Separating fact from fiction about education.
Informational series for business leaders, policy makers, community leaders and members of the media.
Fiction:
In-grade retention works.
What the fiction suggests:
In-grade retention is the most effective way to deal with students who fail a subject.
Many people believe that repetition of a grade helps students catch up. In-grade retention is defined as having a student repeat a year of school at a particular grade level. In other words, it means giving students another year of a learning situation that did not work the first time. It usually does not work the second time either. Fifty percent of students who repeat a grade do no better the second time, and 25 percent of the students actually do worse the second time.1
The inability of students to perceive themselves as successful results in poor school performance. In one study, children ranked the death of a parent or going blind as the only two conceivable life events more stressful than failing a grade.2 In-grade retention sends a strong message to students that the teacher and school do not consider them capable, which increases frustration and chances that the students will drop out. For example, in Texas half of the students who are retained in-grade once do not graduate. And 90 percent of the students who are retained in-grade twice end up dropping out.3
However, in-grade retention has continued to be used by schools because some teachers feel they have no other options. Also many educators and policy-makers believe that retention is an incentive for students to do better. But the data shows otherwise.
Fact:
In-grade retention does not work.
What the truth means:
There are alternatives that work better.
In-grade retention causes students to waste a full year in repetitive course work. Numerous research studies show that retention results in poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, negative attitudes toward school and high drop out rates.4 In fact, there is no persuasive evidence that retention helps children.5 One researcher concluded that "it would be difficult to find another educational practice on which the evidence is so unequivocally negative."6 "One size fits all" strategies do not work in education. There are alternatives to in-grade retention that are more effective in helping students academically, provide better options for teachers and are more cost efficient.
Retention is expensive, costing the country an average $10 billion every year.7 It is more cost effective to increase educational resources to improve student performance and eliminate the need for retention. These resources could be used to attract more qualified teachers and provide smaller class sizes, better materials and more effective teacher training.8
"Even if kids are academically behind, just having the 'do' one year over won't help unless the reason they're preforming poorly is identified and addressed."
– Robert Brooks, psychologist, Harvard Medical School, Boston9
References
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Cárdenas, J.A. Multicultural Education: A Generation of Advocacy (Needham Heights, Mass.: Simon and Schuster Custom Publishing, 1995).
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Texas Youth Commission. Closing the Gap: Acceleration vs. Remediation and the Impact of Retention on Student Achievement (Austin, Texas: Texas Education Agency, June 1993).
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Texas Education Agency. 1994-95 Report on Grade Level Retention of Texas Students (Austin, Texas: Texas Education Agency, September 1996).
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Texas Education Agency. 1994-95 Report on Grade Level Retention of Texas Students (see above).
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Education Letter. Reprints from the Harvard Education Letter, January 1985 to August 1988. Harvard University Press.
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"Exclusion and Retention: Failed Strategies" Getting Schools Ready for Children: The Other Side of the Readiness Goal, Internet posting (1997).
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Cortez, A. "In-Grade Retention in Texas: A Summary of the First State Survey Results," IDRA Newsletter (San Antonio, Texas: Intercultural Development Research Association, August 1993); L. Shepard, University of Colorado, in "Does Holding Students Back Help or Hurt?" by M. Elias, USA Today (May 3, 1995).
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Cárdenas, J.A. Multicultural Education: A Generation of Advocacy (see above).
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Elias, M. "Does Holding Students Back Help or Hurt?" USA Today (May 3, 1995).
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U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, October 1995, unpublished data.
© 1997.
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