Can Retention Be Good for a Student

Many researchers have been interested and have conducted different experiments on whether retention causes positive or negative effects. One group of college professors followed two groups of students in Florida: the first group barely passed the reading test and got to continue to fourth grade, the second group barely missed the mark and had to repeat third grade. The researchers continued to watch these students for the following eight years; they saw that the major effects started to fade, but after a few years the kids that were retained had fewer remedial classes and higher GPS’s when they got to high school (Kamenetz, 2017). The common belief is when a kid is retained, there is an increased risk of them falling behind in higher grades

According to research, although retention continues to rise, research findings consistently show no long-term benefit for students either in academic learning or social and behavioral adjustment. The continued use of retention as an educational intervention has been cited as "one of the clearest examples of poor communication between research and practice" (Sakowicz, p. 16).

Student retention is an issue that has been plaguing college and universities for a very long time. Retention of students in higher education in itself has many facets some of which follow a positive order such as when students go from a two year institution to a four year institution and a negative when students just drop out of school. Either event can cause an economic disruption unless this is something that is expected or planned for. Institution with formula funding is very sensitive to such swing in student demographics. While not desirable it is a fact that some institution have grown to accept.

Grade retention has been a common practice in the United States for many years now, and has been gradually increasing over time. Grade retention is also known as being held back or flunking, it is a custom that is done in many schools when a student is not performing well academically. Students are retained for many reasons, for example, Bowman (2005) mention that “the belief that an extra year of school will produce successful academic outcomes, failure to meet criteria for promotion” (p.42), the maturity level of the student and lastly for nonattendance (Bowman, 2005). But does grade retention promote academic performance? To the average person, one would believe that yes, grade retention does promote academic performance but one will see that this is actually quite the opposite. Granting, grade retention was created to be a solution for underperforming students but its effectiveness was deemed unsatisfactory and studies have shown that retaining students does not increase their academic performance (Bowman, 2005).

The children of the world are our future and we as a whole need to be sure that they are prepared for such a large task. The world requires that the children are able to read, write and have basic math skills in order to get through life, and be a part of society. This is a job that will become too large if it is not started and mastered in the early learning years. There are many children that are in the fourth and fifth grade who are not able to read or write at their grade level or even close to grade level. The teachers of these students have really let these students down by allowing them

Wu, Hughes, and West (2010) support this statement as their research tested the psychological outcomes of grade retention on first grade children. Wu, Hughes, and West study resulted in the same beneficial outcomes as Ritzema and Shaw have mentioned.

I refer to it from time to time. This document talks about the impact different instructional practices have on student learning. I used to be an active member of student intervention team at my previous school and several times we had discussions about using retention as a tool for improved learning. It was very reassuring to see that retention falls at the bottom of the list and even has negative impact on student learning. I am a firm believer of high expectations of students, especially if they have those for themselves and sure enough “student expectations of success” is highest on the list. It was really surprising to me to see balanced literacy close to the bottom of the list

Lorrie Shepard conducted a study on the effects of retention, its' relationship to the drop out rate. The 1992 controlled study showed that students who repeated a year were 20 to 30 percent more likely to drop out of school. Another study conducted by the Association of California Urban School Districts, found that students who were retained twice had a probability of dropping out of school by nearly 100 percent.

How to help students who fail, or students who do not achieve up to a certain academic standard, is an issue that probably goes back to the beginning of levels of school for students to progress through. In the U.S. it goes back to the 1840’s where age-graded schools began. In those times children who did not meet a certain standard were retained, or they repeated that grade. Rates of grade retention are difficult to trace in the past as well as currently. In some of these illustrative examples, a state could reduce retention by half in thirty years. However, different states had different retention rates. In 1909 one Massachusetts school district had a 7.5% retention

Firstly, social promotion doesn't teach students to work hard. You can't just glide through school and not apply yourself if you want to succeed. The majority of the time what decides if a student is failing or not, is the student. Now, It is completely understandable if a student just doesn't comprehend the subject matter of a class or is having a hard time. However, that does not give them the right to just give up. A diligent student will ask for help and want to improve themselves. Alternatively, the students who just don't care are the ones who fail. They saw the poor grades they were making but didn't feel the need to improve. If you were to promote a student like that, they will just continue to behave the same for the rest of their school career. Therefore, by holding them back a year, they learn that important lesson.

According to the CDE website, “current literature reveals that retention may have a negative effect on student achievement, school attendance, attitude toward school, and student dropout rates.”

The available research on retention is enormous. Hundreds of studies have been conducted over the last century focusing on the elementary grades and the long term effect of retention or promotion. Each study ask different questions, look at difference consequences, and untimely comes to different conclusions. It is very complicated in most cases to determine whether the students in the study would have performed better if they has been promoted instead of

Not only does early education bring the benefit of interaction, it also lets the child feel loved and have trust in others. If a child is encountered with early programs then they are able to meet the needs of their child stage life. If these needs are not properly met, then they may become less successful in their performance in an educational environment.

When a student fails to reach performance levels expected for promotion to the next grade, educators face a range of choices; they can provide extra tutoring, place the student in summer school, or, as a last resort, hold the student back for a year. This last option often proves to be a difficult and contentious issue for both schools and students. In my opinion, keeping a child in a grade for longer than a year will not hurt them, but make them a more resourceful student. Retention is a severe step, but it can benefit struggling students by teaching them better studying styles, improving their organizational habits, helping them obtain a more sophisticated manner, increasing their communication and social skills, and helping them learn things

Through my time in Education 100, my field observations, and the readings, I have come to the conclusion that I have strong opinions on certain issues in the field of education. One of my strongest beliefs is that student performance targets, school ratings, and support from the government for schools should not be based on student’s performance on standardized tests and state-mandated exams. Often times, especially in public schools, schools are given a ranking or a report card based off of how well their students did on that year’s exam. That score that the school receives then becomes the target for students to reach the following year. However, the government fails to realize that the scores students receive do not include the amount of growth the students had from the previous year. I saw this issue while doing an observation at Noble Elementary School. The students had learned so much throughout the year and had academically grown, but they still performed poorly on the state-mandated exam. Because of their poor performance, the school received an F from the government. This is alarming because the principal at Noble explained that the reason students did poorly was because their core was not at the standards of the exam. This lead me to the idea that the reason students perform poorly on these exams is because of the way the government set up and handles our education system. The flaws in our education system prove to be detrimental to our students, therefore, reforms