I know of a 7th grader is doing very poorly this year and he is facing retention, I would like some opinions on that, I tend to think not but would like to hear from you all. Thank You
Re: retention-good or bad?
When we discussed the option of retention with our psychologist, she said that the research didn’t support this as an effective way to remediate a child’s learning disability. From what I have read on my own, the findings are that children who are retained do not achieve as much as the ones that were allowed to advance. I can’t say how scientific these studies are, or how large a group was examined. Children who are retained twice, have about a 90 % high school drop out rate according to one article I read. I wish I had these articles at my fingertips so I could refer you to them. Try doing some research on the web about retention and hopefully you will find what you are looking for.
You didn’t mention why the retention was suggested, and I am sure there are some instances when the child is physically and emotionally immature for his age and may feel more comfortable with younger children. I know of a couple of adults who were held back in elementry school and they still feel the shame and hurt as if it happened recently. If it is for purely academic reasons, can the parents afford to have the child tutored privately to supplement what he is or is not receiving at school?
And the most important thing to remember is
Kids aren’t statistics — so if your kiddo is one of the 10% who would be helped by being retained, you don’t push him onward because of the stats. My godchild was held back in elementary instead of going on to sixth grade and middle school. It was in hindsight a very good move; she changed from being a follower to a leader (or at least being self-directed) that year. On the other hand, she was okay with it (in fact she was a bit scared of middle school), and her learning needs were being addressed (great teacher that she was staying with), and she’d missed four or five weeks of school with a broken femur so she didn’t take it as a failure on her part.
I’ve also seen kids basically being blamed for their LD and retained because they couldn’t fit the molds and meet standards that were utterly ill suited for them. If academically their needs aren’t being met anyway, they might as well have that happen with peers and try to make it so socially the kiddo can have a good time at lunch and in the halls.
How does he feel about it?
At that age, I have had some students (but I can count ‘em on the fingers of one hand) who needed the threat of retention to realize that yes, I really did expect them to make an effort and do *something.*
Why, specifically is he facing retention? It’s really tough when you’ve got a kiddo who’s not getting the education he needs… but his response is to rebel or shut down. Just passing the kiddo along isn’t the answer… but retaining for same stuff, different year often isn’t helpful either.