It may seem like a simple decision. A student who is academically behind should repeat the grade until he masters the grade-level content. In fact, what may seem like a common-sense approach to some is rarely the best way to proceed.
As a longtime educator, I have seen firsthand the detrimental effects of holding a child back. In fact, studies over many years have shown that retention can cause many more problems than it might claim to fix, including social, emotional, behavioral and additional academic issues. Research also shows that students who are retained even one year have higher dropout rates, and that the stigma of retention can have a lifelong effect on a child’s motivation to learn and succeed as an adult.
Studies also show that those retained tend to be males, minorities, have low socioeconomic status, and have low parental involvement in their education and lives. These are the very children who need us the most. We know that retaining a student and repeating the same curriculum he’s already failed is not effective. We also know that “social promotion,” or allowing a child to continue to the next grade with his peers of the same age without the appropriate academic or social skills, is not the answer.
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So what should be done? The brief “Rethinking Retention to Help All Students Succeed” from Designs for Change (1998) highlights eight strategies to educate children effectively without retention or social promotion.
While the first seven strategies are extremely important, the eighth deals directly with what the authors call “promotion with extra help.” This concept suggests that the school should identify the student’s problems throughout the year and put a plan in place to provide extra assistance.
Known as Response to Intervention, RtI is a school-based, multilevel prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems. According to the Center on Response to Intervention, “with RtI, schools identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor the progress of those students, provide evidence-based interventions, and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness.”
Interventions may include those related to academics, such as reading fluency and comprehension, writing, math and study skills. Behavioral interventions include such topics as student motivation, dealing with challenging students, and classroom management.
I know that I echo the sentiments of my fellow Special School District Board of Education members when I say that we believe that all children can learn, but may need different supports to do so. To that end, we as educators need to use strategies with our children that have been proven to work. Promotion with extra help, not retention, is the common-sense approach to helping each child achieve success.
Zella Williams devoted her entire career to education as a teacher, school counselor, school principal and district administrator. Now retired, she currently serves on the Special School District Board of Education.