Better Alternative to Test-Based Retention

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

Note that this is more than a NYC story -- an increasing number of 
jurisdictions misuse test scores to hold back students

  PRINCIPAL SEES MISTAKE IN PLAN TO HOLD BACK 3RD GRADERS
          New York Times "On Education" Column -- February 4, 2004
                                     by Michael Winerip

Since 1978, Leonard Golubchick has been the principal of Public School 
20 on the Lower East Side, one of the city's poorest schools, populated 
by the children of immigrants. And every year he has several students - 
children like Diamond Graham, Leudy Rodriguez, Amanda Chan, Arisbeily 
Toribio, Jennifer Cruz, Dipa Begum - who fail the citywide third-grade 
reading test with a score of 1.

But every year, through his savvy fund-raising, Dr. Golubchick is able 
to pay for additional staff and computerized reading labs along with a 
before-school program, an after-school program, a Saturday program and 
an all-day, air conditioned summer school. And thanks to all those 
extras, every year most of his third-grade 1's bloom into fourth-grade 
3's and 4's without being held back.

So when Dr. Golubchick read of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's new 
mandatory retention policy to hold back every child who failed the 
city's third-grade reading test, two words raced through the veteran 
principal's mind: "Big mistake."

Dr. Golubchick was P.S. 20's principal in 1981, during the Koch 
administration, the last time New York City tried mandatory retention 
based on a test score alone. The oratory then sounded as beautiful as it 
does now - no longer would there be social promotion, no longer would 
children be passed along without mastering basics. In that 1981 "gates" 
program, children who failed the fourth- or seventh-grade reading tests 
could attend summer school and retake the test, but if they failed 
again, they were held back and put in "gates" classes. Those classes 
were small - 15 to 18 - and meant to give the retained child intensive 
instruction.

City officials initially hailed the program, but because it was so 
expensive - 1,100 extra teachers were employed for the 25,000 retained 
students at a cost estimated at $40 million to $70 million - an 
independent expert, Ernest House (now at the University of Colorado), 
was hired to do an assessment. Dr. House found that the retained 
students performed no better academically than similar low-achieving 
students who had not been retained. The stigma of retention seemed to be 
a problem; Dr. House found that in seventh grade, attendance for the 
retained students, even with small classes, was worse than for the 
low-achieving control group not retained.

A follow-up study by the city in 1986 found that half the retained 
fourth graders also were retained in seventh grade, which is what Dr. 
Golubchick remembers most. "All those 16- and 17-year-old eighth 
graders," he says. And what happens to a 17-year-old eighth grader? The 
study found that 40 percent of retained seventh graders eventually 
dropped out, compared with 25 percent of nonretained low achievers.

In short, New York's 1981 mandatory retention program violated the most 
basic rule of medicine: first do no harm. Dr. House says this is the 
history of mandatory retention - most studies indicate it rarely works. 
A 1998 review of those studies in the Chicago-based magazine Catalyst 
called New York's program the "biggest flop" of all.

Dr. House and Dr, Golubchick say the money is better spent on creating 
classes of 20 in kindergarten through third grade, more individualized 
tutoring and high-quality summer school. "Why flunk them to give them 
the services they need?" Dr. House said. "Why not just give them the 
services?"

Michele Cahill, an adviser to the schools chancellor, says the new 
program, which is expected to retain 20 percent of third graders, about 
15,000 children, will succeed because retained students will not be 
segregated, but will get "early and continuous assessments and 
interventions" and a "rigorous curriculum." She said at least $25 
million would be set aside for teacher training, after-school tutoring 
and an improved summer school program with class sizes of 15.

After 26 years, Dr. Golubchick is a wizard at finding buried grant 
money. He says that unlike most city principals, he has much of what he 
needs to help his children (99 percent get free lunches). He points out 
that when it comes to reading, grade level is mostly an artifice. His 
students are divided into reading groups and pushed according to their 
abilities; some fourth graders read seventh-grade books, some read 
second-grade books. Students lagging behind get extra computer time 
daily and use the Sound Reading Solutions software for phonetics and 
decoding and Read Naturally software for fluency. Those programs permit 
a child to move at his or her own pace. Whether retained or not, he 
says, the child does the same reading work.

Diamond Graham, now a fifth grader, got an hour extra reading a day in 
second and third grade, but still scored 1 on the third-grade test. In 
Diamond's case, says Gracelyn Davis, a P.S. 20 literacy specialist, the 
issue was self-esteem. "You have to be a risk taker to try reading a big 
word for the first time," says Ms. Davis. "We had to make the introvert 
an extrovert, promote Diamond's self-esteem" - the opposite of what 
retention does. Diamond attended P.S. 20's before-school, after-school 
and summer school programs. Her fourth-grade teacher, Martha Mancini, 
spent lunches reading with Diamond and that year, the girl got the top 
score, 4. As for self-esteem, Diamond can now be found touring P.S. 20, 
lecturing classes on the importance of recycling old batteries.

Leudy Rodriguez got a 1 in third grade at Public School 97, a school so 
bad it has since closed. Last year, he says, in fourth grade at P.S. 20, 
there were many more adults who could help. Ms. Mancini told him a neat 
secret. "She said when you're reading, get a mental picture of what 
you're reading. I tried and it was kind of fun - I was in the book." 
Leudy went from 1 to 3, as did Amanda Chan, Arisbeily Toribio, Jennifer 
Cruz and Dipa Begum. Dipa is so thankful not to be held back. "It's hard 
to be held back because I really want to be a smart kid," she says. "My 
father said if you're a smart kid you can go anywhere."

Each year after consulting with teachers, counselors and parents, Dr. 
Golubchick does hold back about 20, in a school of 885. He retained 
Samantha Tsi in third grade. Says Dr. Golubchick, "She is an only child, 
Chinese was spoken at home, we felt she was young for her age and needed 
a year to grow."

Samantha did grow, from 1 to 4. "You have to make the decision based on 
best interest of the child," he says. "Not best interest of the 
bureaucracy."