Thousands of third-graders may have a sense of déjà vu on the first day of school this year: The number of states that require third-graders to be held back if they can’t read increased to 13 in the last year.
Retention policies are controversial because the research is mixed for students who are held back, but a report published on August 16th by the Brookings Institution suggests that at least for younger children who struggle with reading, repeating a grade may be beneficial.
The report, which examined a decade-old retention policy in Florida, was authored by Martin West of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He argues that “the decision to retain a student is typically made based on subtle considerations involving ability, maturity, and parental involvement that researchers are unable to incorporate into their analyses. As a result, the disappointing outcomes of retained students may well reflect the reasons they were held back in the first place rather than the consequences of being retained.”
West comes to the following conclusion:
“Retained students continue to perform markedly better than their promoted peers when tested at the same grade level and, assuming they are as likely to graduate high school, stand to benefit from an additional year of instruction.”
The spread of stricter retention policies is connected to a wider movement to ensure all children are reading proficiently by third grade. The idea is based on research showing that children who don’t reach that target are often left behind as their classes move from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
(photo courtesy of David Shankbone)
Retention is not the only, or even the main, instrument in the toolbox promoted by advocates in the reading-by-third-grade movement. Intensive interventions, including pulling struggling readers out of class for individual or small-group tutorials, have become increasingly popular in many schools around the country. More states are also enshrining efforts to identify struggling readers and provide them early interventions in the law, as Education Week has reported.
Even so, the use of retention, even as a last resort for students who aren’t reading well enough on time, is still fraught with problems, many experts say. A report on third-grade literacy policies by the Education Commission of the States (ECS), published in March 2012, outlined what can go wrong with strict retention policies:
“While some researchers have found that retained students ‘can significantly improve their grade-level skills during their repeated year,’ others have found that less than half of retained students meet promotion standards after attending summer school and repeating a grade. Some research points to other negative effects, including a greater likelihood of bullying and victim behavior, or dropping out of high school.”
That is, assuming that retained students are no less likely than their peers to graduate from high school—which Professor West does—is not necessarily a good idea, according to the research.
In addition, the ECS report noted that minority and low-income students make up a disproportionate share of the students who are held back. “This raises serious questions about equity and the potential for prejudicing teachers’ attitudes toward the academic capabilities of retained students. Given these disparities, some view grade retention as punishing disadvantaged students who also may not have received the same quality of instruction as their more advantaged peers,” the ECS report said.
Educators have also questioned policies in which a decision to hold a student back is based solely on test scores.
In New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg touted his ending of “social promotion” in the 2003-04 school year, educators quietly ignored the policy change. In the years after social promotion was officially ended, the number of third-graders held back actually decreased significantly over time (from 3,601 in the first year to 480 in 2008-2009, according to the city’s statistics). This year, the mayor had a “change of heart” and ended the policy.
As one Florida superintendent, Doug Whittaker, put it to Education Week last March in a story about the spread of retention policies: “After 10 years, I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s good for kids … I don’t care how the adults frame it: The people making those decisions forget what it’s like to be 8 years old.”
Comments & Trackbacks (11) | Post a Comment
at 9:24 pm
Why, oh why, are we so attached to the concept of grade levels? What untold harm have we done to children by making them repeat a “grade” because they weren’t up to “grade level” in one subject or on some general test?
Grade levels were invented simply to make it easier to sort children efficiently into groups. The so-called “grade level skills” have little to do with children’s actual intellectual development, abilities, interests, or potential. The entire grade level structure needs to be retired and education redesigned around the real needs and abilities of each child.
at 8:28 am
Places like Kentucky have experimented with doing away with grade levels in the early years, specifically until fourth grade. And of course there’s the Montessori model. Would welcome comments about how those have worked.
at 3:32 pm
[...] out more about the study and alternative methods here. ShareFacebookRedditStumbleUponTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterestDiggTumblrPrint Filed [...]
at 6:13 pm
Where are the numbers? For as much education that this profession has, I RARELY see either objective study results or the numbers associated with statements such as: “not necessarily a good idea, according to the research”.
Teaching is my third go around (Military and Business figures strongly in my background) and I have never seen “wishful thinking” dominate a field as much as I have in Education.
I teach Earth Science in an Urban High School with an 86% poverty rate. If students can’t read, they can’t infer and these children are quite aware of what they’re going through.
Personally, neither myself nor my students give a large rodents furry backside about what grade they are in – they are trying to deal with an unresponsive system that is obsessed with rearranging the deck chairs.
Teach them to READ, Teacher.
at 9:07 am
[...] graders to repeat the grade if they can’t read by the end of the school year. There is some conflict regarding this approach. The science is still out on whether or not holding students back actually helps with learning. [...]
at 11:37 am
[...] Report More states requiring students to repeat a grade: Is it the right thing to do? Retention policies are controversial because the research is mixed for students who are held [...]
at 5:02 pm
Why are we attached to the idea of schools? They were only created as an efficient way to deliver instruction to children. Once we get rid of schools and teachers, children will blossom and bloom and magically turn into geniuses and productive citizens. While we are at it, why are we attached to the idea that children are different, and that some children need education that is different from what most children need? All children are just subtle shades of above average, am I right?
at 10:17 am
I live in Canada and I had to fight to get my daughter held back in elementary twice (Gr 2 and Gr 4). Wacko parent? Maybe not.
She is mildly – moderately mentally challenged with ASD and, being on a special diet for seizure control, much smaller in size than her peers. Integrated in a regular classroom but pulled out approximately 40% of the time for one-on-one or small group. She got along so much better with the younger kids and, although I didn’t expect retention to cause her to “catch up” to grade level, I figured an extra year (or two) of teaching couldn’t hurt.
She is now 19 and going into Gr 12. She can (and will) stay in school until she is 21 (because essentially we have no other options for her). So this means she will graduate and come back for one more year as opposed to the multiple years she would have spent in high school had we not retained. Trust me, I am much happier that she spent those extra years in elementary (which is much a more welcoming environment and a much easier place to make inclusion work) than in high school.
She has come a long way since elementary school and is actually relatively quite high-functioning now. Although as a parent you can never be sure you’re making the right choice at the time, in hindsight I am very happy with the choices we made. Incidentally, to this day she doesn’t realize she was retained in Gr 2 (she was so much in her own world back then that that fact didn’t even make a dent in her reality). She did notice in Gr 4 but it was all in how it was presented to her and she was fine with it.
No. I’m not suggesting this is the answer for every (or even the majority) of struggling kids. But I think “policies” (whether for or against retention) tend to push towards losing the “i” in IEPs. And that’s not helpful to anybody, particularly these kids.
at 11:28 am
Some research has suggested that retaining kids at younger ages may be better than retaining them later on. Holding a student back in middle school, for example, is more likely to affect their chances of graduation. The Chicago Consortium on School Research looked at this a while back. I also touched on it in an article I wrote about charter school retention policies.
at 10:46 am
[...] More States Requiring Students to Repeat a Grade: Is It the Right Thing to Do? Hechinger Report – August 16, 2012 A report published this month by the Brookings Institution suggests that, at least for younger children who struggle with reading, repeating a grade may be beneficial. Still, retaining students is not a perfect solution. For some, it creates a greater likelihood of bullying and victim behavior or dropping out of high school. [...]
at 1:40 pm
[...] are pointing to research that shows mixed results when students are held back, including lower graduation rates, a higher likelihood that retained students will experience [...]