Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

Retention rarely helps children with reading disabilities become competent readers.  Keeping them in the same kind of situation in which they struggled is unlikely to produce better results. Giving them another year to master what they failed to master—without major changes in situations and services and instruction—is unlikely to work, as it has rarely worked in the past. It may well harm them.

The latest issue of the Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties sheds light on the issue. In summarizing the information about Chicago’s aggressive policy of retaining students, Mary Abbott and her colleagues noted that many children may have been harmed by retention:

The academic future of the students who were actually retained was poor. The academic performance of the Chicago third graders who were retained was similar to that of third graders who were not retained, retained sixth graders performed more poorly than their counterparts who were not retained, and retained eighth graders were far more likely to drop out and to do so at a younger age than students who were not retained. Furthermore, 78% of the students retained in eighth grade had dropped out by the time they turned 19…. These results mirror those of past retention studies that have reported that retained students either show declines in achievement over several years after retention or have academic outcomes that are no better after repeating a grade than those of low-achieving promoted students. In addition, students who have been retained have higher dropout rates than their promoted low-achieving peers. (2010, p. 6)

Amy Reschly also noted that retention was associated with dropping out of school:

Failure to achieve grade-level expectations in reading is the primary reason students in the early grades are retained …. Research on grade retention clearly points to a connection between retention and dropout. … Grade retention was the most powerful predictor of later dropout, with retained students being 11 times more likely to drop out of school. (2010, p. 69).

So what should you do if the school wants to retain your child? Given the problems with retention, we suggest that you advocate for promotion with all the necessary services needed to meet your child’s social, emotional, and academic needs. These services should give him all the help he needs to make good progress and to enjoy school.

But what if you have no choice—the school is determined to retain your child regardless of your opinions, you can’t change schools, and the educational attorneys you’ve consulted tell you that you have no choice, it’s the school’s call?  We suggest that you continue to advocate, but now focus on his retained placement. Advocate for a program with the array and intensity of services that will meet his social, emotional, and academic needs. As Mary Abbott and her colleagues so aptly asserted:

A specific plan should be clearly defined that highlights how the retention year will be different, with a greater level of intensity and duration of services. … Schools need to keep in mind that putting children back into an environment of inadequate intervention will only leave them behind, with poor educational and employment prospects for the future. (2010, p. 23)

And don’t stop here. Keep monitoring his progress and keep meeting with the school to discuss your child’s progress and, if necessary, modify his program. For further information on monitoring, see chapter 7 of Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. See chapter 8 for ideas on solving conflicts.

Resources

Abbott, M., Wills, H, Greenwood, C. R., Kamps, D., Heitzman-Powell, L., & Selig, J. (2010). The combined effects of grade retention and targeted small-group intervention on students’ literacy outcomes. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 26(1), 4-25.

Margolis, H., & Brannigan, G. G. (2009). Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds. Voorhees, NJ: Reading2008 & Beyond (www.reading2008.com).

Reschly, A. L. (2010). Reading and school completion: critical connections and matthew effects. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties,  26(1), 67 – 90.