Education Week - May 13, 2015 - Special Report - S17

Building Literacy Skills > www.edweek.org/go/buildingliteracy | S17
EDUCATION WEEK MAY 13, 2015
n
States' 3rd Grade Reading
Retention Policies
ther," Mr. Shanahan said. "What
you tend to see is [retained students]
fall back over time."
Catching Up or Falling Behind?
Until the mid-2000s, not much
evidence has supported holding
students back because of low reading
skills.
Multiple studies and meta-analyses
have found that students held
back in a grade show academic and
social problems later on, including
being at higher risk for ultimately
dropping out of school.
"And, the single most negative
effect of retention is in what area?
Reading," said Mr. Jimerson of ucSanta
Barbara. "If it's not contraindicated
for any other reason, it is
for that. There are a lot of empirically
supported strategies. Retention
is not one of them."
Those who support asking students
to repeat a grade say an
extra year gives the children more
time to mature, both cognitively
and socially, and provides them
more time to practice and master
critical skills.
Just Read, Florida!, one of the nation's
highest-profile retention programs,
requires any 3rd grader who
fails the reading portion of Florida's
state test to attend summer school
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16
states,
plus D.C.
REQUIRE
RETENTION
states3
ALLOW
RETENTION
AZ
NM
31
states
DO NOT REQUIRE
RETENTION
AK
HI
SOURCE: Education Commission of the States
and then repeat the grade under a
high-quality teacher.
In multiyear evaluations of the
initiative, researchers Marcus A.
Winters of the University of Colorado
at Colorado Springs and Jay P.
Greene of the University of Arkansas
at Fayetteville found struggling
readers who repeated 3rd grade
significantly outpaced low-performing-but-promoted
peers in reading,
mathematics, and science through
7th grade.
Similarly in 2009, the rand Corp.
evaluated New York City's readingrelated
retention initiative, which
required students in grades 3, and
later in grades 5 and 7 also, to pass
a reading test in order to be promoted,
but provided supplemental
reading help for students who were
retained.
The evaluation found students
PAGE S19 >
FL
TX
TN
OK
AR
MS
LA
AL
GA
OR
ID
WY
NV
UT
CA
CO
NE
KS
IA
IL
MO
IN
OH
WV
KY
NC
VA
SC
SD
WA
MT
ND
MN
WI
MI
PA
NJ
MD
DE
DC
NY
MA
RI
CT
Schools in 19 states and the District
of Columbia can bar promotion for
3rd graders who are poor readers.
NH
VT
ME
http://www.edweek.org/go/buildingliteracy http://www.nbpts.org http://www.nbpts.org http://www.facebook.com/TheNBPTS http://www.nbpts.org/policy http://www.twitter.com/NBPTS
Education Week - May 13, 2015 - Special Report

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