With the increased dedication of school districts to raising academic standards and abolishing social promotion, enormous pressure has been placed on teachers and students to improve standardized test scores. While this may seem admirable from afar, its real-life and practical implications are often not so brilliant. In fact, the drive toward higher standards often leads to tracking, skill clustering, and qualification retention, all of which have inherent problems. Tracking, pooling, and retention are widely practiced in the United States and many other countries, and are based on both theory and research. Most commonly practiced in high schools, tracking groups students into courses or sequences of courses of various difficulty levels appropriate to their performance levels. Most commonly practiced in elementary schools, ability grouping assigns students within classrooms to homogeneous groups of similar abilities. Grade retention requires students who have not met performance standards to repeat one or more grades. All three practices are based on the belief that children with similar abilities or achievement levels can learn together more efficiently than heterogeneous students. Other theories and research suggest that these practices may be inefficient and reckless. Some argue, for example, that students held back in grade may suffer from decreased self-concept, which can determine their progress, making them less likely to catch up to grade level standards. This is due, in part, to the fact that grade retention alone does not address the causes of academic failure. Others counter that, to the contrary, such students would eventually fall further behind and drop out, whether or not they retained their studies. “Socially promoting” underprepared students would depreciate the value of high school diplomas for those who meet rigorous standards. Similarly, some argue that it is more efficient to teach subjects like mathematics when students share similar abilities. For example, it would seem difficult for consumption calculations and mathematics to be learned efficiently in a group. Still, it can be argued that faster learning students can benefit from helping slower learning students. Schools may also provide more class time and enhanced instructional services to at-risk students to remedy or prevent them from falling behind in the first place.
Retention
While there is no magic cure for retention problems, alternatives must be examined before it is too late, that is, before a student is about to be retained. By studying the experiences of successful students and making the findings available to practitioners, researchers can help teachers focus on using teaching strategies that have been shown to be successful. The following recommendations may also be helpful.
• Encourage preschool enrollment to reduce retention rates.
• Requires full day kindergarten.
• Provide remediation that is commensurate with the academic needs of the children regardless of whether they are retained.
• Develop a strong advisory network that allows teachers to get to know students.
• Maximize peer relationships through cooperative learning and mentoring.
• Shift to interest-based learning where high school students are exposed to career or project-based education instead of the lecture and test practices now used.
• Expand the academic calendar to either year-round schooling or longer school days.
• Focus on retaining motivated and qualified teachers.
• Have teachers meet expectations for higher levels of curriculum and instruction.
The voices of researchers and practitioners are not the only ones that need to be heard. Parents also need to get more involved in helping their children avoid retention. Some ways to encourage parental involvement are:
• Develop “tip sheets” that have helpful suggestions on how parents can become more involved in their children’s education.
• Develop parent education and outreach programs.
• Don’t wait until students are at risk of failing; Start communicating with parents at an early stage.
Grouping and Tracking
Why neither retention nor grouping nor follow-up improve the academic progress of most children? Unfortunately, in many schools, clustering and tracking have led to stagnant, generalized courses designed to meet minimum curriculum standards. To make real progress, you must examine the intent, purpose, and design of your bundled classes and maintain a high level of integrity. The following recommendations deserve further consideration.
• Consider multi-age classrooms as a way to enrich children’s learning and development.
• Prioritize collaborative efforts between schools, employers, and higher education to support academic excellence.
• Have goal conferences with students. Integrate student self-assessments into decisions about their grouping.
• Provide stronger preparation courses for teachers and principals that address diversity in learning rates and styles.
• Keep the grouping flexible.
• Clustering must include high expectations, a rigorous curriculum, and equal access to high-quality instruction.
• Promote cultural awareness that will help teachers meet the diverse needs of their students.
• Promote public awareness. Educate the community on the best ways to group students.
• Hold administrators, teachers, parents, and students accountable. Everyone must work together to achieve the optimum level of student success.