Threat of Grade Retention, Remedial Education and Student Achievement

Threat of Grade Retention, Remedial Education and Student Achievement PDF Author: Erich Battistin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

Get Book Here

Book Description
We use a reform that was recently implemented in Italy to investigate the effects on academic achievement of more stringent requirements for the admission to the next grade at upper secondary school. We study how such effects are mediated by changes in family and school inputs, and in the student commitment to learn all school subjects including those usually considered as marginal components of the curriculum. Geographical discontinuities in the implementation of the reform allow us to set out the comparison of similar students undergoing alternative progression rules, and to shed light on whether, and to what extent, the reform has worked as a tool to improve short-term achievement gains. We document differential effects across curricular tracks, picturing at best - depending on the data employed - a marginal improvement for students in academic schools. We instead find sharp negative effects of the reform in technical and vocational schools, where the students enrolled come from less privileged backgrounds.These findings are accompanied by a substantial increase in the number of activities out of the normal school hours in technical and vocational schools, but not in academic schools. Also, we find that the reform has left unchanged the various family inputs that we consider, and that parents did not provide extra economic support to students facing an increased threat of grade retention. However, in contrast with the documented effects on achievement, we find that schools reacted to the additional administrative burdens and costs imposed by the reform by admitting more students to the next grade. We thus conclude that the reform has had a negative effect on motivation and engagement of the most struggling students, thus exacerbating existing inequalities.

Threat of Grade Retention, Remedial Education and Student Achievement

Threat of Grade Retention, Remedial Education and Student Achievement PDF Author: Erich Battistin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

Get Book Here

Book Description
We use a reform that was recently implemented in Italy to investigate the effects on academic achievement of more stringent requirements for the admission to the next grade at upper secondary school. We study how such effects are mediated by changes in family and school inputs, and in the student commitment to learn all school subjects including those usually considered as marginal components of the curriculum. Geographical discontinuities in the implementation of the reform allow us to set out the comparison of similar students undergoing alternative progression rules, and to shed light on whether, and to what extent, the reform has worked as a tool to improve short-term achievement gains. We document differential effects across curricular tracks, picturing at best - depending on the data employed - a marginal improvement for students in academic schools. We instead find sharp negative effects of the reform in technical and vocational schools, where the students enrolled come from less privileged backgrounds.These findings are accompanied by a substantial increase in the number of activities out of the normal school hours in technical and vocational schools, but not in academic schools. Also, we find that the reform has left unchanged the various family inputs that we consider, and that parents did not provide extra economic support to students facing an increased threat of grade retention. However, in contrast with the documented effects on achievement, we find that schools reacted to the additional administrative burdens and costs imposed by the reform by admitting more students to the next grade. We thus conclude that the reform has had a negative effect on motivation and engagement of the most struggling students, thus exacerbating existing inequalities.

On the Success of Failure

On the Success of Failure PDF Author: Karl L. Alexander
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521793971
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is about the practice of grade retention in elementary school, a particularly vexing problem in urban school systems, where upward of half the students may repeat a grade. On the Success of Failure addresses whether repeating a grade is helpful or harmful when children are not keeping up. It describes the school context of retention and evaluates its consequences by tracking the experiences of a large, representative sample of Baltimore school children from first grade through high school. In addition to evaluating the consequences of retention, the book describes the cohort s dispersion along many different educational pathways from first grade through middle school, the articulation of retention with other forms of educational tracking (like reading group placements in the early primary grades and course-level assignments in middle school), and repeaters academic and school adjustment problems before they were held back.

Remedial Education and Student Achievement

Remedial Education and Student Achievement PDF Author: Brian Aaron Jacob
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 45

Get Book Here

Book Description
As standards and accountability have become an increasingly prominent feature of the educational landscape, educators have relied more on remedial programs such as summer school and grade retention to help low-achieving students meet minimum academic standards. Yet the evidence on the effectiveness of such programs is mixed, and prior research suffers from selection bias. However, recent school reform efforts in Chicago provide an opportunity to examine the causal impact of these remedial education programs. In 1996, the Chicago Public Schools instituted an accountability policy that tied summer school and promotional decisions to performance on standardized tests, which resulted in a highly non-linear relationship between current achievement and the probability of attending summer school or being retained. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the net effect of these programs was to substantially increase academic achievement among third graders, but not sixth graders. In addition, contrary to conventional wisdom and prior research, we find that retention increases achievement for third grade students and has little effect on math achievement for sixth grade students

High Stakes

High Stakes PDF Author: Committee on Appropriate Test Use
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309524954
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book Here

Book Description
Everyone is in favor of "high education standards" and "fair testing" of student achievement, but there is little agreement as to what these terms actually mean. High Stakes looks at how testing affects critical decisions for American students. As more and more tests are introduced into the country's schools, it becomes increasingly important to know how those tests are used--and misused--in assessing children's performance and achievements. High Stakes focuses on how testing is used in schools to make decisions about tracking and placement, promotion and retention, and awarding or withholding high school diplomas. This book sorts out the controversies that emerge when a test score can open or close gates on a student's educational pathway. The expert panel: Proposes how to judge the appropriateness of a test. Explores how to make tests reliable, valid, and fair. Puts forward strategies and practices to promote proper test use. Recommends how decisionmakers in education should--and should not--use test results. The book discusses common misuses of testing, their political and social context, what happens when test issues are taken to court, special student populations, social promotion, and more. High Stakes will be of interest to anyone concerned about the long-term implications for individual students of picking up that Number 2 pencil: policymakers, education administrators, test designers, teachers, and parents.

Evidence in Education Linking Research and Policy

Evidence in Education Linking Research and Policy PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 926403367X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
Brings together papers from international experts on evidence-informed policy in education from a wide range of OECD countries to look at the issues facing educational policy makers, researchers, and stakeholders – teachers, media, parents – in using evidence to best effect.

An Exploratory Analysis of the Effects of a Statewide Mandatory Grade Retention Policy and Student Academic Achievement

An Exploratory Analysis of the Effects of a Statewide Mandatory Grade Retention Policy and Student Academic Achievement PDF Author: Larry J. Porter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
ABSTRACT: The literacy skills of students have become a significant concern among legislators and educators. The federal government has responded to this by enacting legislation that increases state accountability to provide evidence-based interventions to struggling readers. In response, the State of Florida has mandated mandatory retention for third-grade students who are at risk for reading failure. Third-grade students who do not pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test-Reading (FCAT) are retained. Students who score at Level 1 are retained, and students who scored at Levels 2 through 5 are promoted. Research has indicated that retention has been an ineffective intervention to improve academic performance. However, it is difficult to compare research findings with Florida's current retention plan. Previous research has not delineated the intervention strategies that were utilized during the retention year. Florida requires that all students are provided evidence-based reading remediation. The purpose of this study was to explore the association of Florida's model of student progression and academic achievement. More specifically, the study investigated the academic outcomes of third-grade students who scored within 10 scaled score points below the student progression achievement cut-off, attained a Level 1 designation in 2003 and were retained, and students who scored within 10 scaled score points above the student progression achievement cut-off, attained a Level 2 designation in 2003 and were promoted to fourth grade. Results indicated that 87% of the higher performing retained students subsequently scored at Level 2 or higher in 2004 while 67% of the promoted, low achieving student scored at Level 2 or higher in 2004. Furthermore, gender, SES and race were significantly associated with the reading outcomes of higher achieving retained and promoted, low achieving students. This study contributes to the literature by examining the outcomes of a retention model within a framework of academic remediation. In addition, the utility of high stakes testing and retention decisions were also examined. Future implications for research include direct comparisons of retained and promoted students, a longitudinal research design to examine the long-term effects of retention, and the identification of more effective services and intervention strategies to target at-risk students.

Flunking Grades

Flunking Grades PDF Author: Lorrie A. Shepard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book challenges the efficacy of the policy of American schools of holding children back in grade for a year, and presents evidence that the policy is damaging to those retained, especially to lower classes and minority groups, often causing them to drop out of school altogether.

Grade Retention

Grade Retention PDF Author: Claire Xia
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 27

Get Book Here

Book Description
This document compiles a series of three policy briefs focused on the subject of grade retention. The first brief, "Grade Retention: A Flawed Education Strategy," suggests educators and policymakers caution the use of grade retention as a remedy for poor student performance. As concluded by the majority of past studies, grade retention is a failed and expensive strategy to increase academic achievement. This brief asserts alternative remediation strategies such as individualized student instruction, parental involvement, curriculum development, and school restructuring, should be explored and used to bring under-achieving students up to standard. The second policy brief in this document, "Cost-Benefit Analysis of Grade Retention," provides a possible economic framework to quantitatively evaluate the costs and benefits to society of retaining one student in a grade level for an additional year. Using the standard criteria for looking at the costs and benefits of social programs, costs and savings are identified in three areas: education costs, costs associated with economic wellbeing, and costs associated with crime. "Grade Retention: The Gap between Research and Practice" represents the final policy brief in this series. It examines the apparent gap between research findings and retention practice and discusses reasons for its existence in four aspects: public belief, teachers' perspectives, research issues, and politics. (Individual briefs contain references.) [The policy briefs presented in this document were produced by the Center for Child and Family Policy.].

Ethnic Matching

Ethnic Matching PDF Author: Donald Easton-Brooks
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475839677
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ethnic Matching: Academic Success of Students of Color is an in-depth exploration on the impact of ethnic matching in education, the paring of students of color with teachers of the same race. Research shows that this method has a positive and long-term impact on the academic experience of students of color. This book explores what makes this phenomenon relevant in today’s classrooms. Through interviewing quality teachers of color, this book sheds a light on the impact these teachers make on the academic experience of students of color. This approach is meant to provide all teachers valuable insight into techniques for engaging with diverse learners. Also, from these conversations, the book shows how the intentionality of culturally responsive practice can enhance the academic experience of students of color. Topics such as the challenges of recruiting and retaining quality teachers of color, as well as the valuable work being done on the local, state, and national level to promote diversifying the field of education as a way to provide equitable education for all students is also explored in this book.

A Study of the Relationship Between the "threat of Grade Retention" and Children's Achievement Attitudes

A Study of the Relationship Between the Author: Cecilia Hunt Bowie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description