Grade retention
Encyclopedia
Grade retention or grade repetition is the process of having a student
repeat an educational course, usually one previously failed. Students who repeat a course are referred as "repeaters". Repeaters can be referred to as having been "held back".
The primary alternative to grade retention (for those who have failed) is a policy of social promotion
, under the ideological principle that staying with their same-age peers is important. Social promotion is the promotion of all students, regardless of achievement, from one class to the next. Social promotion is somewhat more accepted in countries which use tracking
to group students according to academic ability. Regardless of whether a failing student is retained or promoted, academic scholars believe that underperformance must be addressed with intensive remedial help, such as summer school
programs.
In some countries, grade retention has been banned or strongly discouraged. In Canada
and the United States
, grade retention can be used from Kindergarten through twelfth grade. However, with older students, retention is usually restricted to the specific classes that the student failed, so that a student can be, for example, promoted in a math class but retained in a language class.
Where it is permitted, grade retention is most common among students in early elementary school. Most schools refuse to retain a student more than once in a single grade, or more than two or three years across all grades. Students with intellectual disabilities are only retained when parents and school officials agree to do so.
houses of more than a century ago, because access to outside standards were very limited, and the small scale of the school, with perhaps only a few students of each age, was conducive to individualized instruction. With the proliferation of larger, graded schools in the middle of the 19th century, retention became a common practice. In fact, a century ago, approximately half of all American students were retained at least once before the age of 13.
Social promotion
began to spread in the 1930s with concerns about the psychosocial effects of retention. Social promotion is the promoting of underperforming
students under the ideological principle that staying with their same-age peers is important to success. This trend reversed in the 1980s, as concern about slipping academic standards rose.
The practice of grade retention in the U.S. has been climbing steadily since the 1980s. The practice of making retention decisions on the basis of the results of a single test — called high-stakes testing
— is widely condemned by professional educators. Test authors generally advise that their tests are not adequate for high-stakes decisions, and that decisions should be made based on all the facts and circumstances.
Grade retention may be much less significant than whether or not a struggling student receives intensive remedial help. However, based on the existing (if flawed) studies, the following conclusions are widely believed:
Academic outcomes:
Retained students are 2 to 11 times more likely to drop out of school when compared to underachieving, but promoted, peers. (Study style #1 favors social promotion.) Students often improve during the year following grade retention, particularly if additional instruction is provided. (Study style #2 favors grade retention.) However, these gains are normally lost in two to three years.
Non-academic outcomes:
Retention is associated with poor “social adjustment, attitudes toward school, behavioral outcomes, and attendance.” Retention is a “stronger predictor of delinquency than socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity,” and is also a strong predictor of drug and alcohol use and teenage pregnancy. (Study style #1 favors social promotion.)
, Denmark
, Sweden
, and Finland
do not allow grade retention.
In the United Kingdom
, secondary schools commonly use a system of internal academic streaming in which children of the same age are subdivided on the basis of ability, and lower achieving students (those who would be retained under the North American system) are taught in different classes, and at a different rate, from higher achieving students, but are kept within their own age group. This system has largely rendered grade retention unnecessary in all but the most exceptional circumstances.
In most cases where streaming alone is insufficient, additional special needs provision is usually seen as being preferable to grade retention, particularly when behavioral difficulties are involved.
In the U.S., six-year-old students are most likely to be retained, with another spike around the age of 12. In particular, some large schools have a transitional classroom, sometimes called "Kindergarten 2," for six year olds who are not reading-ready.
School officials in some US states have the authority to allow students to be held back if they do not attend summer school
.
Harm from retention cited by these critics include:
Critics of retention also note that retention is expensive for school systems: requiring a student to repeat a grade is essentially to add one student for a year to the school system, assuming that the student does not drop out.
The possibility of grade retention has been shown to be a significant source of stress for students. In one study of childhood fears performed in the 1980s, the top three fears for US sixth graders were a parent's death, going blind, and being retained. After two decades of increasing retention practices, a repeat of the study in 2001 found that grade retention was the single greatest fear, higher than loss of a parent or going blind. This change likely reflects the students' correct perception that they were statistically far more likely to repeat the sixth grade than to suffer the death of a parent or the loss of their vision.
Opponents of social promotion argue that it has the following negative impacts:
Some hold that most students at the elementary school level don't take their education seriously and therefore retention in early years is unlikely to be effective. Since pre-teens and teenagers value their education more, retention should be used if they have inadequate skills for high school.
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
repeat an educational course, usually one previously failed. Students who repeat a course are referred as "repeaters". Repeaters can be referred to as having been "held back".
The primary alternative to grade retention (for those who have failed) is a policy of social promotion
Social promotion
Social promotion is the practice of promoting a student to the next grade despite their low achievement in order to keep them with social peers...
, under the ideological principle that staying with their same-age peers is important. Social promotion is the promotion of all students, regardless of achievement, from one class to the next. Social promotion is somewhat more accepted in countries which use tracking
Tracking (education)
Tracking is separating pupils by academic ability into groups for all subjects or certain classes and curriculum within a school. It may be referred as streaming or phasing in certain schools. In a tracking system, the entire school population is assigned to classes according to whether the...
to group students according to academic ability. Regardless of whether a failing student is retained or promoted, academic scholars believe that underperformance must be addressed with intensive remedial help, such as summer school
Summer school
Summer school is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, that teaches students during the summer vacation....
programs.
In some countries, grade retention has been banned or strongly discouraged. In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, grade retention can be used from Kindergarten through twelfth grade. However, with older students, retention is usually restricted to the specific classes that the student failed, so that a student can be, for example, promoted in a math class but retained in a language class.
Where it is permitted, grade retention is most common among students in early elementary school. Most schools refuse to retain a student more than once in a single grade, or more than two or three years across all grades. Students with intellectual disabilities are only retained when parents and school officials agree to do so.
History
Different schools have used different approaches throughout history. Grade retention or repetition was essentially meaningless in the one-room schoolOne-room school
One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...
houses of more than a century ago, because access to outside standards were very limited, and the small scale of the school, with perhaps only a few students of each age, was conducive to individualized instruction. With the proliferation of larger, graded schools in the middle of the 19th century, retention became a common practice. In fact, a century ago, approximately half of all American students were retained at least once before the age of 13.
Social promotion
Social promotion
Social promotion is the practice of promoting a student to the next grade despite their low achievement in order to keep them with social peers...
began to spread in the 1930s with concerns about the psychosocial effects of retention. Social promotion is the promoting of underperforming
Underachiever
An underachiever is a person and especially a student who fails to achieve his or her potential or does not do as well as expected.Of particular interest is academic underachievement...
students under the ideological principle that staying with their same-age peers is important to success. This trend reversed in the 1980s, as concern about slipping academic standards rose.
The practice of grade retention in the U.S. has been climbing steadily since the 1980s. The practice of making retention decisions on the basis of the results of a single test — called high-stakes testing
High-stakes testing
A high-stakes test is a test with important consequences for the test taker. Passing has important benefits, such as a high school diploma, a scholarship, or a license to practice a profession...
— is widely condemned by professional educators. Test authors generally advise that their tests are not adequate for high-stakes decisions, and that decisions should be made based on all the facts and circumstances.
Research
There is no conclusive evidence that grade retention is either significantly helpful or harmful, and much of the existing research has been criticized as being methodologically invalid. Three different kinds of studies exist or have been proposed, and each has its inherent pitfalls:- Studies which compare students who were retained to students who were considered for retention, but were eventually promoted. These studies favor social promotion. However, the promoted students were not retained because the schools believed them to be stronger or more personally mature students (as evidenced by the decision to promote them). These studies are unfairly biased in favor of social promotion because they compare the better/promoted students to the weaker/retained students.
- Studies which compare retained students to their own prior performance. These studies favor grade retention. However, these studies are biased because they do not adequately control for personal growth or changes in environmental factors (such as poverty).
- Studies which randomly assign a large pool of borderline students to promotion or retention. This style of research is methodologically sound and, if performed on a sufficiently large scale and with sufficiently detailed information collected, would provide valuable or even definitive information. However, schools and parents are unwilling to have a child's future affected by a random assignment, and so these studies are simply not done.
Grade retention may be much less significant than whether or not a struggling student receives intensive remedial help. However, based on the existing (if flawed) studies, the following conclusions are widely believed:
Academic outcomes:
Retained students are 2 to 11 times more likely to drop out of school when compared to underachieving, but promoted, peers. (Study style #1 favors social promotion.) Students often improve during the year following grade retention, particularly if additional instruction is provided. (Study style #2 favors grade retention.) However, these gains are normally lost in two to three years.
Non-academic outcomes:
Retention is associated with poor “social adjustment, attitudes toward school, behavioral outcomes, and attendance.” Retention is a “stronger predictor of delinquency than socioeconomic status, race, or ethnicity,” and is also a strong predictor of drug and alcohol use and teenage pregnancy. (Study style #1 favors social promotion.)
Europe
NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
do not allow grade retention.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, secondary schools commonly use a system of internal academic streaming in which children of the same age are subdivided on the basis of ability, and lower achieving students (those who would be retained under the North American system) are taught in different classes, and at a different rate, from higher achieving students, but are kept within their own age group. This system has largely rendered grade retention unnecessary in all but the most exceptional circumstances.
In most cases where streaming alone is insufficient, additional special needs provision is usually seen as being preferable to grade retention, particularly when behavioral difficulties are involved.
North America
The United States and Canada both use grade retention.In the U.S., six-year-old students are most likely to be retained, with another spike around the age of 12. In particular, some large schools have a transitional classroom, sometimes called "Kindergarten 2," for six year olds who are not reading-ready.
School officials in some US states have the authority to allow students to be held back if they do not attend summer school
Summer school
Summer school is a school, or a program generally sponsored by a school or a school district, that teaches students during the summer vacation....
.
Common arguments against and for grade retention
The following are common arguments regarding this practice.Arguments against grade retention
Opponents of "no social promotion" policies do not defend social promotion so much as say that retention is even worse. They argue that retention is not a cost-effective response to poor performance when compared to cheaper or more effective interventions, such as additional tutoring and summer school. They point to a wide range of research findings that show no advantage to, or even harm from, retention, and the tendency for gains from retention to wash out.Harm from retention cited by these critics include:
- May lower the self esteem of the student and make them feel as if they were mentally inferior. It may also cause them to be the subject of ridiculeRidiculeRidicule is a 1996 French film set in the 18th century at the decadent court of Versailles, where social status can rise and fall based on one's ability to mete out witty insults and avoid ridicule oneself...
and bullying by other students. - Increased drop-out rates of retained students over time.
- No evidence of long-term academic benefit for retained students.
- Increased rates of dangerous behaviors such as drinking, drug abuse, crime, teenage pregnancy, and depression among retained students as compared with similarly performing promoted students.
Critics of retention also note that retention is expensive for school systems: requiring a student to repeat a grade is essentially to add one student for a year to the school system, assuming that the student does not drop out.
The possibility of grade retention has been shown to be a significant source of stress for students. In one study of childhood fears performed in the 1980s, the top three fears for US sixth graders were a parent's death, going blind, and being retained. After two decades of increasing retention practices, a repeat of the study in 2001 found that grade retention was the single greatest fear, higher than loss of a parent or going blind. This change likely reflects the students' correct perception that they were statistically far more likely to repeat the sixth grade than to suffer the death of a parent or the loss of their vision.
Arguments for grade retention
Opponents of social promotion argue that passing a child who did not learn the necessary material cheats the child of an education. As a result, when the child gets older, the student will likely fail classes or be forced to attend summer school.Opponents of social promotion argue that it has the following negative impacts:
- Students who are promoted cannot do the work in the next grade, and so are being set up for further failure.
- Students will have many failures in the high school years, which will most likely lead to dropping out.
- It sends the message to all students that they can get by without working hard.
- It forces teachers to deal with under-prepared students while trying to teach the prepared.
- It gives parents a false sense of their children's progress.
- It will get them the help they need.
Some hold that most students at the elementary school level don't take their education seriously and therefore retention in early years is unlikely to be effective. Since pre-teens and teenagers value their education more, retention should be used if they have inadequate skills for high school.
External links
- Taking Responsibility for Ending Social Promotion: A Guide for Educators and State and Local Leaders, U.S. Department of Education, May 1999
- Retention and Social Promotion: Research and Implications for Policy. ERIC Digest Number 161, December 2000.
- Wiked-Grade Retention
- http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE19-3/CJE19-3-05Westbury.pdf
- http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=KL9PdFr1yTqWWBqLkxTKhzGgcqy7QcwfpBB1NBFSLknTFpKqLbJc!284718673!1596248468?docId=5001642861