Grade Retention

In the United States, the average grade has been slowly creeping up during the past years. This grade inflation has generally been seen as a positive for students and parents, but it has much more detrimental effects for the state of higher education. One person to address these consequences is Brent Staples, author of “Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A's.” In his essay, he not only explains how grade inflation came to be, but he also describes how it is something negative since it is the lowering of standards so that excellence is no longer excellent because of how easily higher grades is given out.

In the article, “From Degrading to De-Grading”, by Alfie Kohn he discusses the harmful effects grades have on students. Kohn argues that there are better ways to assess students’ progress other than letter or numerical grades. Grades are a great concept but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. Cheating can become a problem, students won’t take challenges, and they develop unhealthy competition between one another. There have been many studies conducted over the years that support Kohn’s argument.

In a review of the study conducted on the Chicago retention policy, it was found, two years after being retained in the third grade that no academic benefit exists (Robelen, E., 2012). Dr. Robert Brooks found a comparison review on the academic achievement of students who were retained to those promoted, that over time retained students showed no improvement (2002; Jimerson, Anderson and Whipple, 2002; Katz M., 2008).

Alfie Kohn discussed multiple fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning which causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases, grades can have positive effects on students. For example, setting goals for various assignments, or receiving help where they are struggling. Though, there are alternatives that could make positive changes in the system.

Historically, letter grades have served as a tool to rate educational intelligence. By looking at the progression of a student’s grades over time, people are able to determine whether or not the students are developing skills in certain areas. Using a one letter grade to determine progress has received many critiques as a common system used in America’s education. Critics claim letter grades cause students motivation and creativity to decrease because grades shift students focus from learning the material to obtaining a good grade.

In “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation”, Alfie Kohn explores the phenomenon behind grade inflation. Whether it is complaints or just the general idea that such an undesired occurrence has routinely taken place, Kohn certainly explores them all. He begins with addressing that the issue has not just transpired, but has been in existence over time as many have complained periodically. As Kohn notes on page 261, grade inflation is recognized as a poor occurrence, yet Kohn reveals the struggle as “truly substantive issues surrounding grades and motivation have been obscured or ignored.” Why is this so? Kohn goes on to explore the issue through some evidence and research, but finds that while grades have become higher more recently than before, that still does not prove inflation exists behind the rise in grades (261). By this Kohn reveals a trend to the reader with the facts, or lackthereof, behind grade inflation.

    In the past colleges like Princeton and Wellesley have tried to adopt policies to help curb grade inflation. Even though it lowered the percentages of high grades, effectively lowering the amount of grade inflation, it came with the cost of unforeseen consequences that affected the students and staff. In his article Rojstaczer

Many researchers have been interested and have conducted different experiments on whether retention causes positive or negative effects. One group of college professors followed two groups of students in Florida: the first group barely passed the reading test and got to continue to fourth grade, the second group barely missed the mark and had to repeat third grade. The researchers continued to watch these students for the following eight years; they saw that the major effects started to fade, but after a few years the kids that were retained had fewer remedial classes and higher GPS’s when they got to high school (Kamenetz, 2017). The common belief is when a kid is retained, there is an increased risk of them falling behind in higher grades

Students who were retained in elementary school hold a low high school graduation rate because of it. Retention can affect a students education up until college, without them knowing (Andrew, 2014). Despite the negative outcomes, most teachers retain students because they think it is for their academic or social benefit. However, retaining students held the opposite affect; students who were retained did not benefit. They could have used exposure to the next environment as an achievement gain while benefiting from next level education strategies, achieving the same outcomes as their peers. Keeping children in age appropriate classrooms hold higher benefits than retention, by avoiding students re-learning the same curriculum again when schools do not have the proper funding to adequately reach the needs of struggling students (Hong & Yu, 2007). Promoting students to the next grade exposes them to learning strategies that might reach their need that could not be met in the previous grade. Grade retention as an education intervention plan holds no significant positive affects to student

Some children who are premature birth babies are another group of children who may find grade retention a positive thing. Some of these children have learning disabilities or learning delays. Premature babies often are slower at developmental mile stones and may take a little bit longer to learn the same materials as their peers. Holding these children back a grade instead of placing them in a special education class may allow them to take a little bit longer to learn the materials needed to move on. When a child is placed in a special education class it may limit their learning

There are myriad unforeseen consequences when schools use the traditional grading system. For the past century, traditional grading practices and policies that have contributed to much of the failure of student achievement. The use of the traditional grading system has slowly led to the major issue of grade inflation. Most often students’ grade tend to be inflated with the help of non-academic factors such as homework, participation and student effort. High school teachers tend include effort as part of the grade, giving high grades to students who work in class despite whether they

In today’s society, there is a large debate of what is best for a child’s learning development when they are below level in learning. Educators debate the fact about whether grade retention is good for a student, or is it more appropriate to advance them with their peers, and there is research available to support what is being said. What is meant by retention or non-promotion is having a child repeat a particular grade or requiring a child of appropriate age to postpone entry to the next grade. In doing research I have found some interesting facts, and one of the biggest impacts I have found was by using the search engine to research positive effects of grade retention, the results that were

Keeping kids grades up is very important to the school. There is more than one way to keep kids engaged in the classroom and promote good grades or effort on their work. The school can suggest a lot of things to get students to achieve a good academic performance level. They can offer rewards, such as a school currency system, periodic parties, treats for good academic performance, etc. Additionally, the school could suggest the outcomes of bad academic performance. The facts and the cold hard truth would definitely motivate kids to study to guarantee a successful future.

Grade inflation has changed the meaning of “good grades” in college over the years. Faculty have gradually allowed a trend to occur where a majority of students are being awarded high marks for work that is less in quality than in the past. The prestige of earning a degree is diminishing. Future employers are not sure of the skills of the people they are hiring out of college. Students are choosing less rigorous degrees to take the easy way out. Grade inflation has caused a decline in education, which has caused students to question the value of a grade, a degree, and personal integrity.

Annually, it is estimated that roughly 15% of students are retained, representing approximately 2.4 million children (Jimerson, 2001; Mattison, 2000). In general, children who repeat a grade are 30% more likely to drop out of school as compared to their promoted peers and the retention trend is increasing, up approximately 12% from 1980 to 1992 (Owings & Magliaro, 1998). Retained students have an approximately 60% chance of dropping out of school by the 12th grade and those students who have been retained twice increase their chance to 90% (Parker, 2001). Rumberger (1995) identified grade retention as the single most powerful predictor of dropping out. It is estimated that 40% of the total number of repeaters are from the lowest SES brackets compared to only 8.5% from the highest SES groups (Owings & Magliaro, 1998). Research by Meisels (1993) discovered that more than two-thirds of all retentions occur before fourth grade. These discouraging statistics also come at an enormous expense; grade retention costs approximately 10 billion dollars per year (Natale, 1991).