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Should low-achieving kids be promoted or held back?

3/21/2012

 
One of the most troubling problems concerns the promotion or retention of low-achieving kids. It doesn't seem sensible to promote the child to the next grade if he's terribly far behind. But if he is asked to repeat a grade, isn't there are high likelihood that he will conclude he's not cut out for school?

Until recently, comparisons of kids who were promoted and kids who were retained indicated that retention didn't seem to help academic achievement, and in fact likely hurt. So the best practice seemed to be to promote kids to the next grade, but to try to provide extra academic support for them to handle the work.

But new studies indicate that academic outcomes for kids who are retained may be better than was previously thought, although still not what we would hope.

A meta-analysis by Chiharu Allen and colleagues indicates that the apparent effect of retention on achievement varies depending on the particulars of the research.

Two factors were especially important.  First, the extent to which researchers controlled for possible differences between retained and promoted students. Better studies ensured that groups were matched on many characteristics, whereas worse studies just used a generic "low achiever" control group. Second, some studies compared retained students to their age-matched cohort--who were now a year ahead in school. Other studies compared retained students to a grade-matched cohort or to the grade-matched norms of a standardized test.

Which comparison is more appropriate is, to some extent, a value judgment, but personally I can't see the logic in evaluating a kids' ability to do 4th grade work (relative to other 4th graders) when he's still in 3rd grade.

The authors reported three main findings:
1) studies with poor controls indicated negative academic outcomes for retained students. Studies with better controls indicated no effect, positive or negative, on retention versus promotion.
2) When compared to students in the same grade, retained children show a short term boost to academic achievement, but that advantage dissipates in the coming years. The authors speculate that students' academic self-efficacy increases in that first year, but they come to adopt beliefs that they are not academically capable.

This pattern--a one-year boost followed by loss--was replicated in a recently published study (Moser, West, & Hughes, in press).

The question of whether it's best to promote or retain low-achieving students is still open. But better research methodology is providing a clearer picture of the outcomes for these students. One hopes that better information will lead to better ideas for intervention.

Allen, C. S., Chen, Q., Willson, V. L., & Hughes, J. N. (2009). Quality of research design moderates effects of grade retention on achievement: A meta-analytic, multi-level analysis. Education Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 31, 480-499.

Moser, S. E., West, S. G. & Hughes, J. N. (in press). Trajectories of math and reading achievement in low-achieving children in elementary school: Effects of early and later retention in grade. Journal of Educational Psychology.




 
Paul DiPerna link
3/22/2012 02:32:00 am

For someone who is new to the social promotion/academic retention research, this is a very helpful post. And I appreciate the links and references to other sources. Thank you.

- Paul DiPerna

EB
3/22/2012 02:59:04 am

It would be helpful to know if the results differ depending on how far behind the child is, and on whether and to what extent there really is extra help if they are promoted. It's well known that students who arent' reading fluently by 4th grade are at high risk for dropping out anyway; for this group, does promotion or retention have a better effect on HS completion rates?

Cal
3/22/2012 09:11:01 am

The problem with retention studies is that the researchers often forget that grades are relative. Many kids miss a lot of school, fail for that reason, yet have decent achievement levels. More commonly, kids who go to school every day and work hard are rarely failed, because it's a tough thing to do to a kid.

So unless kids are being retained purely on test scores in elementary school, it's hard to know that like to like is being compared, or even if retained kids are actually the low achievers.

Furthermore, the decision *not* to retain low-achievers has a really bad impact on the other students, as the teachers have to teach to a much broader range of abilities. This, too, doesn't really depend on whether kids are retained or not, since many low-achieving kids are passed on because they get passing grades.

If I ran things, I'd always move kids on, but group them by ability so that they can make progress at their own pace with other kids of the same ability level. But ability grouping may as well be tracking, for all the acceptance it gets.

Andrew
7/11/2012 08:44:41 pm

The idea of promotion and retention has been a topic of debate for several years. Now I understand that many studies in current society say that a student should not be retained due to academic process especially at the elementary and middle school levels. I realize that these are low achieving students, but I personally believe that students should be retained if need be. These students need high standards presented for them as well in order to have success. I do not believe that retention should be used as a punishment but rather as a way to help motivate students.

As a teacher in a low-income school district, the district that I work for had a promotion/retention policy two years ago. However it has since been removed and due to this our school wide success has decreased. This past year of our 130 8th grade students only about 50% passed all of their classes. This is a frightening statistic and one I am not pleased to be a part of. Once our promotion/retention policy was removed our students took advantage of it. They knew that they did not need to worry about their grades because no matter what they would move on to the next grade. They would even say this the my face as well as the faces of my colleagues.

Now remember I am not for having a policy to punish students rather to hold them accountable and possibly motivate them to do well. Yes studies show that this might not prove to help the students learn more per say, however I believe it will motivate them to do better. For some students they do not pass their classes because they do not complete homework. So my thought is at the very minimum have a policy in place so that our students will put forth the effort to graduate.


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