Our district has been discussing the whether
or not retention and/or promotion fosters student achievement. There has been a
lot of research showing the negative effects on a student’s social well-being
from retention greatly outweighs any positive ones. Traditionally teachers
think retention helps the students because it can reduce skill variance in the
classroom, allow students to mature, ensure success with materials they have
struggled with, and to more be prepared to move on the following year.
When discussing possible areas of research
with my principal we had covered the areas I originally thought of like
attendance, student teachers, parental involvement, technology, etc… Later, I
emailed my principal because I had a feeling our time was cut short and we were
not able to introduce any of her ideas into our discussion. She emailed me back
and introduced the idea of researching retention and discipline. Many times,
the students who are retained are those very ones all teachers know of because
they are such high discipline students. Because of this, I would like to
investigate ways we can help these students from ever needing to be retained,
reduce potentially higher discipline problems, and still ensure their success
in the classroom.
How can we gain higher student success without using retention and
causing increased discipline problems? What interventions can we put into place
to ensure the success of these students? What are some alternatives to
retention that promote high performances? How can we help
teachers/administrators/students/parents achieve this?
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