Thoughts on Proposed Statewide Retention Policy

INTRODUCTION

We are on the brink of doing great harm to thousands of Iowa children by retaining them in 3rd grade based solely on their scores on a single state reading test. Before embarking on a massive retention spree, perhaps we should demand that the politicians calling for this radical change provide ONE SHRED of research to support its efficacy. The Governor and his education adviser Linda Fandel point to miraculous test score gains in Florida when this policy was implemented for 3rd graders. Ms. Fandel even admits that the Blueprint plan for 3rd graders is modeled almost entirely on the Florida plan. When I noted in a question to her that the "Florida Plan" was a comprehensive $20 billion+ commitment to everything from reduced class sizes in lower elementary to intensive reading assistance and reading coaches along with retention and asked her if there was ANY RESEARCH that was able to isolate the retention variable as responsible for any part of the test score gains, she very candidly said that there wasn't--that they are submitting the Florida model as a "package." That flies in the face of scientific reasoning. All of the other variables (class size reduction, intensive assistance, reading coaches, etc.) have research to support their efficacy. The one that doesn't; the one that has a century of research showing that you get a short term blip in test score gains followed by long term disaster and drop outs; the one that provides short term political gain for 'get tough' politicians but long-term harm to students, gets included just because it's part of the "Florida package." If Ford came out with a new model that included incredible new safety features that drastically reduced the death rate of passengers in head-on collisions and a brand new gas tank that somehow increased fuel efficiency by 50% for the first 3 years of the cars life but was shown to be 10 times more likely to blow up after 5 years of driving, would we jump to accept that "package" or suggest a hybrid: that the new safety features be retained and the new gas tank eliminated? That is the MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION THAT SHOULD BE ASKED OF THE GOVERNOR AND HIS ADVISER: SINCE THERE IS NO RESEARCH SUPPORTING RETENTION AS A WAY TO IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING, WHY DON'T WE IMPLEMENT THE INTENSIVE ASSISTANCE AND CLASS SIZE REDUCTION FEATURES OF THE FLORIDA PLAN WHILE PROMOTING STUDENTS WITH THEIR PEERS? This approach would avoid the devastating social, academic and self-esteem consequences that go along with retention. Given that a survey asking elementary and middle school students to rate stressful experiences found that only the prospect of going blind and the death of a parent were more stressful to students than being retained in school, the more care we take in making these decisions the better. (Susan Ohanian, “The Effectiveness of Retention”, http://www.susanohanian.org/show_research.html?id=82)

What follows is a survey of research that I prepared a few years ago when retention and social promotion was an issue in a Des Moines school board campaign. It outlines the history of educational research on retention and social promotion. I've added a new section specific to the "Florida Model" as well.

If you have an interest in the quality of public education in Iowa, please take the time to read the research and share it freely.

Thank you—Dave O’Connor

LINK