Retention ~ the dreaded 9-letter word.

Mention the idea of retention and parents tense up, children go pale, and teachers fear repercussions for not having provided "adequate" academic growth for a child. But when students are not on grade-level and promotion to the next grade would only ensure failure, what is the best solution to meeting a child's academic needs? This question is actually two-pronged (academic vs. social) with many smaller prongs that get trickery along the way. First and foremost, most educators believe a child's academic needs should be placed above any underlying concern of social stigma from repeating a grade. The debate over this is heated as you will see from the articles below. There is no black and white answer ~ only varying shades of gray. Professionals on both sides argue the validity of their points concerning retention when a students has not met (or cannot consistently maintain) grade level expectations. One must first look at the factors that led to the underachieving, low performance of a student. There are many questions that immediately come to mind: Is there some sort of learning disability that was not identified? Should the child have had a PEP/IEP? Did the child have one, but for whatever reasons, possibly limited resources of the teacher or school system, were modifications not put in place? Were there behavior issues (ODD, ADD/ADHD) or social/home factors that led to academic difficulty? Is the student unmotivated, and if so, why? Is the teacher/classroom setting a poor fit for the child's needs? (Yes, with many diverse learners out there, there are often simply "personality clashes" between students and teachers.) The list of questions goes on and on, but the answers are limited to what was observed (and identified) as a possible cause of academic failure. And should we even use the word failure? If so, whose failure is it? The student's, teacher's, or parent's....or all three? As you can see, this is a difficult topic. Most educators are remarkable at identifying struggling learners early on and putting into place intervention strategies. These strategies, coupled with home/parental support, often prevent students from hitting bottom and ending up at the end of an academic year without the possibility of forward, upward mobility. But with budget cuts forthcoming, class sizes growing, teacher demands increasing, and resources shrinking, are we going to see an upward trend in retention rates and in schools who are spiralling downward due to not being able to meet their AYP goals? Below are some articles that shed light on the subject. I have tried to find some without bias or prejudice. It is important that we open the floor to discussion respectfully, without pointing fingers at wrong-doers or outdated policies (although there are some of both out there). In doing so, we are better prepared to find solutions. If we only focus on what/who is to blame, we are all ill-equipped to find a resolution. http://www.education.com/reference/article/kindergarten-entrance-age-retention/ http://www.theteachersguide.com/ParentGuide2Retention.htm http://sitemaker.umich.edu/bajacob/files/ret_nber_10_2_2007.pdf http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/grade_retention.php http://education.ucsb.edu/jimerson/retention/ http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED408102.pdf