Retaining students agonizing decision
There's no one answer, but schools try to help early, work with parents
By Lola Alapo
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Charleston Beard failed several classes his sophomore year, but the 17-year-old Central High School student was promoted to the 11th grade anyway.
If he had been held back and made to retake all his courses with lowerclassmen, he said, "I would have felt bad (but) at the same time it would have made me work harder."
The same situation, however, would have humiliated Michael Ramsey, 17, also a Central junior, who failed most of his freshman and sophomore courses.
He acknowledged his status as a junior was just "a title" because he didn't have the credits to support it.
However, "if they kept calling me a freshman, I probably would have quit going," he said. "You just get that much more tired of it."
Beard and Ramsey have experienced what's commonly called "social promotion." They're also part of a pilot program to help struggling Knox County students that began in January.
The young men illustrate the dilemma of many school officials: the same academic fix cannot be applied to students in the same situation.
In an era of rising standards and graduation requirements, school systems face tough decisions regarding how many times they fail students before passing them on to the next grade.
A shaving 15-year-old in a prepubescent fourth-grade class is not the best scenario, school officials say. Neither is a student sitting in an upper-level class who hasn't mastered reading basics.
The idea of social promotion is to move students who have failed some or all their courses on to the next grade but still reach them through intervention while they're with their peer group.
Some parents say the practice of advancing students regardless of whether they're ready is the worst thing that can happen, because it puts them at a disadvantage for future grades and sets them up for failure in life.
Successes and setbacks
The Tennessee Department of Education gives local districts the authority to retain or promote students, according to spokeswoman Rachel Woods.
Knox County's policy gives a lot of leeway for teacher and principal discretion.
Schools have to examine each child's reason for failure before they decide on promoting or retaining, said Donna Wright, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction of Knox County's 54,000-student school district.
Systemwide, between 500 and 700 students are retained each year, according to district data submitted to the state.
"It's a tough call," Wright said "Is it because of ability? Are they missing skills? Is it attendance?"
According to Knox County data, the highest number of retentions occur in kindergarten through second grade. The numbers dip from third through 10th grade. Then there's a sudden increase in retentions in the 11th and 12th grades.
Wright said older students are in a "catch-up phase" and are making up credits, going to summer school or taking online courses.
Holding a student back is often the last resort, Wright said. It's easier to do when children are young because they appear better able to catch up to their peers.
She added that when students are retained in the early years, "You don't have the emotional stigma attached to it. Kids are not cognizant that they're not moving on with their peers."
On the elementary level, about 2 percent of students are retained, said Fred Nidiffer, Knox County Schools director of elementary schools.
He noted that some parents, to ensure their children get off to a good start, will wait a year before enrolling a kindergartner. They may even use private tutors or teach the child themselves before enrollment.
"You see it much more often in suburban schools," he said, where parents have more resources.
"More economically disadvantaged parents enroll their children as soon as possible," Nidiffer said. "It's more of an economic necessity."
He added that the proportion of retentions corollates with children who are struggling academically.
"If you have a higher number of children struggling, you're going to have to consider that option (retention) more often."
Blount County Schools, an 11,600-student district, has an extensive promotion and retention policy that states students are identified as early as possible during the school year in order to enhance the opportunity for remediation.
Schools spokeswoman Alisa Teffeteller said many school interventions are in mathematics and literacy.
A student also cannot be held more than two times from kindergarten through eighth grade. If a third retention is required, the student will be referred to a support team that will make recommendations about placement.
The system has very few retentions, Teffeteller said, but she could not pinpoint the number.
The Consortium on Chicago School Research, based at the University of Chicago, conducted several studies on the effects of retention on city students. One study looked at eighth-graders and found that retained students were more likely to drop out because they were too old for their grades, said Elaine Allensworth, researcher and co-director of statistical analysis.
"If you're holding a student back two years, that means they cannot graduate until they're 20," she said. "It's hard to imagine they may want to stay in school, especially because they have not had a successful experience."
For school districts, the dilemma becomes figuring out what to do once they determine that a student is struggling and deficient in skills, said Ken Green, Oak Ridge Schools assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. The district has about 4,300 students.
They also know they have to intervene and do it earlier in the student's academic career and before the end of the school year. The help must occur during the school day, not after, because struggling students are often reticent to come back for more school after school.
"No one feels incredibly successful on this front right now," Green said. "We're going to have to rethink how we do it. Teachers across the state … feel the frustration of not being able to reach certain pockets of students."
What parents think
After Sharon Mills' son failed all his third-grade classes, teachers were going to promote him to the next level until she demanded he repeat the third grade.
"I think it did help him," the Lenoir City woman said of her son, now in the 10th grade at Loudon High School.
If children are promoted without a foundation for their next level of classes, that only sets them up for failure at the next grade level, she said in an e-mail.
Parents polled by the News Sentinel overwhelmingly shared Mills' philosophy.
Those who retained their children did so in the early grades.
Kim Kiriluk of Farragut had her adopted twin sons held back in the second grade, after a battle with their school's administrators. The boys were physically small and developmentally behind, she said.
"That was the best thing we ever did for them," she said in an e-mail about the boys, now in 10th grade at Farragut High School. "They absolutely flourished."
Literacy spells success
Some area schools are focusing on literacy-based interventions as a way to ensure lagging students succeed. For example, Knox County high schools have Language! (pronounced "language ex") class, which aims to raise comprehension and reading skills.
Knox elementary schools have small groups that focus on vocabulary building, Nidiffer said.
The district also has an extended day kindergarten intervention program as well as a four-week summer program. he said.
In Oak Ridge, Green said elementary schools have a "reading recovery" program that gives one-on-one help. Middle schools have a "team concept" where teachers get together and "triage their most difficult students." High schools have graduation coaches, two people usually in math and English, who keep a log of struggling students and follow them over the course of the year, he said.
Green said, however, the district does not have all the interventions it needs.
Dan Dugger, a retired Karns High School educator, teaches in a pilot program operated by Knox County Juvenile Court. The program, which began in January, gives 11th- and 12th-graders with few credits and no hope of graduating a second chance to earn a General Educational Development equivalency diploma, get job experience and a driver's license.
Dugger said teachers have to develop rapport with students if they want to connect with them. He said the students participating in the pilot program all excelled almost as soon as they started.
Beard and Ramsey, the Central students, take part in the program.
Randy Brooks, 18, a Fulton High School junior, also is part of the pilot program.
For students who have been in his position, he said, "Either way you go, the kids are going to be crushed.
"If you're with freshmen, you're going to be worrying that the kids think you're dumb. But if you're in junior classes and you don't understand what (the teacher's) talking about, you're going to feel overwhelmed. So take your pick."
Brooks said a closer collaboration between teacher and student appears to offer the most promise to help someone who is lagging.
"I'll give them a hand-clap and handshake if they come up with something good," he said. "Because I sure can't figure it out."
Lola Alapo may be reached at 865-342-6376.
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