The birth date disadvantage; new survey with Jo Knox

The birth date disadvantage; new survey with Jo Knox

From School Shorts by Melissa Chan-Green

April 12, 2026 · 33 min · Season 1 · Episode 65

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of birth month on academic success and the inequities in the current enrollment process as revealed by a new survey.

Last we spoke to Jo Knox on the podcast we looked at what birth month was best for academic success. There has not been a lot of specific research on this topic but there are some indicators which point to being the oldest in your school year leads to better educational outcomes. That might not necessarily be surprising but what is interesting is a new survey has found that a large percentage of teachers spoken to, believe the current enrolment process is inequitable and leads to unfair and unnecessary pressure on some teachers and some students. Pressure that could ultimately end up influencing their school journey. We look at the results of the survey, the barriers to change and what you can do if your child is caught up in a situation where they might be disadvantaged because of where their birthday falls. In the episode to follow this, we will be speaking with a representative from the Ministry of Education in New Zealand about the reasonings behind the specific rolling enrolment process and what they might look to investigate at some point in the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Melissa Chan-Green

Guest: Jo Knox

Topics covered

  • birth month
  • academic success
  • enrollment process
  • educational outcomes
  • teacher perspectives

Keywords

  • birth date disadvantage
  • academic outcomes
  • enrollment inequity
  • teacher survey
  • educational barriers

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ministry of Education in New Zealand

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