Fewer Students Being 'Held Back'
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Remember when kids talked about some of their classmates being left back? They were kids who didn't make sufficient progress to move up to the next grade. But today, the practice is little used.
A study on grade retention was published recently in Educational Researcher in which nationwide retention trends were tracked 1st through 9th grades 1995 through 2010.
The overall retention rate peaked in the 2004-05 school year at 2.9% and by 2009-10 it had fallen to 1.5% and was strongest in groups that formerly had the highest rates, including boys and minority students.
John Robert Warren, study author from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, believes that the practice was dropped because research showed mixed evidence of higher learning - but consistent evidence that it leads to higher dropout rates.
Get more detail in Education Week.