Colorado legislature, school districts debate effectiveness of having struggling students repeat a grade
It can be emotional and controversial, but Colorado may soon find out whether the prospect of retention — having struggling students repeat a grade rather than have “social promotion” move them on with their peers — might also spur parents and schools to more effectively focus on early literacy.
Though experts remain divided on whether retention helps or hinders students over time, several states are considering policies that would employ the practice to ensure that students don’t move ahead without a firm academic foundation.
While some policies mandate retention of the lowest-performing students based on test scores, Colorado’s version, House Bill 1238, would advise parents as early as their child’s kindergarten year of looming literacy problems and offer remedial help — but also let them know that retention is on the table.
“We’re not talking about mandatory retention, we’re talking about retention decisions being left at the school level,” said Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon, a former school superintendent and one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “Really, this is a plea to parents to read to children, to spend time with their children developing language early in their lives.”
Like many of the legislative efforts around the country, this one was influenced by a highly touted 2002 Florida policy built around retention. Colorado’s less-stringent version would basically rewrite a 1997 state law addressing literacy to focus heavily on interventions in the early grades, using the recommendation of retention as a “lever” to get the attention of parents and educators.
If serious reading problems persist through third grade, the district would have final say on passing the student on to fourth grade.
Legislative approach
Hamner, co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill with Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, said the effort also was fueled by nearly 6,000 unsatisfactory third-grade reading CSAP scores last year.
She expects pushback over a reform that would come without additional funding as well as resistance from those who would rather see efforts directed toward preschool programs.
There’s also philosophical opposition.
Oliver Grenham, chief education officer at the Adams County 50 district, oversaw the gradual elimination of social promotion there three years ago in favor of a performance-based advancement system that has begun to show some achievement gains. Although he applauds the sense of urgency reflected in the proposed law, he believes that parents can be engaged in other ways and points to research on negative long-term effects of retention.
“It’s just something students don’t recover from emotionally,” said Grenham, whose district doesn’t use grade levels and therefore doesn’t practice retention per se. “So there needs to be a different way to get students to achieve rather than using a big stick.”
These days, retention lies at the crossroads of conflicting perceptions of academic research.
Impact of retention
Deeply held beliefs dating back to the early 1900s contended that retention improved achievement and the only arguments against it revolved around social concerns such as diminished self-esteem, said Lorrie Shepard, dean of the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
But that changed over time.
More recently, a preponderance of studies have shown that holding kids back a year has a negative effect or no effect at all on academic achievement. Research also has calculated the dropout rate for retained students to be as much as 10 times higher than those who continued on to the next grade, Shep ard said.
“Retention is like prescribing medicine that on average has had very serious side-effects and is harmful more often than it helps,” added Shepard. “Would you prescribe that medicine?”
Some reformers answer yes, with two-pronged reasoning: they claim the older studies are flawed, and the new model pioneered in Florida that mandates retention for low-achievers has shown enticing promise.
That test-based policy retains low-performing third-graders, requires them to attend summer school and assigns them a “high-quality” teacher.
Studies have found a statistically significant improvement in reading, math and science — an effect that dissipated over subsequent years, but remained “meaningful,” said Marcus Winters, an assistant professor of education at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and a leading researcher of the Florida phenomenon.
The policy hasn’t been in effect long enough to determine its impact on graduation rates. And because several factors contribute to the overall policy, researchers haven’t been able to determine the precise impact of retention.
“Intuitively, it seems retention is a more likely driver of the magnitude we’re seeing here, but we can’t prove it,” Winters said. “We can say, with very high confidence, that the Florida policy has a large positive effect on student achievement.”
That has been enough to prompt other states — including Oklahoma, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and Tennessee — to try some variation on that theme.
“It’s a policy that makes sense to a lot of people,” Winters said.
Retention, under the right circumstances, has always made sense at the James Irwin Charter Elementary School in Colorado Springs.
Tears, frustration and a full range of emotions can emerge when parents learn that the school wants to hold their child back a year to catch up on basic skills. A few pull their kids out and enroll them elsewhere. Some cry tears of relief.
Those who stay find a culture that aims to remove the stigma of retention, provides a multitude of supports and channels kids into leadership roles as they regain their academic footing.
“It’s not respectful to keep them in a state of always hanging on by their fingernails,” said principal Elizabeth Berg.”They can catch their breath, have that confidence of knowing what they know, feeling the dignity of mastery.”
At James Irwin, they don’t even use the word “retention.” They talk about the “gift of time” — a term the school claims as its own but that has grown into widespread use among proponents of retention.
Last year, 20 of the school’s roughly 530 students in grades K-5 were offered the “gift.” Three withdrew.
“When you do the gift to time the right way, at the right time, for the right reasons, it truly is a gift that keeps on giving,” said assistant principal Cindee Will. “It’s not a Band-Aid. It gives for a lifetime.”
Challenges spring up
Jay Greene, who heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and collaborated on research with Winters, said using retention like Florida did can work — but that it’s hard to do well. He notes a number of “land mines” that beset other attempts, and from which Colorado could learn.
New York, he said, set the achievement bar too low. Chicago discovered some schools cheating on the tests to determine who would be held back. In Georgia, many schools simply chose not to follow the retention process simply because they didn’t believe in it.
“It’s a little bit of a harsh policy in that it puts pressure on the school, the parents and the kids to perform,” Greene said of the Florida effort. “Education is some balance of pressure and leniency.”
Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs leaped ahead with a stringent use of retention last year when superintendent Mike Miles launched a five-year program to eliminate social promotion. The district began by holding back about 10 percent of eighth-graders and placing them in a new High School Preparatory Academy.
And the process will continue this spring as the district prepares to retain a similar proportion of third-, fifth- and eight-graders — a percentage based on district data of students performing well below grade level.
The concept has not been well-received by everyone. Some eighth-graders, Miles said, simply left the district when they learned they couldn’t move on with their peers.
“And we suspect we’ll have some others leave once we hold back third-, fifth- and eighth-graders in May,” he said. “But we have a whole bunch of parents who realize this is the right thing for their child”
Even if Colorado’s proposed legislation passes, Miles notes that districts wanting to eliminate social promotion would have a lot of pieces to put in place.
“I think it’s going to take a while,” he said. “And maybe it should. There’s a lot to invest to get this right. If districts haven’t gone down that path yet, then it should take them longer.”
Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com
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The problem usually is getting the parent to go along with retention. I have a student in my reading class who is a good example. Teachers have tried to retain him since 2nd grade. Each time, the parent has refused. The child started 5th grade reading at a low 1st grade level and only because of extensive small group and one-on-one interventions is now at a low 3rd grade level. It would’ve been so much better for the child if the parent had agreed to retention 3 years ago but she was too worried that he would be socially stunted. Going to middle school unable to read and function? That’s far more debilitating and is setting him up for life failure. Unfortunately, if the parent refuses, then there’s nothing to do but send the child onto the next grade.
ou want to find the best way to improve education? Allow schools and teachers to make more decisions and don’t allow politicians and parents to make as many! Politicians will say what sounds good to the general public who often don’t have a full awareness of what’s going on! For example I remember many politicians saying give control of schools to whom it belongs– parents! This sounds so good to the general public but those actually involved in education know better!
I say this knowing full well that there are a very large number if parents fully capable if control and making good decisions for their children! Problem is …. They rarely have to: as the great majority if those parents have already exercised great parental skills and decision making and their kids therefore are already achieving and allowing teachers (most teachers) to do what they need! As a result the decision making if those parents is rarely necessary in their child’s education! However, many other parents are not capable or don’t choose to make good decisions! And they are often (certainly not always as there are always exceptions) the ones who feel the need to make decisions as there children are not succeeding. Therefore their poor skills and decision making in the past put them in position to influence decisions which negatively affect their students, but also the teachers, schools, and the other students are the victims! Again the parents who often will exercise great judgement in education often don’t need to because they have already set their child up for success. So we are often left with the less effective parents making decisions! Again this is not a blanket statement as their are exceptions but I think it’s true in MANY cases!
Although this was not discussed in the article, I am in favor of retention, temporarily, for kids who DO meet grade standards, but have not done sufficient course work to merit promotion to the next grade. (Temporarily meaning about a month or so.)
My two kids, by the fourth grade, figured out that they could do absolutely no homework and do slipshod “project” work and still pass so long as they understood the subjects. (Both of my kids were above grade level in reading and also “talented” in math, so they had no problems in passing tests.) Also, in addition to this, they had problems with “conforming” to classroom expectations and adult authority. (I should say here that they were adopted at the ages of four and six, and they came from familities that had no work ethic whatsoever.) After about five years of this non-performance, I broached the subject of having them repeat a grade with their teachers and assistant principal, and I was told that the the school district would only hold back kids if they met ALL the criteria for this, which included having the kids’ permission to be held back (!), smaller than average physical size (so they would not “stand out’), and one or two other requirements, which I now forget.
So,the kids learned the lesson that that they could do as little work as they wanted and still pass, and they continued to do absolutely nothing except in-school work until high school; and both kids ended up doing very poorly in high school, even though they are intelligent kids. And, despite intense effort from their dad and me to teach them otherwise, they also learned the lesson through their bio parents and through the schools that you can get through life without putting forth any effort; and this is still having a VERY negative effect on their lives today. Naturally, I am very angry and bitter about this.
In short, I think that preventing kids from failing when they’re kids, when they have “earned” it, set them up to fail later when they are adults.
At one time I’d have gone along with holding certain students back. However now I’m not sure. If those students held back get the same teacher, then what’s changed? We all know it has nothing to do with the teacher, it’s the parents, the student them self, anyone but the school, district, NEA that is at fault.
There is also the fact that the school, teacher, NRA would get an additional year of indoctrination with a student held back. That in it’s self would be more harmful then moving the student to the next grade.
In some what of a related matter. A resent Gallup Poll indicated that 50% surveyed said Obama has had a failed Presidency. And many want to give him four more years of we can’t drill, we can’t do anything about the deficit, we can’t deal with Iran, we can’t, we can’t. Has Obama ever said in his three years we can when it comes to the American people.
It has been my experience that most of the students with discipline and behavior problems are also quite behind grade level in their academic areas. The one is inextricably tied to the other. “Social promotion” is the only way that these students have been able to advance through our public education system. This is a disservice to them, their teachers, their fellow students, and society as a whole. We are setting these students up to be statistics – dead, pregnant or in jail.
We have a great tool with the leverage that could be used in letting the student know that unless they apply themselves to their academic work, through personal effort, they absolutely will not be advanced to the next grade. I believe that this would be one incredibly useful tool, when used appropriately and uniformly.
This is the way the world will work for these students, once they leave the public school world. One does not get advanced in college level classes unless one can pass the lower-level classes. One does not get promotions and pay raises in the work world unless one can grow in one’s skill set. By passing students along to the next grade, no matter what their skills are, we are setting them up for complete failure in their lives.
That being said, education is not for everyone. Trade schools are desperately needed by those students for whom the academic studies are just too much for them to accomplish. Coming at these students “sideways”, we could help them learn to be mechanics, plumbers, craftspeople of all sorts. And, of course, reading/writing/math is quite useful in all of those trades. And they could be making a whole lot of money with those trade skills. Without skills that are marketable, many of these socially-promoted students will resort to illegal activities in order to get some cash. We will pay for their incarceration in the end, and that is more expensive, damaging and dangerous to everyone, than working this out now.
I have not been in public school for over 35 years and it looks like I missed something.
Why consider anything BUT retention?
The point of classes is to teach children the class subjects. If the children get put into the next grade without learning the subject, then what’s the point of school at all?
I thought the whole point of school was to teach. If not, what IS it?
Very tough call. As I was held back due to reading skills. I can tell you it was very hard on me later in my young life. Kids asking me why I was older. Some knew I was held back and weren’t very nice about it. I knew why and it was the big secret for me I carried into my adult life.
Naturally I over came it and I’ve done very well for myself, but I would say this. Think long and hard about holding someone back. Get them the help they need as a parent. Tutor or whatever but don’t hold your kids back. As you can’t imagine what they go through because that’s never happen to you!
Shen I was in school, the threat of being held back did wonders on the kids who didn’t try, and their parents.
Why would we want to let a kid who doesn’t meet standards move to another grade, where he’ll meet less of a standard, and be more work for a teacher?
When, in this country, did we start to reward failure? What are we teaching our kids today? That you don’t have to do well to get ahead? Show me a company that puts it’s employee’s self esteem above productivity?
Exactly right! When I attended school in the 50′s and early 60′s, it was a social stigma to be retained. Back in those days it was called accurately, and referred to as failed. Apparently in todays society it will become the norm to advance the illetirate, because not doing so, will hurt their feelings.
So we push students along with their more competent peers to keep them in their social group so they won’t feel left out,
There they become objects of ridicule to their classmates as being the class dunce and get poked fun at and bullied.
Then they began developing behavioral, psychological, and emotional difficulties and end up with Ritalin or other psychoactive drugs prescribed to them to reduce their burden on the teachers.
And so on till one day they bring a gun to school and shoot up their fellow students and everyone wonders why they did it and why no one saw it coming.
Or maybe the manage to avoid this and we end up reading about them in the daily news knocking off liquor and convenience stores, causing general mayhem, and such.
Once again people out of the classroom are trying to make decisions for those of us in the classroom. I don’t go the dentist and tell him what to do.
That being said, what about the instance where you have a child who will fail regardless of intervention who disrupts the learning of a whole class. Isn’t retention a useful tool in ensuring the successs of the other 20 students who have lost time and resource by having to have the bad student in the class? By keeping that student back, you isolate the student so they have the ability to learn the content they missed and are not part of the same peer group that they were disrupting before.
This should be left to the school to decide not some person in a suit who thinks they know how to do everyone elses job.
America has a significant educational deficiency. Our high school graduation rates rank in the bottom-third of all industrialized countries. And of those who do graduate, many still require remedial work during their freshman year at college.
Another factor: the New York Times revealed the following high school graduation rates by race:
Asian-Americans 91.4%
White-Americans 81.1%
Hispanic-Americans 63.5%
African-Americans 61.5%
Make of it what you will, but if we don’t solve our educational deficiency, our relative standard of living will continue to decline. I believe that the place to start is with pre-school testing and remediation at least two years prior to kids entering kindergarten.
At this point, I don’t believe that there is sufficient knowledge of what precisely works, so it’s important that America doesn’t spend billions of dollars on speculative ideas. Taxpayer dollars should be directed towards large-scale experiments before wasting money on unproven hypotheses.
In any event, America is at risk and we had better find solutions fast because lesser developing countries are catching up faster than we’re willing to acknowledge.
Being a single father of a 14 year old girl I have been through some pretty rough stints with my kid.. My daughter came to live with me a couple years ago, she was failing school… I went up to her school, talked to her teachers.. .basically it boiled down to a lack of structure at her moms house. There wasn’t an environment promoting learning…
Well, I convinced my daughters mother to let her come live with me, based on the fact that she wasn’t or couldn’t help our daughter with school.
I removed her from that school (I live in littleton, her mom in thornton) So she got a fresh start. Every night was a struggle for the first month… Setting a structure an environment conducive to learning… It started off as a battle, it took time on my end… a lot of time on my end.. I had to re-learn a lot of the subject material so I could help teach my daughter… eventually it became easier, my daughter began seeing how much I was putting into her success… Along with the school work, I made her join the drama club.. pushing her toward an activity as well as the “good” kids in the school.. keeping her away from the bad elements that could distract her..
So, she began turning things around.. the D’s and F’s first turned into B’s and C’s and by the end of the year she had all A’s and one B
at the end of the first school year, my first year having her…. it was time to finalize our divorce… Her mom wanted my daughter back! I had to lawyer, no one defending me.. only myself…. I based my argument to keep my daughter on the success she was having in school…. guess what? the judge recognized what I was doing, asked questions about the structure I created for her to learn… not only did he grant me primary parenting rights but he scolded the ex for failing our daughter…
Today, I happily view her grades online… I just checked them… All A’s… I ask her if her homework is done every night, she is so happy take it out and show me! Right now its at a point where I really don’t have to do anything for her… She has figured it out
My point, as parents… take the time to get involved in what your kids are learning.. create an environment that promotes learning… and watch as your kids succeed!
WELL DONE!! You should be so proud of yourself and your daughter, and I just wish that more parents would follow your example!
Under current law if a parent decides the student will move to the next grade, they do.
Students need to meet standards before moving on to the next level.
Why spend all of the money on testing, only to ignore the results?
Of course, it does generate many jobs trying to remediate deficiencies. This usually comes at the expense of reducing upper division courses.