The idea is that an extra year will help them catch up. Additional reasons that the school may cite can include:. However, some of these states may make exceptions. NASP also points out that kids with learning and thinking differences may not do better at all unless there are new, specific interventions in place.
Moving up a grade with new learning supports in place may be a better solution. They have the right to be involved in the decision-making process. You can also ask what changes would be made in the ways your child is taught if repeating a grade.
Some questions you might bring up:. Are summer learning programs an available option? It is necessary to note that any retention decision should be made after much evidence is collected and after several meetings with parents. If grade retention is a possibility, it should be brought up early in the school year. However, intervention and frequent updates should be the focal point for most of the year.
There are many reasons that a teacher may feel that retention is necessary for a particular student. The biggest reason is typically the development level of a child.
Teachers may also choose to retain a student because they simply struggle academically when compared to students at the same grade level. While this is a traditional reason for retention, it is necessary to note that unless you figure out why the student is struggling, it is likely that the retention will do more harm than good.
Retention is often ineffective in this case as well. Student behavior can be another reason that a teacher chooses to retain a student. This is especially prevalent in lower grades. Poor behavior is often tied to the developmental level of the child. The biggest positive effect of grade retention is that it provides students who are truly behind developmentally a chance to catch up. Those type of students will begin to thrive once they are developmentally on grade level.
Being in the same grade two years in a row can also provide a student with some stability and familiarity, especially when it comes to the teacher and the room. Retention is most beneficial when the child that is retained receives intensive intervention specific to the areas in which they struggle throughout the retention year. There are many adverse effects of retention. One of the biggest negative effects is that students who are retained are more likely to drop out of school eventually.
It is also not an exact science. Research says that students are more negatively impacted by grade retention than they are positively affected by it. This becomes especially true for older students who have been with the same group of students for several years. A student who has been separated from their friends could become depressed and develop poor self-esteem.
Students who are retained are likely physically bigger than their classmates because they are a year older. This often causes that child to be self-conscious. Students who are retained sometimes develop serious behavior issues, especially as they age. The rule of thumb for retention is the younger, the better. Once students reach fourth grade, it becomes virtually impossible for retention to be a positive thing. The solution, according to some researchers, is to avoid both unsavory choices, and intervene early and often so children never get to the point of facing retention.
By changing the focus to try to get all students help when they need it, some school districts have seen their retention numbers plummet. It's not really beneficial to the student, unless you change the whole program.
And we try to avoid passing [an unprepared] student from one teacher to another. The district sets benchmarks for promotion, and then offers tutoring and after school programs for students who need help keeping up.
Administrators in the Everett Public Schools in Washington also view retention as the last step, not an educational strategy. The district only considers retaining K-5 students, and has an elementary school enrollment of 12, The research shows if a child is retained, and you do the same things, he or she will be further behind than ever. If you retain them, you need to do something different. We have to look at every child and see what we have to do to get them there. The California Department of Education also required all districts to adopt policies on retention and promotion in , in an effort to prepare more students to move to the next grade, according to Larry Boes, an education program consultant for the department of education.
One aspect of the policy requires a parent's written permission to retain a student in kindergarten. The aim is to minimize social promotion and retention.
Non-traditional school structures also help minimize retention. The Lincoln Prairie School , a pre-K to 8 school in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, with multi-age classes and a curriculum that stresses multiple intelligence learning, has not retained a student in the five years it has existed, said principal Jan Jetel. The activities are open-ended and students can work on at their own pace.
More educators need to employ what works best for each child, according to Dr. To help a slow reader keep up with other subjects, a teacher can take the same science concept the class is studying and break it down to a lower reading level, he said. Numerous studies argue that holding children back does not help them catch up academically and can cause more social problems. Still, that does not prevent schools from doing it. In its position paper on Student Grade Retention and Social Promotion, the National Association of School Psychologists NASP notes that the use of grade retention has increased over the past 25 years, despite little indication of its effectiveness.
The NASP estimates that as many as 15 percent of American students repeat a grade each year, and between 30 percent and 50 percent of students in the U. Nineteen empirical studies conducted during the s compared students who were retained with students who were promoted to the next grade, NASP noted.
The results showed that grade retention had a negative impact on all areas of achievement, including reading, mathematics, and language, as well as socio-emotional adjustment, such as peer relationships, self esteem, problem behaviors, and attendance. Before retaining a student, "Educators should be asking: 'What didn't work? What wasn't done earlier? What do we do to identify the difficulties a kid is having? Department of Education. Department of Education officials urge educators to eliminate social promotion, but not to replace the practice with retention: " research also shows that holding students back to repeat a grade retention without changing instructional strategies is ineffective," according to the report.
Retention in grade also greatly increases the likelihood that a student will drop out of school -- and being held back twice makes dropping out a virtual certainty. Frequently, educators feel the only alternative to social promotion for struggling students is retaining them, the report noted.
The accountability and standards movements also have increased the pressure on districts to ensure students pass high stakes tests or clear other hurdles before being promoted. I think the talk is going to increase. Some education officials, though, still see a place for retention. Joel I. Based on the number of students who failed the tests last year, as many as 15, students could be repeating third grade. The tests are given in the spring; the interventions are starting now [in the winter] to help students prepare for the tests.
Students who fail will be able to retake the tests in August; if they pass, they will be promoted, and if not, "they will repeat third grade with the support they need to master the skills necessary in order to advance," Klein said in a speech at the New York Urban League's second annual Rev.
Martin Luther King Symposium in January. The system is implementing multiple support programs to help students stay on track to pass the tests the first time, he said.
Newly-formed Student Success Teams in each school will identify students at risk of not meeting standards, assess their needs, and develop a K-3 intervention program, Klein said in his speech. In the classroom, students who need extra help will receive differentiated instruction from teachers trained to meet their needs. Students also will receive instruction before and after school, on weekends, and during a Summer Success Academy, designed for second and third graders.
The academy's focus will be on reading, writing, and math, and classes with no more than 15 students, according to Klein. Many parents, though, are upset with the policy and the fact that it was instituted mid-year, said Jan Atwell, executive director of United Parents Associations, a group urging that the policy be rescinded. Not only did children not show a net gain, but more dropped out. We don't want to take a chance on more of our third graders dropping out. The parents would like to see the district try smaller classes and earlier support services before instituting such a sweeping retention policy, Atwell told Education World.
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