Fundamentals of Curriculum: Repeating School

Fundamentals of Curriculum: Repeating School
Position Paper
Repeating School
Fundamentals of Curriculum Development
Patricia McGhee
May 5, 2009

Many parents face the dilemma of deciding whether they should allow their child to repeat a grade. It is a difficult decision. In fact when a student is struggling with their school-work the possibility of repeating a year level is sometimes suggested by parents and /or teachers. Another measurement for retention has become the standardized testing brought about by No Child Left Behind. Based on the rules instituted by some state boards of education, students must pass certain portions of the standardized tests in order to go on to the next grade level. Glynis Hannel an educator, speaker and psychologist in 2006 stated, “The decision is seldom an easy one.” Parents having anxiety about their student not coping if they advance to the next year level is counterbalanced by fears that having to repeat a year will damage their self-esteem.

Another name for repeating school is retention. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing defines retention as the practice of holding a student in the same grade for a year or longer. Ironically, some educators are suggesting that retention is the best way to end social promotion. Douglas Reeves, Ph.D. and the author of 20-Minute Learning Connection: A Practical Guide for Parents Who Want to Help Their Children Succeed in School states “Social promotion—the practice in which teachers and administrators appear to be indifferent to a student’s academic challenges and promote them anyway—has been a disaster.”

Whether a student is hurt or helped by repeating school is one of the heated debates in education today. When President Clinton in a State of the Union address vowed to end social promotion and as he describes, “its polar extreme, grade retention” these issues again came to the forefront of educational debate. Many school districts have retention policies. These school districts passed strict promotion policies often tied to student performance on standardized tests. The belief about retention is that repeating a grade gives the student a chance to catch up. However, research suggests that repeating grades in school is not successful if the retention is not accompanied by intensive support and interventions for the student. In addition in a report by a 1999 National Academy of Sciences specifically recommended that students not be held back on the basis of a “high stakes test”. In the early 1990’s school districts in Boston, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia “rescinded their stringent promotion policies when research indicated a strong link between grade retention and drop out rates.” Now because of continued poor achievement by students states are passing laws forbidding social promotion and requiring schools to reinstate retention policies. In the document, The Balanced View: Social Promotion & Retention, it is stated that a good many political leaders are arguing for retention as the best response to student failure.

There are some factors that make it sensible for a student to repeat a year.
Repeating is sensible if there is an understanding of the reasons why the student is facing difficulties.
Repeating is sensible if there are in place appropriate arrangements to deal with those difficulties the students will face in the repeated year level class.
The student is immature for their age and there is a plan in place to help the student develop maturity during the year he/she repeats.
Because of other factors the student has had less schooling than current classmates.
By repeating the grade level, the student will have the opportunity to gain academic confidence being in a class where they can succeed in their school work.
The student will have the opportunity to gain social confidence.
The student accepts the need to repeat.
Repeating a grade is sensible if the student repeating has friends in the younger year level.
Repeating a grade is sensible if the student being considered for repeating is physically immature and would fit in with the younger age group easily.
Finally, it is sensible for a student to repeat a grade if he/she is changing schools and will be repeating the year in the new school.

There are also situations that may make it unwise for a student to repeat a year. One, the student is already older than the students in their current year level. Two, the student socializes well with their current classmates and even older students. Third, if the student will be able to cope with the curriculum with modifications and support then it may be unwise to have that student repeat a year. Four, the students is physically mature. Five, students will face demoralizing behavior from fellow students. Six, the student sees the repeated year as an unwarranted punishment. Finally, it would be unwise for a student to repeat a grade if the teacher in the repeated grade level will be unable to meet the student’s needs and no other options are available. When students are faced with having to repeat a grade they sometimes feel sad and angry. The idea of repeating a grade may be very stressful for students. One researcher states that sixth grade students said repeating a grade was more of a disastrous then the loss of a parent or being blind. Students feel embarrassed or ashamed when faced with repeating a grade.

Social promotion and retention both try to fix problems after they have occurred. The following are some approaches that have been successful in helping academically struggling students and eliminating retention and social promotion. One approach is one-to-one tutoring. A second solution that has a good track record is extended day /after school programs. A third solution that has worked is having extra help periods worked into the students’ and teachers’ schedules. Fourth, Saturday classes for students needing extra help have also had good results. Requiring students to attend summer school is a strategy that may aid in combating social promotion and retention. In addition, these opportunities must be available to students as soon as they need help and should be integrated with ongoing classroom work. It is also important that the help is provided by “skilled teachers who understand the nature of the student’s learning difficulty.” However, as stated in the research report entitled, The Balanced View: Social Promotion and Retention, none of these options is simple or inexpensive to implement.