Jennie Sjursen 0:00
School just contacted me, and they want to have a meeting to discuss retaining my child next year. This is the first time hearing about this. What should I do?
Jennie Sjursen 0:11
I'm Jenny Sjursen, ex-special educator turned dyslexia interventionist. It wasn't so long ago, that I too, was overwhelmed by balanced literacy versus structured literacy, education speak, and everything in between. Fast forward after many, many hours of self driven education. And you'll see I've built a thriving dyslexia practice helping students from ages six to 18. My specialties, working with, quote unquote difficult almost always to the student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexic to everyday language strategies and action steps.
Jennie Sjursen 0:49
Before we dive in, can you do me a huge favor? Would you mind setting this episode are just sharing my podcast with three of your friends. I've been working really hard to put out valuable content to support parents with dyslexic children. And I want to make sure it gets into the hands of the people that need it the most. So grab the link to this episode or podcast texted to three friends. Or you can just click the share button where you're listening to this podcast, and send it that way. Whatever works for you, but I would be forever grateful. Thank you is your child at the end of their third grade year struggling to read and all of a sudden school is telling you they'd like to hold your child back a year.
Jennie Sjursen 1:33
While retention can happen anytime during your child's school year. It mostly happens at the end of third grade. The reason for this is many states have legislation that requires schools to retain a student, or at least consider retaining a student if they don't pass a third grade reading assessment. I have so much to say about this, but we'll come back to it. Research done in the early 2000s found that retaining a student did not benefit a student and in fact, could have detrimental effects, such as a higher risk for dropping out of high school later down the road. So you all know me, I had to see if the current research still held up the original findings. I found some interesting things. There are a bunch of newer studies that come out of Florida. In 2017. Researchers analyzed student outcomes for kids who have been retained in third grade due to the state's third grade retention policy.
Jennie Sjursen 2:29
The policy is they hold back students who didn't pass a third grade reading assessment. Here's where it gets interesting. They found that the students who were held back at the end of the third grade initially made huge gains. But within five years, the gains all faded away. The study also found these retain students had a reduced need for further remediation in middle school and high school. But here's the thing. These retain students received increased instructional support in their repeat here. They weren't just held back. Evidence also suggested that grade retention in middle school or high school had little to no academic benefits, and a higher rate of students disengaging with a quote, whole school thing. Over the years, I've worked with several quote super seniors, those who take five or more years to graduate. And it is a tough road after your four.
Jennie Sjursen 3:26
They've seen their friends graduate, some of those friends are going away to college, other friends are getting jobs, and they also want to move on beyond high school. During my high school teaching experience, I can think of only one super senior who successfully made it to graduation. And it was tough. In general, I'm not a fan of grade retention, especially when it's based on a single data point whether or not your child pass a third grade state reading assessment. Some states taking into account whether or not your child has an IEP, others don't. This one test score doesn't take in your child's overall knowledge or ability to show their knowledge and alternative ways. The poor dyslexic kid this is like facing and beating down Thanos or Voldemort on their own a very unlikely outcome.
Jennie Sjursen 4:15
Many times retention leads to a wash and repeat experience for a child. They just end up doing the exact same thing they did the year before. Nothing changes. It didn't work the first time so why would the school expect the exact same thing to work a second time. Now this poor child is still lost feeling bad about being left behind. And if they haven't already really beginning to hate school. In my opinion, there are two times grade retention can be beneficial. One a medical reason cancer treatment, traumatic brain injury etc. And to numerous missed school days, but only in the lower grades. When I worked at the high school level because we knew the toll and the success rates If students stay in the course beyond four years, we did everything we could to get them on schedule.
Jennie Sjursen 5:06
I had students taking both English 10 and English 11 with me at the same time, in order to make up time and get all their English credits in in one year, one poor kid would come to English 11 go to lunch, and come back for English 10. And these were blocked periods this kid had me for three hours a day. So what can you do it the school comes to you and says they want to hold your child back? Start asking questions. So here we go. One. Does your state make exceptions for students with an IEP English language learners? Or who can show proficiency through a work portfolio? To? What would make next year different from this year? Are they offering more supports and specialized instruction? Or is it just more of the same? Which leads to the next question? Three?
Jennie Sjursen 5:57
What is the school going to change so that your child does make progress? Or four? Can a tutor or outside specialists more effectively and efficiently help your child? Five? What is the ultimate goal here? Well, holding them back catch them up, or will they still be behind? Even with an extra year? A student with dyslexia has a lifelong reading problem. One year is not going to fix the problem. Six, what would the repercussions of keeping your child back be on their mental health, family schedules and connections with friends? Seven. Finally, ask your child. How do they feel about staying back a year. If they are dead set against it. You're setting everyone up child parents, teachers everyone to fail next year, they're not going to do it. To wrap up. Overall studies have not shown long term benefits to grade retention. If the school is starting to talk about retaining your child for next year, start asking questions, lots of them. And finally, this is your child.
Jennie Sjursen 7:06
What is your gut telling you? What holding them back help them find their groove or be a miserable experience? If you have any further questions about grade retention, please feel free to sneak into my inbox. We'd also love your input. What would you like to hear from us in the future? Is there a topic we haven't covered yet? You really want to learn about? Or do you have a pressing need and you're not really sure how to handle it or move forward?
Jennie Sjursen 7:32
Send us a DM on Instagram or drop us an email at Jenny je e n n i e at literacy untangled.com We can't wait to hear from you. Until next time, bye bye I hope you enjoyed this episode of literacy untangled if you love this episode as much as I did, head on over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you want to continue the conversation or share your takeaways, head on over to our Instagram at literacy untangled and comment on your favorite part. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. Bye
