Is grade retention actually of benefit to students?

A common educational belief is the act of holding children back also referred to as grade retention. Grade retention is keeping a student back for another year in the same grade because the student is not keeping up with or accomplishing the curriculum requirements for that grade. The idea is that holding them back will give them more time to master the material before moving on instead of just automatically granting them social promotion. However, this brings me to the question of is grade retention actually of benefit to the student, long term or short term? I question this because it is of such large cost in time and money for both the student and the school. Consequently, there ought to be empirical evidence supporting schools’ decisions to consider grade retention over social promotion.

My initial opinion was that it would be more of a long term negative effect on the student over a positive one if he or she experienced grade retention. According to Martin (2011), both early and recent research has concluded that grade retention has largely negative outcomes. There have been a lot of studies that have shown that grade retention is highly correlated with poorer academic achievement and low involvement in post-high school education (Martin, 2011). Furthermore, studies have shown that a higher dropout rate is seen among students that are held back because it appears students actually learn more if promoted (Deschenes, 2001). In fact, the dropout rates among students that are held back are usually higher than those that were promoted even though they exhibited low academic achievement as well. A study was conducted including data from 3,261 high school students and they found that even after considering the various demographic factors among the participants, there were statistically significant effects of grade retention on the students (Martin, 2011). Areas studied were self-concept, homework completion, motivation and amount of school absences (Martin, 2011). Martin’s (2011) study showed that these factors were negatively affected by grade retention, along with decreased self-esteem among students that were held back; however, peer relationships did not appear to be statistically affected. 

Other studies have also found negative effects on student academic performance, post-grade retention. For example, Vandecandelaere et. al. (2016), found that when retained in first grade, students' math scores were affected even more negatively than in if retained after kindergarten.  This suggests to me that maybe the older the students get, the worse the effects of grade retention. Lastly, some research has supported that short term students that are held back may illustrate positive effects because at first they feel advantaged in a sense because they are older than the other students and may have some prior experience with the material. Nevertheless, these “advantages” only appear short term and then disappear (Klapproth et. al., 2016). When talking to my Cooperating Teacher about the topic of grade retention, he said they generally don't hold students back in their middle school; however, he can think of a few students that were held back and when they got to high school a majority of them actually dropped out and did not come back. We also discussed the influence of parents on grade retention and he said from his experience it seems the parents usually push more for the student to be held back then the school does. He said that he can maybe see the short term effects of grade retention being seen as positive but overall he said "I am not a strong proponent of grade retention as I am not sure that it is actually of benefit to the student long term, especially once they are in middle school or older. I could see holding a student back in kindergarten or first grade potentially being helpful for the student, but after that I would say social promotion is ultimately a better way to go."

Overall, I have determined that personally and based on evidence, grade retention is a common educational belief and practice that is not founded in evidence. It appears that grade retention long term does not benefit the student, and the net effects of being held back are highly negative. In discussion with peers I have heard many differing views on grade retention, and majorities were in favor of grade retention. From personal experience, one of my friends was held back in middle school and she end up dropping out of high school and then later getting her GED. Consequently, if I was having a conversation with someone with an opposing, non-evidence based opinion to mine regarding grade retention, I would politely refute them and point them to the studies that I have read about. I would also outline factors such as dropout rates, self-concept, school absences and homework completion and how they are negatively influenced by grade retention.

References:

Deschenes S., Tyack D., & Cuban L. (2001). Mistmatch: Historical Perspective on Schools and Students Who Don’t Fit Them.Teachers College Record, V. 103, N. 4p. 525-547.

Martin, A. J. (2011). Holding back and holding behind: Grade retention and students' non-academic and academic outcomes. British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 739-763

Vandecandelaere, M., Vansteelandt, S., De Fraine, B., & Van Damme, J. (2016). The effects of early grade retention: Effect modification by prior achievement and age. Journal of School Psychology, 54, 77-93.

Klapproth, F., Schaltz, P., Brunner, M., Keller, U., Fischbach, A., Ugen, S., & Martin, R. (2016). Short-term and medium-term effects of grade retention in secondary school on academic achievement and psychosocial outcome variables. Learning and Individual Differences, 50, 182-194.

Post #3: Blogs in the Classroom

 As a future educator, I would definitely try to take advantage of the online community that the blogging technology helps create. I could see myself using it how blackboard is used at Grand Valley. I can post and discuss each weeks agenda and assignments, along with reminders for both the students and the parents. I like how the blog resembles a Facebook or Twitter because this would hopefully mean that students would be comfortable and confident with using this technology. As the teacher, using this to post information directly can help me better communicate to the parents about what is going on in class more often than just conferences or emails. Furthermore, students could use it as a place to be reminded of or see each days events in case they forget or were absent. They could also use it to spark class discussion or post questions they may have about assignments.

As a science teacher, I can see myself using this a lot instead of having students do written work. I would use it for students to write discussions or reflections after labs and experiments so all the students can benefit from reading others' work. The publicity of information would allow a sense of collaboration in my class that is a key component of a scientific community that would not necessarily be accomplished through written assignments, Word, or Google Docs. Also, a blog keeps a more personalized record or timeline of a person's work throughout the year than Word or Google Docs does, and also allows other students' to read and comment on posts. Consequently, some features that would be useful in my future teaching would be the ease at which information can be shared to a large group including both students and parents, the network or sense of community it would create in my classroom and the pride and ownership students' would take in their work since a blog is a public and creative record of their thoughts. Another advantage of blogging over Google Docs or Word, is the fact students' can embed videos and pictures that enhance the information and depth of their post. Some constraints I may experience could be technology issues, slower responses to questions than if it were in person or lack of face to face discussion and interaction. The use of technology is important; however, it is also important that students are able to communicate professionally in-person and not just online. Therefore, I would need to make sure that I still facilitate discussion in my classroom and not just rely on the online discussions.

Post #2: Learner Analysis

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was Full House which aired from 1987 to 1995 (Full House). It is about a San Francisco family whose mom passes away, and then the three daughters are raised by the dad and his two buddies. The oldest of the daughters is Donna Jo Margaret or D.J. Tanner, and D.J. is the character whom I will be conducting a learner analysis on.

The socioeconomic status of a student may be important to know because it can play a large part in the type of student the child is, and whether or not the parents are involved. In the case of D.J. Tanner, she is part of the white, middle class. Her and her family live in a suburban to urban part of San Francisco, and she is raised in a clean, positive and family-oriented environment. One unique part of her story though is that after her mom passed away, she and her sisters are being raised by three men instead of the typical mom and dad family dynamic that she used to have. Nevertheless, D.J. Tanner really excels in school overall, and she has many qualities typical of a first born. In fact, D.J is an honor student who only once received an "F"in science (The Full House Wiki). Consequently, she would be considered an engaged, college-bound student who did and wanted to do well in school without distracting others or misbehaving an abnormal amount. Many times throughout the show she even attempts to encourage friends and family members about school related things such as doing well on homework or exams. In the fifteenth episode of season seven, D.J. actually had a nightmare about being late to and doing poorly on her S.A.T. exam. This episode reminds me of myself because stressing out over college entry exams and having nightmares about them would definitely be something that would happen to me. Nevertheless, in the show D.J. graduated from Bayview High School, and then went on to attended U.C. Berkeley (The Full House Wiki).

In light of this technology class, for this student I could probably use some sort of google classroom or blackboard. D.J seems like a very organized girl with involved parents, and having an online classroom would probably be of benefit to her and her interested father. I also think that D.J. would benefit from one on one technology, blogging and or voice to text technology. My strategy with her would be to use technology and her creative side and love for music, to enhance her classroom performance by getting her interested in technology that she could also use for her music hobby such as having her own blog. Beyond school, D.J. also enjoys music, family and friends and horses (The Full House Wiki).






Season 3, Episode 2: D.J. goes back to School





References:
The Full House Wiki: http://fullhouse.wikia.com/wiki/D.J._Tanner
Full House (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_House

About Me

My name is Courtney Paige Shear. I have a wonderful mom, dad and brother whom I live with in Fowlerville, Michigan when not I'm not going to school at Grand Valley. Fowlerville is a small, farm-dominated community, and I have loved being raised there and spending my summers there when home from school. At home, I also have a dog named Bullet. He is a Schnoodle, which is a mix between a Schnauzer and a Poodle and he is the first and only pet I've ever had!

This upcoming year is my fifth and final year here at Grand Valley. I have gone to Grand Valley for the entire duration of my college career and have loved it. I have met a ton of great people here, and also have been able to pursue my dream of being a High School Science teacher. I love all the sciences; therefore, I am pursing an extra endorsement for the integrated sciences so I can hopefully teach chemistry, physics, biology and Earth science at the secondary level. My actual major and minor are Biology and Earth Science for secondary Education. I tutor for Grand Valley and also tutor for families privately. In the future I see myself teaching at a smaller school maybe somewhere around the Grand Rapids area.

In my minimal free time, I love to paint, play volleyball (both indoor and beach), hangout with friends and eat good food! I also love exploring and being outdoors. Hence, the photo of myself to the right of me posing next to some bamboo on a family vacation to Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands! Some fun facts about me is that I have visited over half of the 50 states, and I have been collecting rocks since I could walk.

I am really looking forward to this class because my experience with planning and using technology in the classroom is very minimal. I have grown up using mainly pencil and paper in the classroom, and at this point all of the technology available to me as a future teacher is both exciting and intimidating. I have done some teaching in various forms, such as subbing and being a Structured Learning Assistant at Grand Valley, and I have used ELMO technology, PowerPoint and some class wide quizzing/testing technology. I have also used Blackboard to post documents and assignments for students when I was a biology facilitator. 

I've been looking forward to this year since my freshman year of college, and am so excited its finally here! Also, here is a video of me long boarding and walking my dog Bullet at the same time, both activities I love doing!

Yours truly,


 Courtney Shear