retention

[Guest guest]

Interesting, . I haven't read on the subject for 3-4 years, but before

that, I read rather extensively on the wisdom of retaining children in the

younger grades.

The only way retention works is to intensively remediate the problems. I

think we, as parents of hoh/deaf kids are always conscious of doing this.

Sometimes schools help; sometimes they don't.

This is why some parents (including me) have thought of homeschooling at

times.

In my experience (and I'm in a high school), kids who were retained were

never given adequate remediation. They did ALL the subjects over again (must

a child take the classes in which he or she did well yet one more time?)

rather than remediating the difficulties....

The argument is this: can the child not move ahead (if the parents desire)

so the social needs of the child are met AND be given intensive remediation

in the desired areas?

Now that our system doesn't retain kids, I still haven't seen much change.

The intensive remediation was missing, either way. Sigh.

If the parents and the child wish the child to stay " behind, " that's fine,

too. Either way, intensive remediation - one on one - is vital. Summer

school is a fine concept, but, again, the problem is the " group " approach to

remediation. One child may have the same problems in reading that another

child does, but there must be some room for individualized programming.

And when does the child get a break?

Also, how many times may I be held back? Two? Three? At what point do you

create a social nightmare for the child? The parents must be very, very

comfortable with the decision and take into account the whole child.

You also may have an argument against retention given the standardized test

they are using. Is it discriminatory? Is it valid/reliable? It is valid if

it tests what it purports to test. I am not familiar with it, so I cannot

help you, but Celeste may know. Even if it is valid, I am not sure of the

80% mastery concept. Does that mean he must fall in the 80th percentile?

This is odd, since most standardized tests I have used/seen would not be

used in this manner.

If it is an academic standardized test, one would suspect the bulk of the

students would fall in the 50% plus range, given acceptance of the Bell

Curve as a generalization of the way student results (given a large enough

sample) would fall. If the district is really attempting mastery learning,

then you should be seeing that approach all year (little Sally doesn't go on

to reading grade 5 level books until she can read books at grades 3 and 4.

The teacher uses a variety of classroom resources with different students in

her/his classroom). That means all the students in the school should be on

mastery programs. If not, how does one assure 80% mastery at the end of the

year (unless one teaches to a test...)?

There are some flaws in this and, though I am not familiar with U.S. law, I

would think there is some basis for discriminatory action here. What about

students who are unfamiliar with items on the standardized tests (for

example, I know one very bright aboriginal student who moved into the city

and entered an elementary school without knowing what pies, cakes, etc,

were. They were just not items in her experience. Tests using items not in

her vocab would be considered biased and invalid for they would not test her

reading comprehension, but, instead, her knowledge of specific concepts. She

picked up on these ideas quickly, but was not familiar with them when she

entered.)

When was in grade 2, he had a listening test that asked questions

about " gangs " and " divorce. " He didn't know those words and was unable to

answer the questions. My statement to the school was: " How can it test

listening when he didn't know the vocab? " They understood.

I like standardized tests when they point us in a direction, tell us what

needs to be remediated, and give us ideas for strengths and weaknesses. I

use these tests on all the time (poor kid). I don't like them when

they box kids in. If a child scores poorly, that is a comment on what

additional services the school must provide. It is not a STOP sign. Be

creative. What course could be deleted next year to add on to the time for

remediation? What extra services will the district provide? To hold a child

back when the child and parents do not wish it is to take the easy way out:

" You can't cut it so we'll just expose you to the same stuff we did last

year and we'll hope it sticks this time. "

Oh, and now I'll be quiet, my experience is that by 4th grade, the teachers

are no longer teaching the basics of reading (the bulk of that happens here

in grades 1-3) so, again, the point of retention is???? Will they provide a

reading tutor (with a major in remediating reading difficulties?) That's a

better option.

I'm assuming an I.Q. in the average range (though you have to be careful of

the validity of those results for an HOH/deaf child as well....).

Cheryl (who hopes she hasn't confused the whole issue by bouncing all over

the place)