Sunday, April 18, 2010

Repeating School
(Also known as retention, non-promotion, flunking, failing, being held back, & the gift of time)
By Liane Ferguson

Repeating a current grade level the following school year for some students continues to be a common practice in our school systems across the country. According to Lange (2004), grade level retention has been an educational practice in American schools for over a century. The idea of retention and whether struggling students benefit more from repeating a grade or moving ahead with their peers to the next grade level has been a topic of debate among educators and policymakers for decades. It seems that everyone has his/her own opinion on retention, including students, parents, educators, administrators, and the layperson. While policies for grade level retention vary from school to school/district to district, statistics indicate that there has been a recent increase in the number of student retentions. This trend appears to be mainly attributed to the “reform” movement that emphasizes national- or state-wide grade-level standards and accountability (the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001), using grade-level tests to determine which students are promoted to the next grade and which students will be retained. According to Anderson, Whipple, and Jimerson (2002) an estimated 2.4 million (5-10%) students are retained every year in the United States. According to David (2008), solid statistics are difficult to obtain on retention, however, estimates suggest that approximately 10-20 % of students are retained at least once in their school careers. The National Center for Education Statistics (2006), report that black students are more than twice as likely to be retained than white students, and boys are twice as likely to repeat a grade than girls. According to David (2008), teacher judgment played a larger role in the determinations of student retentions in the past, however, more recently due to high-stakes testing, states and urban districts are basing requirements for promotion on a single test score.

Arguments in favor of student retention and the reasons to repeat a grade level, include the following: (1) immaturity, (2) the belief that an extra year of schooling will produce future successful outcomes, (3) failure to meet criteria for promotion, (4) frequent/ unexcused absences, and (5) the threat of retention may motivate students who do not apply themselves in school to invest more effort into their studies.

Research indicates that there is no evidence supporting retention as beneficial and suggests that retention may actually be harmful. According to Jimerson, Woehr, and Kaufman (2007), research indicates that neither grade level retention nor social promotion (the practice of promoting students so that they may be with their grade-level peers even though they have not mastered the current grade level content) has proven to enhance a child’s learning. While initial academic improvements may occur during the year a student is retained, research studies show that academic achievement gains actually decline within 2-3 years following the repeating of a grade level, suggesting only a temporary positive academic effect of retention.

Further research suggests significant negative effects of retention/repeating a grade level. Some of the negative effects of retention/repeating a grade level are the following:
  • Significant financial cost to retaining students
  • Lowers self-esteem/self-concept of retained students
  • Produces lower rates of school attendance of retained students
  • Noted increase in behavioral problems of retained students, including aggressiveness, acting out in the classroom, and a history of suspension or expulsion – Byrd, Weitzman, and Auinger (1997), reported a correlation between students being over-age for their grade because of retention and behavioral problems in children and adolescents.
  • Increases drop-out rates (Research supports correlative relationship with dropping out of school and experiencing lower paying jobs as a result of not completing high school and higher rates of mental health problems, chemical abuse, and criminal activities for students retained than high school graduates).
  • Evidence suggests that when retained children went on to the next grade following the retention of a grade level, they actually performed more poorly on average than if they had gone on without repeating.
  • Linked to academic failure in the future
  • Creates stress and anxiety/negative emotional impact on retained students - One study suggests that students view retention as more stressful than the death of a parent or going blind.
  • Retained students are less likely to be enrolled in post-secondary schools.
  • Children with disabilities are more likely to be retained and are more likely to be diagnosed the year following retention.
  • Typically, students held back do not catch up – Studies suggest that low-performing students learn more when promoted.
  • Students retained report being teased by other students/negative perceptions of retention
The strong evidence of these research studies regarding the ineffectiveness of retention and its harmful effects is not intended to suggest that we are to do away with retention altogether; for a small number of students retention has proven to have some benefits. However, evidence suggests that retention appears to work only on the younger students with a plan for remediation and for the children who agree with their parents on repeating a school year. Retention should be determined on an individual basis.

Research, however, is suggesting that it would be in the best interest of struggling students facing retention that alternatives to retention be considered first (retention should only be a last measure). While research does not provide support for the effectiveness of retention it does, however, provide evidence to support the effectiveness of educational interventions/alternative strategies to retention. Studies indicate that it would also be in the best interest financially for school systems to implement alternatives to retention/ repeating a grade level since it is so costly to retain students. If our school systems use progress monitoring to determine weaknesses early on in a child’s school year, we can provide remedial academic and behavioral/emotional supports needed to reduce the number of retentions, possibly eliminating many of them. Some of the alternatives to retention/repeating a grade level are listed below.

Alternatives to Retention to assist students functioning below grade level:
  • No-cost peer tutoring/Tutoring
  • Target instruction to address weaknesses
  • Remedial help
  • Before- and after-school programs
  • Summer school
  • Possibly an extended school year
  • Training and hiring qualified teachers who are able to implement a variety of teaching strategies to support students
  • Change retention and promotion policies
  • Provide instructional assistants in the classroom
  • Early reading programs
If there is significant evidence through research to prove that retention/repeating a grade level is not effective and can be truly harmful to our students why does it continue to be a common practice in our school systems?

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