Fwd: [arn2-strategy] retention still does not work

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: "Monty Neill" <monty@fairtest.org>

  Date: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:36:53 AM US/Eastern

  To: <ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com>, <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>, "ARN-L"
  <arn-l@interversity.org>, "arn2-strategy" <arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com>,
  <eddra@yahoogroups.com>

  Subject: [arn2-strategy] retention still does not work

  Reply-To: arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com

  This is an important article. A few years ago Jay Greene argued that one year
  after retention, the data showed retention worked. Some of us recognized that
  one-year data is often misleading on retention because scores typically do go
  up for those who are retained. The problems are that the gains evaporate
  after a few years, those retained are more likely to drop out - in short,
  retention does not work academically and produceds psychological and
  emotional damage. I'd been wondering recently why Greene had not released the
  follow up he had (if memory serves) said he would. The story below might
  explain why: a study by Mary Lee Smith finds that retention does not work.

  A note - toward the end a teacher is quoted who says that those retained have
  done better. This is a not uncommon teacher observation - the problem is what
  happens later when those students are out of the classroom.

  If you go to the article, there are links to Smith's study.

  Monty

  http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/603073.html

  Miami Herald

  Posted onSun, Jul. 13, 2008

  FCAT third-grade reading law questioned

  BY NIRVI SHAH AND HANNAH SAMPSON

  Five years after a state law required school districts to make third-graders
  who fail the reading FCAT repeat the year, questions remain about whether the
  strict rule that has affected tens of thousands of students is effective.

  Soon after the law was enacted, the state trumpeted stories of parents
  initially upset by the retention who later were pleased. But a recent
  Miami-Dade study that followed the first group of retained students concluded
  that retention only improves student achievement initially.

  ''It appears now that the gains have essentially disappeared,'' the study
  states.

  A similar Broward study that tracked the first group of retained students --
  who just finished seventh grade -- also found that as they have grown up,
  their attendance rate in school has dropped and their suspension rate has
  risen.

  State data show that for students who have repeated third grade -- despite
  the extra year in elementary school -- nearly half fail the reading test as
  fourth-graders.

  Arizona State University Professor Mary Lee Smith studied Florida's law the
  year after it was enacted and has continued monitoring its effects. In 2004,
  her policy brief recommended the law be repealed.

  Four years later, Smith's objections are the same.

  'The research stretching over a 60-plus-year period has consistently
  demonstrated the same thing: that retention in grade does not improve
  performance in subsequent years' achievement and bears a strong relationship
  to dropping out of school later,'' Smith wrote in an e-mail to The Miami
  Herald. ``No other body or research is so strongly one-sided, yet policy
  makers and politicians point to it as a way to improve performance.''

  She said many other strategies, including small class sizes, high quality
  preschools, good teachers, remediation on academic skills before and after
  school and tutoring are better than retention as long as they are not
  teaching to the test.

  Policies like Florida's dot the country. In New York City, for the last four
  years, third-graders who score in the lowest of four levels on English and
  math tests have been required to repeat the grade unless they score higher
  after summer school or if teachers appeal.

  `SOCIAL PROMOTION'

  Florida's law was meant to end ''social promotion'' -- moving students from
  grade to grade to keep them with students their own age, whether or not they
  had mastered the material.

  As a result, students can spend up to three years in third grade because they
  failed the reading section of the FCAT.

  At sites around South Florida, third-graders are attending summer classes to
  help them improve their reading skills.

  Some have already been promoted for other reasons, but some need the extra
  help to make it into fourth grade in August.

  On Friday, students at Coral Cove Elementary in Miramar were clustered in
  groups, some taking practice tests on computers, some reading out loud with a
  partner and others sitting at a table reading with the teacher.

  Zayin Henry and De'Marius Collier sat next to each other at computers doing
  practice tests. They could click on words in the stories to hear their
  pronunciation or click on bolded words to hear that plus the definition.

  ''It's helping us read better,'' said De'Marius, 9.

  Zayin, 11, said he knows the camp has been helpful.

  ''It's like when we read, it doesn't come out the other ear,'' he said. ``We
  keep it in the brain.''

  A cluster of students gathered around teacher Susan Novell and took turns
  reading aloud about earthquakes and the earth's tectonic plates. Novell
  stopped to ask them why earthquakes happen, and guided them back to the
  passage that explains the cause.

  She said the effectiveness of retention depends on the student.

  ''There are some children who need another growth year,'' she said. ``Other
  children I can see where it's not the appropriate thing to do.''

  The year before the law went into effect, about 6,500 third-graders were held
  back when the decision was in the hands of districts, principals and
  teachers.

  The following year, the number shot up to nearly 28,000. It has declined to
  about half that.

  This year, nearly 33,000 students statewide scored at the lowest level on the
  reading FCAT, including almost 6,000 in Miami-Dade and about 3,100 in
  Broward, though they will not all be held back.

  In Broward, about half of the third-graders facing retention this year will
  go to fourth grade for several reasons. Some may be learning English as a
  second language or have disabilities. Students who have already been held
  back twice also can move on.

  Maitte Medina-LaSanta, a third-grade teacher at Pasadena Lakes Elementary in
  Pembroke Pines teaching summer camp at Coral Cove, said the two kids in her
  class last school year who had been retained both showed ''tremendous'' gains
  on the FCAT and tested at grade level. In her experience, retention has been
  successful for kids she has taught.

  Richard Kidney teaches first grade at Silver Lakes Elementary in Miramar and
  is teaching the reading camp at Coral Cove this summer. On the board in his
  summer classroom, he has written several key words that relate to reading,
  including: Always do your best.

  ''We want to build them up, and we don't want to devastate them with not
  being successful,'' Kidney said.

  SPENDING QUESTIONED

  Broward School Board Chairwoman Robin Bartleman said she thinks the money
  devoted to summer reading camps -- Broward is spending more than $1 million
  this year -- would be better spent helping younger students. By third grade,
  she thinks students are already too far behind.

  Bartleman's experience as an assistant principal triggered the creation of a
  special program for retained Broward third-graders that provides counseling
  along with the state-mandated repeat of the year.

  ''We always seem to focus on the academic side. It was really important for
  me to focus on the social and emotional side,'' said Bartleman, who worked at
  aLibertyCityelementary school for four years. ``A kid isn't just a test
  score.''

  Monty Neill, Ed.D.

  Deputy Director

  FairTest

  342 Broadway

  Cambridge, MA 02139

  617-864-4810 x 101;  fax 617-497-2224

  monty@fairtest.org

  http://www.fairtest.org

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