Teachers pass failing students despite evidence showing holding them back might help them: Report

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New research suggests that holding students back a grade is helpful, but opposition subsists, an education columnist in the Washington Post wrote.

"Most of the educators I know don’t like grade retention — the term of art for holding a student back. They prefer to help students improve without squashing their dreams and keeping them in place while their friends move forward," Jay Mathews wrote.

"But they face new battles, because recent studies show making kids repeat grades can improve their future performance."

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A school bus is seen navigating through Chicago, Illinois, on October 14, 2022. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Mathews’ column noted that RAND Corporation in October released a study showing evidence that grade retention in earlier grades is often beneficial. 

The study cited other studies conducted in Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Chicago, and New York that provide evidence that grade retention in grades three to five can improve test scores through middle school and "reduce the need for future remediation."

Researchers at RAND explained further that grade retention in elementary school may also increase the likelihood of students taking advanced courses in middle and high school. 

"Furthermore, new evidence suggests that these academic benefits may be substantially larger for students with lower baseline achievement at the time of retention," the study states.

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When Fox News Digital reached out to columnist Jay Mathews for a comment on why educators are divided on the grade retention issue and how to help students with academic challenges, he responded that "the improvement is not huge, and confined to a few states." (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Mathews said that although the studies provide evidence that grade retention is beneficial, the research has yet to persuade the opponents of grade retention.

He added that an experienced superintendent who led the School Superintendents Association, Daniel Domenech, said that students were held back because there was a "lack of an alternative."

Domenech said "if students were taught at the level that they are at and allowed to progress as they achieve mastery, there would be no need to retain them."

According to the column, the former Montgomery County schools superintendent, Jerry Weast, said that the failure to address the needs of a child reflects "inadequacies in early childhood opportunities and in teacher education."

After citing studies showing the benefits of grade retention, Mathews said that the "American education system is deeply divided over how best to help them."

"One of the problems with retention is the failure to keep track of what happens to students in many states after they repeat a grade," Mathews added in the column.

Teachers are voicing concerns over the current educational level of students in America.  (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images/iStock)

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When Fox News Digital reached out to Mathews for a comment on why educators are divided on the grade retention issue and how to help students with academic challenges, he responded that "the improvement is not huge, and confined to a few states."

"People need a lot more than that to change their minds unless they are already convinced," Mathews told Fox News Digital.

Mathews wrote for The Washington Post for nearly 50 years. He is the author of nine books, including five about high schools.