Failing a Grade...Good Idea or Not???

We hear a lot these days about how 8th graders are reading at a 3rd grade reading level. We hear about how high school kids are graduating even though they are performing at a 7th grade level. You may have been one of those people who think that teachers have dropped the ball: how the heck are we graduating these kids who can't read, can't add or can't write???

I'll tell you exactly how it happens: teachers are not allowed to do their jobs anymore. It's been taken away from us. Thanks to new legislation (ie: NCLB), we are under the microscope and forced to have every decision that used to be left up to our professional judgement (yes, I went to college for 5 years and graduate school for 3 years to do what I do...I do have some professional judgement) now has to go through an insane amount of meetings, committees, opinions, and all sorts of people weighing in on how they think I should best teach my kiddos.

Remember back when we were growing up? How scary the thought of being "held back" a grade was? It was awful. That was the worse thing that could happen to you. If a teacher threatened it...you knew she was serious. You'd better straighten up and do your work, turn your homework in, actually start studying.

Not anymore. I tell at least 4 parents every year that unless a big change happens, their child will not be ready for third grade and will therefore be...left behind. See where this is going?? Every year there really are about 4 of my students who just do NOTHING and aren't ready for third grade. They are either not emotionally ready or they just haven't learned the content that is necessary for them to be promoted. In the old days, the children would be held back. We all knew kids like that had been held back and we looked at them in awe: those were the kids that just didn't care and boy, we did NOT want to be like them. We knew we'd do whatever it took to get ourselves promoted.

It's quite different now. I am in the process of getting ready for my retention meeting tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous about it. I only have one little girl this year who I think would benefit from being held back but boy, do I have to make a case for it. She's young for her age, she averages 20% on things when the class average is about 90% and she's just not performing at grade level. If she goes to 3rd grade, she's going to be absolutely lost. She won't be able to do a darn thing. Parents even want her to be retained. However, I have to take a metric ton of data and evidence to this meeting tomorrow to prove my case.

This is how daunting it is: I've received some (for lack of a better term) "Retention Hate Mail" in my mailbox at work over the last couple of days. The powers that be have read the research that show that retention is not a good thing for all students and are trying to intimidate the teachers into not bringing any kiddos to the retention meetings. (btw: they are awful because you are sitting with the school psychologist, people from the district, the principal, the learning specialists and you have to make the case on why this child learned NOTHING in your class all year). In essence, you have to prove you haven't done your job with this child. See how little they progressed? These meetings are not fun.

Back to the hate mail. Here are a few of the golden nuggets we all received over the past week. See what you think:

"...Retention is HIGHLY ASSOCIATED with significant increases in behavior problems and mental health issues in adolescence and adulthood."

"...most children do not "catch up" when they are held back. Although some retained children do better at first, they often fall behind again in later grades, and are often referred for remedial help or special education during elementary school."

"...by the time they get into middle school,. many children who were held back tend to get into trouble, dislike school and feel more poorly about themselves than do children who were never retained. There is some evidence that retained children are more likely to have mental health problems than those who are not retained."

"...a study in 1980 was done on sixth graders. They were surveyed on 20 stressful life events. Of the 20 events, children feared grade retention MOST after loss of a parent and going blind. That study was replicated in 2001 and 6th graders said that retentions was the single most stressful life event...even higher than the death of a parent (Anderson, Jimmerson, Whipple, 2002 UC-Santa Barbara).

"...systematic review and meta-analyses examining research over the past century (studies concluded between 1911-2001) support that in MOST cases, grade retention harms children."

So what's a classroom teacher in Commerce City with all sorts of leaking pipes making noises supposed to do? I know in my heart that this child will NOT be successful in 3rd grade. Do I just "pass her along" and have her be one of the 8th graders y'all are talking about who can't read and can't add? She'll probably drop out at that point anyway. Or do I fight to have her retained...ignoring these little gems of research that someone keeps placing in our boxes? So when I tell my parents at the beginning of the year that their child will be held back unless they get on the ball and start helping their child at home, THEY DON'T BELIEVE ME. They know the process and they know I have no power over this whatsoever. Big difference from back when we were in school, isn't it?

I wish we could go back to the days where there was some personal responsibility taken for education. I told her parents in September that if she didn't make huge improvements (ie: WORK WITH YOUR CHILD AT HOME) by the end of the year, she may have to be held back. Instead of actually doing that, mom just wants her retained. Where does that leave the classroom teacher? Our professional judgement is systematically being reduced to nothing: eventually everyone will be able to say that public education doesn't work and here's the reasons why.

And you all will be right. It's not working. Kids are being "left behind" all the time.

p.s. Exactly 15 minutes after I posted this, another "golden nugget" was placed in my box at work. Here it is in all its glory:

"...Initial achievement gains may occur during the retention year, but the consistent trend across many research studies is that achievement gains decline within 2-3 years of retentions such that retained children either do no better or perform MORE POORLY than similar groups of promoted children."