The research shows that children who are retained fare worse than their peers with similar academic and behavioral needs who are not retained. It is from longitudinal data sets where you can match cohorts based on things like days of suspension, reading level, etc prior to the grade retention, and then compare them to each other after the grade retention or promotion.

Originally Posted by Val
Originally Posted by Beckee
The research also shows that students who are retained (especially at middle school level) are at high risk for alienation: truancy, further failures, at risk-behaviors, dropping out.

This could be correlation without causation.

Is holding them back really the cause of truancy and other risky behaviors? Or are problems like poor performance in school, truancy, and risky behaviors all coming from the same root cause?


Originally Posted by Beckee
When educated and motivated parents pull their children out of public schools, they are taking motivated, capable students out of public school classrooms. They are taking out independent learners, peer role models (positive peer pressure is a powerful force), someone who might understand what the teacher is saying and be able to explain it to their classmates, an intelligent participant in class discussion.

When public schools refuse to provide challenging, interesting material, they fail talented students and create problems for the entire country. If public schools want to keep talented students, they should treat them as more than just classroom helpers who are there for the benefit of less motivated or less intelligent students. When a school forces gifted kids into a classroom with below average students, bright students can get picked on for "showing off," "bragging," or whatever. There is another side to that coin.

We bend over backwards to accommodate below average kids, and nothing changes. High stakes tests continue to get easier and our PISA scores stay in the average range or below.

I know that teaching is a difficult job, and I know how difficult it is to teach students of differing ability levels. But can you see how a system that caters to below-average students can be soul-destroying to a highly intelligent, thoughtful child?

I hate paying private school fees. It's a sacrifice for us. We tried a charter school this year when my son's last school closed, and the result has been a year that's been nearly a complete academic waste. There are students in my son's 8th grade classes who don't know where Egypt is and don't know what the Revolutionary War was. Essays are never corrected for grammar mistakes. In math class, we just skip things that are too hard or time-consuming, like proofs in geometry. My son cries about school and begs me to let him go to an online school next year. Looking at the offerings, I can see his point.