The Pros And Cons Of Grade Retention

Grade Retention is linked with a child’s socio-emotional difficulties. Certain Studies have discovered that children who had repeated a grade, in comparison to matched non-retained students, indicated poorer social adjustment, more harmful attitudes towards school, more problem actions, lower achievement, and a lesser amount of frequent attendance, even though other studies have established fewer transformations.
Retention is a debatable topic, and has been for many years; Some parents think that it will help their child and make them more prepared, when it damages a child of any age.
Some parents hold their child back for athletic reasoning, this method is also known as “redshirting”. “According to the OTL hosts, redshirting children at the elementary school level is a “growing phenomenon,” as it’s becoming more common for coaches and parents to push for holding children back in school a year to gain a physical advantage” (Benzel 2015). Boys are the ones who are more likely to get red shirted, since many major sports have many boys on them. They also do this because if a coach sees potential in one of the players,
In elementary schools, grade levels one through third are usually recommended by teachers, most teachers hold a child back during this time because of the child’s poor reading skills. “Students who are retained in these grades show initial improvement in academics. However, this improvement disappears after two to three years, after which retained students do no better or even slightly worse than similarly achieving students who were promoted.” (Gelpi 2004). However, being held back in early elementary school does not have a major effect on the child’s self-esteem. “The cost of having a student repeat 3rd grade is several times greater than alternatives such as tutoring or small-group interventions, summer schools, or high-quality pre-k.” (Stipek