Shedding Light on Grade Retention

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When it's the end of a school year, and a child hasn't grasped the required academic work, a wrenching decision may arise: Hold the child back to repeat the same grade, or promote the child for social benefits? If you're a parent or guardian fearing that decision, recent research may shed some light on what path to take. This is a decision that must be made very carefully, with a great deal of thought, with as much information as you can find, and with the best interests of the child at the heart of the decision.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory authors Jennifer Fager and Rae Richen take a look at the recent research in a new booklet called When Students Don't Succeed: Shedding Light on Grade Retention, also available online at www.nwrel.org/request/july99/index.html. The booklet says that "holding back" a child (now called "retention") was a common feature of American public schools in the early 1900s. At that time, about 20 percent of the kids were held back. Social promotion—promoting a child even though minimum academic competencies haven't been met—became prevalent when psychologists and educators saw that retention produced negative social and psychological effects for the child. Now, with the higher-academic-standards movement, social promotion and grade retention are under scrutiny. Some schools strive to avoid the need for either.

Today, almost everyone agrees that academic standards should be high. Some schools are putting in place tough promotion policies. Many teachers and much of the public believe there may be some benefits to retention—the child matures, catches up, builds skills. But take care: Repeating the same grade with the same curriculum with the same presentation may ultimately achieve the same disappointment. That's hardly a smart alternative to social promotion. Nationally known researcher Linda Darling-Hammond says "the premise of grade retention as a solution for poor performance is that the problem, if there is one, resides in the child rather than in the schooling he or she has encountered." She underscores a report that says teacher expertise is the most important determinant of student performance. With recent research, many educators now believe that retention hurts more than it helps.

For example, the booklet cites various researchers:

• Pupils who are promoted rather than retained tend to learn more the next year than pupils of like ability who are not promoted
• Retention does not increase learning readiness for most pupils
• Gains made during the repeated second year fade over time
• The more times a student is retained, the stronger the chances are of that child eventually dropping out of school altogether

The decision to promote or to retain a child must focus on the benefits for the child who needs to acquire skills to move along in school and to graduate eventually. If properly planned and carried out, retention may be an answer for some. Prevention, not retention, is the best answer of all. This booklet, prepared primarily for school districts, is chock full of information that parents and others may find helpful. It is only available online as it is out of print.

This column by Karen Blaha is provided as a public service by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, a nonprofit institution working with schools and communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.