January/February 1999
The following is an interview with a school psychologist and a first-grade teacher in a rural school district in upstate New York. Retention is a decision they struggle with yearly and there are not always clear answers. This conversation illustrates some of the issues that come up. As these decisions are often sensitive, we have not used the full names of the participants or the district in order to protect their confidentiality.
The district they work in is a small town/rural district with approximately 2,900 in four elementary, a junior high school and a high school. Each school has several classes of each grade level. Although there are some pockets of relative wealth, the area is generally low-income. The population tends to be stable in spite of the fact that there are few work opportunities available.
As a school psychologist, Kathy evaluates children who have been referred to special education, does diagnostic testing, consultation with teachers, parents, and other service providers on the community. She also provides the counseling component to a class of emotionally disturbed students, ages 10- 11. She serves three school buildings, two elementary and one junior high.
Glenda teaches first grade. Over the past 10 years she has changed grades many times, with the level ranging from kindergarten to fourth. Last year, she taught kindergarten, but was bewildered at the end of the year with the few choices available for children not quite ready for the rigors of first. She asked to go to first grade and try to coordinate part of her program with an adjoining kindergarten teacher in search of answers. Their project is not completely successful, but does give some relief to the problem of placement of children not ready for first grade.
Please email us at hepg@harvard.edu and tell us about your own experiences with retention or ask us any questions.
HEL: Have you ever made a decision to retain someone...or not retain them?
Glenda: I've had to make that decision almost every year (except for the years I taught pre-first) and it is one of the most agonizing decisions I have to make.
HEL: How are retentions decided upon? What role do teachers, principals, special services play?
Kathy: In general, it’s a decision made between a teacher and a principal. A teacher will recommend for retention and the principal, in general, will support the teacher unless there are some extenuating circumstances. Most often, I am not consulted, except late in the year, when they want me to test in order to rule out a handicapping condition. I am often unable to get to the testing if it is requested in April or later. I am not aware of a system used to make this decision.
Glenda: The decision to retain is initiated by the teacher. Parents must approve this decision, however. Principals usually don't involve themselves except to continuously update teachers on the poor statistics dealing with results of retention. Sometimes parents ask that a child be retained, but if that is not confirmed by the teacher, the child isn't retained.
HEL: What are some of the drawbacks to not having a systematic way of deciding on retention?
Kathy: It appears to be subjective. The decision is perceived to be the prerogative of the teacher. I was recently involved in a case where a teacher recommended in May that a student repeat the grade. The teacher tried a number of strategies to help this child but she tried to get a handle on it herself. In the spring, she came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to get through to this student, and he should be retained. When the principal brought this student to my attention, there was some urgency to diagnose and develop a plan, but I couldn't do it in the time left in the year. I did assess that he probably was more unmotivated than handicapped, but because the intervention would be labor intensive and not easily addressed, the question of whether to retain was not simple. I was opposed based on the research evidence especially with this type of student.
Glenda: It's disappointing to hear that can still happen, as we have tried to build into the system protections such as documenting parent conferences where the retention was first mentioned at least by mid-year. Perhaps the system needs rechecking. Sometimes a child has a problem in the second half of the year such as illness or family problems that makes it difficult for the child to keep up with the class. Since we have little options for summer learning in our district, the only answer seems to be tutoring (which is above the reach of most parents) or retention. An increase in summer learning opportunities might solve this type of problem.
HEL: Why do kids get retained?
Kathy: Lower ability (slow learners), cultural deprivation, handicapping conditions that aren't diagnosed, as a natural consequence for students who have not done the work of the grade they are in (usually with a behavior problem). Retention, in the early grades, seems to be tried as an intervention before referring a child to special education. There is a strong "maturationist" philosophy in our district, so "the gift of time" is seen as an appropriate strategy for children who are "developmentally young". Most referrals I see at any grade are students who have been retained at some point. In some cases, I think, it’s seems it might work because there is a shortage of special services. There aren’t enough of us to help all the kids who need it. Sometimes, it isn't until months later that I find that one of our handicapped children has been retained....even with the classification.
The retention decision in New York state is totally separate from the special education process. In many cases, a more educated parent will hold their younger child back if they think he will do better the second time around or entering school a year later. Sometimes a teacher may make this decision for a child whose parents aren’t very involved in her education. One kindergarten teacher retained a child who had a very difficult time getting acclimated to the classroom. It took him the better half of the year to begin to enjoy it. The teacher decided last year that she was going to retain him as he was unable to do the kindergarten work and she thought he could do it during a second year. This child is also receiving special services as he has been diagnosed with a learning disability. Well, I just found out that this child is not doing well at all, and now the teacher isn’t sure what to do. Sometimes I think that teachers wait too long.
HEL: How do you handle a cases where you see a child falling behind?
Glenda: I try to promptly enlist all the help I can - special services such as Title I, referrals for testing if possible, and, especially, the parent's help as that often proves to be the key.
HEL: What do you think will help keep the retention rate down?
Kathy: I think that there needs to be a group discussion with the teacher and special services teachers, myself, the parents, to really talk about what is best for a particular child. Teachers need to be convinced that they need to pick out the students they think will fail by first report card time, and design the intervention then. The research tells us that retention may not necessarily be the best choice and we need to talk about retaining seriously. I think we should put into place lots of interventions. The problem is that everyone is stretched to the max and it’s hard to imagine how we would do this. I think the new standards in New York are going to create some real problems. Now that all kids will have to take the Regents, what will we do about the kids who can’t pass, or who take longer than average to pass?
Glenda: CLASS SIZE!! We have more children coming in with huge problems now, but our systems don't seem willing/able to change. Some of our teachers have over 25 children with at least 5 of those children classified learning disabled. I feel that is a sure recipe for failure. Our kindergartens have more than 20 children with some huge problems that make helping the quiet, but faltering child impossible. I would love to pull aside all the children that need a boost, but when the numbers get that high, it can't be done. I also feel we need to look carefully at curriculum and teaching methods. We can teach subjects in so many ways, but we don't have the time or training to do so.
HEL: Do you think retention ever works?
Glenda: Yes. I especially feel it helps in kindergarten for the child so immature that he/she hasn't learned any letters by the end of the year. First and second grade in our system are very high-pressured grades. To subject someone so poorly prepared to that stress seems unfair. I also have a student who had massive family problems that basically halted his learning in first grade last year. He is very productive and self confident this year (partly because home problems have eased and he can concentrate on school).
HEL: What are your views on delayed entry into kindergarten and kindergarten retention?
Glenda: If we expect a child to learn his alphabet by the end of kindergarten, we will always have some children who aren't ready. I don't believe we should eliminate them from school just because of age or a readiness evaluation, but maybe allow more flexibility in class so those children can learn something but still retain the choice of learning the kindergarten curriculum the next year. On the other hand, if the child has learned some letters, we shouldn't retain them. Many children seem to "connect" to letters late in the kindergarten year. Some of them really blossom if sent to first grade even when it seems risky.
We would like to hear from you. Do you have any questions to ask or comments to add about retention? Please send email to: hepg@harvard.edu. We will post questions periodically and keep an archive of them for your review.
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