Is school retention more common nowadays?

[ajk912]

I remember back when I was growing up, it was REALLY rare for a kid to be held back. I could think of 2 kids in the entire class, through the years, that were held back. It didn't seem to be done back then. You had your reading groups, and your math groups, and I remember being in 5th grade and I really wanted to be in the highest reading group (the 7th grade one) and I busted my butt till they switched me to that group. The lowest group was a 4th grade reading group, in 5th grade. We weren't supposed to know what reading level it was..but we weren't dumb, we figured it out. I graduated in 1996, btw.

Nowadays..maybe it's just a local thing, but it seems that retention rates are through the roof. Last year, two kindergarteners on my street were retained, and this year, two other second graders are being retained. I always feel like we are lucky (the school year isn't over yet ) if we evade the retention chopping block. I know school is much, much harder nowaday. And with the state testing that the schools need to pass in order to get funding, I can see how it's easier to fail kids who are performing below average. It doesn't make it right, but when their funding depends on it..I can see how it happens. Because it happens here. My neighbor said that the school was retaining a lot of 2nd graders. They said the same thing last year about the first graders, and the kindergarteners the year before that.

Are all schools like this? Or do we just live in a tough state with a tough school? I know of three kids out of about 10 on my street that either were never retained or were never at risk of being retained for at least one year during the school career. Obviously, my survey isn't as accurate as it could be..but it just makes me wonder.

 

[CF'er]

If anything I would say the opposite is true. We can't make snowflake feel bad so we'll just pass them. I know of parent's that had to fight to get their child held back when he truly wasn't passing his current grade and not ready to move on.

 

[EthansMom]

On the one hand, there's a lot more emphasis on having kids stay back (especially in earlier years) so they can learn the basics. I'd say a lot of that has to do with schools wanting to improve scores for standardized testing.

On the other hand, school staff (teachers, administration) seems to have a lot less power regarding retention than they had 20-30 years ago. Schools can "suggest" that Jr. might benefit from an extra year in his current grade, but no one had better have their feelings hurt in the process!

 

[clarabelle]

Most of the people I know who stayed back a year did it by parental choice -not school choice.
We were switching my DD from public to private.
We had wondered all along if we should have waited a year to start her in school. She had a summer birthday and seemed young for her age.

So when she switched to the new school -we held her back.
It has worked out good so far -she is finishing 4th grade for the second time
she told me herself that she thinks staying back was a good idea

 

[irishbosoxfan]

I have to agree with the opposite being true.

I see so many kids who can't do basic school stuff being put thru to the next grade. Why?

We are going thru this right now with my DD11--We see the papers she brings home and they have grades of 30% or 57%,the spelling is atrocious, information doesn't flow in reports etc and when she gets her report cards she has all Bs. HTH does that happen?!?!

She's in 4th grade because we fought to hold her back when she was in the first grade and they just wanted to send her on to second. The curriculum this year was weird,one week they were learning multiplication tables and the next they were doing algebra problems and I find it hard to believe anyone in that class got a good grasp of either one.

So much seems to be based on those damn tests--they teach them what they need to know to pass the tests while teaching them what they'll need for life seems to have been completely forgotten.

 

[jen0610]

We held both of ours back. The school wasn't overtly thrilled that we wanted to hold back one, let alone the both of them in the same year.

Since we have held ours back, neither one has had another classmate held back. The teachers here can't recommend that a student repeat a grade. If the parents don't address the issue, the kids just keep moving on up the grade levels. And even when parents do address the issue, the administration will try it's darndest to talk them out of it. It's not what is best for the student, but what is best for the schools fundings and percentages.

 

[powellrj]

I also think the opposite is true, BUT I am much older than the OP, I graduated in 1977, so that may be why there is a difference. It was pretty common for kids to be held back when I was in school. I know my brother was held back in 1st grade. He use to tell people that they liked him so well that year, that they asked to stay an extra year. I

 

[irishbosoxfan]

I also think the opposite is true, BUT I am much older than the OP, I graduated in 1977, so that may be why there is a difference. It was pretty common for kids to be held back when I was in school. I know my brother was held back in 1st grade. He use to tell people that they liked him so well that year, that they asked to stay an extra year. I

I graduated high school in 1990 and it was a common occurrence when I was going thru school as well. When I graduated 8th grade I did so with two brothers,one who had been held back twice and one who had been held back once. I also had the cutest boy in my 8th grade who was supposed to be a sophomore. When I was a freshman I had a guy I met in my math class who was a freshman but who was supposed to be a senior.

Today it seems as if they can get them to at least pretend that they learned something they shuffle them off to the next grade. For the last 4 years my DD has spent a chunk of her summer attending "Mommy School" where I go back over everything she was supposed to have learned during the school year and making sure she has a working knowledge of it.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It's not uncommon here. The problem is sometimes you have situations where a child truly needs to be held back and the parents will not allow it. I'm not talking children who are borderline, but kids in first grade who have moved around so much that they literally do not how to count past 10 and know fewer reading words than most kindergartners. Truly kids like that need to be held back to get the basics, but sometimes you can't get the parents to agree to it.

I have to agree with the opposite being true.

I see so many kids who can't do basic school stuff being put thru to the next grade. Why?

We are going thru this right now with my DD11--We see the papers she brings home and they have grades of 30% or 57%,the spelling is atrocious, information doesn't flow in reports etc and when she gets her report cards she has all Bs. HTH does that happen?!?!

She's in 4th grade because we fought to hold her back when she was in the first grade and they just wanted to send her on to second. The curriculum this year was weird,one week they were learning multiplication tables and the next they were doing algebra problems and I find it hard to believe anyone in that class got a good grasp of either one.

So much seems to be based on those damn tests--they teach them what they need to know to pass the tests while teaching them what they'll need for life seems to have been completely forgotten.

Out of curiosity, does your school use Saxon math? The schools where I did my pre internship and internship use it and I absolutely hated it for that reason. Maybe a neurotypical child can handle doing fractions one day and circles the next with no time to truly master the concept, but it was horrible for my students (special ed). They think of it as spiraling (you'll get back to it eventually) but I think of it as stupid.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

Out of curiosity, does your school use Saxon math? The schools where I did my pre internship and internship use it and I absolutely hated it for that reason. Maybe a neurotypical child can handle doing fractions one day and circles the next with no time to truly master the concept, but it was horrible for my students (special ed). They think of it as spiraling (you'll get back to it eventually) but I think of it as stupid.

To tell you the truth I don't know. But whatever it is I do agree it's stupid. Heck she learned the multiplication tables easier from an old chart I found at a second hand store than she did from what they were teaching her.

DD11 is so not into school and I know it's because she struggles and what makes it harder for her is that DD7 is extremely bright. I have always been big on school and have taught both of them a lot as they were growing up. DD7 justs gets it so much easier. She is in 1st right now and reads on a high 4th/low 5th grade level, she picked up a lot of the multiplication while I was working with DD11 on it earlier this school year and loves to help DD11 on her science projects.

 

[KirstenB]

Around here, they hold back a lot in kindergarten, then not so much. For instance, there were 16 kids in dd's kindergarten class. They held back 4 of them. Then I noticed over the years a few kids would get held back per year. She's a 5th grader now, and hopefully no one will get held back.

 

[Brianne]

No, the opposite seems to be true here. They always talk about holding back due to FCAT scores, but it doesn't seem to happen.

I've had one kid after another going through their elementary school for years now & I can honestly say that I've only heard of one child repeat a grade; since it's a small school, the kids tend to get to know everyone in their particular grade so it'd wouldn't pass unnoticed, although of course others may have transferred, etc. so it's hard to say with any certainty.

 

[MM27]

you might notice it more in the lower grades because there is less of an impact on the child when they are retained in K or 1st because the peer issue isn't really big yet.

I teach 4th grade and I've put in several retentions over the years and I've only had one child that actually stayed back. Regardless of what we say, the parent has the final say. If they fight it, the school usually backs down.

 

[cindermomma]

It's not uncommon here. The problem is sometimes you have situations where a child truly needs to be held back and the parents will not allow it. I'm not talking children who are borderline, but kids in first grade who have moved around so much that they literally do not how to count past 10 and know fewer reading words than most kindergartners. Truly kids like that need to be held back to get the basics, but sometimes you can't get the parents to agree to it.



Out of curiosity, does your school use Saxon math? The schools where I did my pre internship and internship use it and I absolutely hated it for that reason. Maybe a neurotypical child can handle doing fractions one day and circles the next with no time to truly master the concept, but it was horrible for my students (special ed). They think of it as spiraling (you'll get back to it eventually) but I think of it as stupid.

Not to take this thread over, but our school uses Saxton, and I am not too impressed. They do different stuff daily and homework nightly (my DS is now going into 3rd grade). And it is all different from math that me and DH was taught.

 

[MarkFL]

If anything I would say the opposite is true. We can't make snowflake feel bad so we'll just pass them. I know of parent's that had to fight to get their child held back when he truly wasn't passing his current grade and not ready to move on.

This.

There is a debate about whether retention or social promotion is better for the child. Proponents of social promotion say that retention damages a child psychologically because they are not with their peers. And it is true that those held back are more likely to drop out of school, but I can't see why you should promote a student with the hopes that maybe he'll "get it" soon.

 

[maelstrom]

My school district didn't like holding kids back. My mom had to fight to get me held back in high school math (yes, just math). It would seem like common sense to hold back a student who had just outright failed the previous class, but apparently my school district had no common sense.

 

[DalGal]

I taught grade 7 (pre-algebra) this year and as a grade level we had 17 students fail academically. In order to promote you cannot fail math or language arts or fail BOTH science and social studies. Of the 17 names we submitted to administration, they chose to retain 2. They promoted students who actually failed 6th grade the year prior but were placed in 7th grade (and then failed 7th grade). Its frustrating as a teacher because you know those students are just being set up to fail in high school and drop out.

 

[clarabelle]

I see both sides. On one hand -you don't want 13 y.o.s in a class of 10 year olds on the other hand you don't want to pass someone who obviously can't do the work.

I wish there was a little less social stigma with holding back.

We feel it was a good move for us -and I think many kids would benefit from that "gift" of an extra year.