Process, Political Advocacy, Activism & Social Justice, Family & Relationships, Parenting, General, Self-Help, Gender & Sexuality, Psychology, Developmental, Adulthood & Aging
ISBN: 9780815739883
Google: -9xxEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0815739877
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 2022-09-26T18:30:00+00:00

WILL REDSHIRTING WORK?

Would a delayed start for boys narrow the gender gap? I don’t know for sure. Such a significant change in education policy is hard to evaluate in advance. But the evidence from studies of redshirting makes me hopeful that it could help quite a lot. A raft of studies of redshirted boys have shown dramatic reductions in hyperactivity and inattention through the elementary school years, higher levels of life satisfaction, lower chances of being held back a grade later, and higher test scores.⁹

Schanzenbach is the scholar who has conducted the most recent high-quality study of redshirting, along with Elizabeth Cascio of Dartmouth College, using data from Tennessee. The children in their sample were disproportionately lower income and racially diverse. Half were getting free or reduced-price lunch in kindergarten. A third were Black. Overall, Schanzenbach and Cascio find that being a year older had a positive impact on test scores in eighth grade, reduced the risks of repeating a grade before high school, and improved the chances of taking the SAT or ACT at the end of high school. But the benefits for boys were at least twice as big as for girls on all the outcome measures through 8th grade, and by high school only boys were seeing any gains. Cascio and Schanzenbach also find the biggest gains for lower-income students, which as they note, “stands in contrast to the observed patterns in which higher-income children are substantially more likely to be redshirted.”¹⁰ Lastly, they find no negative effects on the younger classmates of redshirted children. If anything, they say, there are modestly positive “spillover” effects.

So redshirting provides a long-term positive benefit for boys in particular, especially those from poorer backgrounds, with no adverse effects on their classmates. Importantly, these results were driven not by a relative age effect but an absolute age effect—which is what my redshirting policy is intended to deliver. One of the most encouraging findings from the study was a big reduction in the risk of being held back a grade later on. Grade retention is massively unequal by race, gender, and economic background: one in four Black boys (26%) have repeated at least one grade before they leave high school.¹¹ By redshirting boys from the outset, we can reduce their risk of being held back a year later on.

Cascio and Schanzenbach’s findings are consistent with another study by Philip Cook and Songman Kang, using data from North Carolina.¹² Their analysis shows that redshirted children are doing significantly better in both reading and math by the end of third grade. Looking at gender gaps within racial groups, they find that the 10% redshirting rate among white boys reduced the overall gender gap among white students in third grade reading by 11%.

There is some qualitative evidence here too. An in-depth study by Suzanne Stateler Jones of Collin College found a much higher level of life satisfaction among summer-born adolescent boys who had been redshirted, compared to their peers.¹³ Among those who started school at the prescribed age, she said a common refrain was, “I’m always trying to keep up.

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