The Big Business of Holding Back Eighth-Graders

**Ryan Knutson** (0:07)
Are you set? Your bars are clear.

**AJ DeBonsa** (0:09)
Good.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:12)
Legs up. Ready, go.

**Christine** (0:14)
Let's go, push yourself.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:16)
This is the sound of finals at a middle school in Southern California.

**AJ DeBonsa** (0:20)
Let's go, Chance. Ah, go, Chamberlain.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:24)
And at this school, their finals aren't just on paper. They're also in the gym.
They're being tested for their speed, their strength. Here, they're doing pull-ups.

**AJ DeBonsa** (0:36)
Let's go.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:41)
This middle school is called the together-ship. And as you may have guessed, it isn't a typical school. It's a private school, where a major part of the curriculum is athletics.
There are classes like weightlifting and speed training. And they also have classes for specific sports, like the football players who work on running routes and throwing mechanics. Ready to go?

**Devin Quinn** (1:05)
Yeah, running routes, routes on air.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:07)
And the soccer players trying to score goals on each other.

**Michael** (1:11)
Good finish. You have to go, Cork.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:14)
The basketball students practicing their layups. The school was founded by a man named Devin Quinn.

**Devin Quinn** (1:27)
Each day, they have four classes, two academic, two athletic, but they alternate, they'll have, so like all these kids that are in an academic class right now, they will be in an athletic class their next period. And then after that, back to an academic class, and then the last period for them would be athletic.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:43)
The together-ship is part of a new phenomenon, a growing multi-million dollar cottage industry of private schools across the country that emphasize athletics. Another thing that makes these schools unusual is that they offer to hold students back a year, in middle school, specifically so they can get better at sports.

**Devin Quinn** (2:03)
And so if we can get this one more year to prepare them and get them set up so that they enter high school fully prepared, it's a really big advantage.

**Ryan Knutson** (2:14)
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Thursday, June 18th.
Coming up on the show, the big business of holding back eighth graders.

**SPEAKER_8** (2:41)
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**Ryan Knutson** (3:49)
Holding kids back isn't a new thing. But historically, it's only been done for academic or behavioral reasons, and it often comes with negative connotations.
Here's our colleague, Harriet Ryan, an investigative reporter.

**Harriet Ryan** (4:02)
I mean, getting held back when I was a child meant like you did not learn to read that year, you couldn't sit still, and they thought they're gonna give you another crack at third grade. But that's not what this hold back is.

**Ryan Knutson** (4:13)
Yeah, I mean, certainly I remember back in school, like that would be a way to tease someone.

**Harriet Ryan** (4:18)
Yeah, that one kid who's like a foot taller than everybody else in the class, yeah.

**Ryan Knutson** (4:21)
And if you did it specifically for sports, that was pretty fringe.

**Harriet Ryan** (4:26)
Those parents are seen as somewhat insane. Even by people who had their kids playing elite sports, they thought like somebody who would do that's kind of crazy.
And I will point to no greater source than the movie Varsity Blues, which was about overbearing football parents in Texas.

**SPEAKER_10** (4:43)
Gonna hold our toy back a year, so it'll be bigger for frost triads. Eighth grade ain't so bad, is it, son?

**Ryan Knutson** (4:50)
This started to change a few years ago, when college athletes suddenly were able to get paid.

**SPEAKER_11** (4:56)
After a historic ruling by the NCAA, collegiate athletes across the country have a newfound freedom. Freedom to make money. What allows college athletes to get paid for their name, image, and likeness in what can be lucrative NIL deals?