I read an article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch
discussing about students who took a reading test and did not score well on the
exam. According to the reporter, over 2,000 children in the St. Louis public
school district, specifically the elementary and middle schools, scored below
average well on the reading exam. The Superintendent Kevin Adams of the St.
Louis Public School district stated that the school district will implement a
new policy that will notify parents. Parents will be notified of their
students’ scores and will offer tutoring, small group sessions, and summer
school in which the parents will have to sign off on this new plan.
The new plan is supposed to help improve the student’s
reading level, however some people have brought up concern about the students
who are held back will suffer from trauma. Students are being held back because
of their reading levels in which could result in a student losing the ability
to learn. Why is it that a standardized test has to determine a student’s
capability to advance into the next level? School districts in St. Louis lose
their accreditation due to the low performance. In University City school
district, Superintendent Dr. Pruitt mentioned how they offer different programs
to help students in areas of special needs to be able to advance to the next
grade level. How can the community come together to help students improve? Why
are the reading levels low for students? Is holding a student back a grade
level helpful? What other resources can be helpful to improve? Below is the link
to the article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
I am all for holding kids back in kindergarten - they really don't feel any stigma and the other students don't really know. First grade is usually pretty easily handled by the kids; again, they are so young it doesn't really register with them. As they get older, though, it does get harder and harder. A lot depends on how it is presented to the kids and parents.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience - In the small town that I grew up in, a group of about 8 boys from my older brothers class were held back in fourth grade. The school kept that group in the same class so they had support from each other and they all handled it fine. This makes me think that if that many kids are being held back in SLPS, then maybe they can be together.
Related to that is that some schools used to do a transition first grade - several kids who were failing first grade were placed in the same class. With a small group of kids, the teacher could individualize lessons. Those who were borderline could go onto second grade work during that year and continue on to third the following fall, staying 'on track' for their age, and those who couldn't quite catch up would go into second grade the following fall.
And my own daughter chose to hold herself back when she left her Montessori school after sixth grade. She's a late August birthday and chose to go into sixth grade at our middle school to be the oldest in her class. It was a great decision for her, but it was truly her own decision, and that makes a huge difference.
There's really not a 'one size fits all' solution to this. It takes a lot of work to tailor things to each child. Another personal example - my first grade nephew is struggling in reading and is in two different special reading programs in the school. He has homework from each of them, in addition to the homework is classroom teacher assigns. The 'accepted' guidelines for homework are 10 minutes nightly per grade level. He's way over ten minutes.
Because I have an educator's perspective on homework and why it's given (in first grade it's purpose is usually to get parental involvement and begin good work habits), I told my sister to ask the classroom teacher if he can be excused from her homework, and to ask the special programs what really has to be done of what they assigned. I also encouraged her to ask what can be shifted to weekends, instead of being done overnight. Without coordination from each program, the classroom teacher and the parents, first graders are going to get 60-90 minutes of work a night. But parents who don't understand that things can be flexible if you ask may just give up on all of it.
There's never a clean answer to these types of situation. The set standards pretty much tie the district's hands, but I wonder why standardized testing does not always take into consideration that other students learn and test differently. Transitional grades are particularly rough- kindergarten to first, elementary to middle school, etc. In some cases, I think holding a student back a grade can be useful when they're young, humiliating when they're older. There's never an easy answer when it comes to education.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be some sort of standard to determine whether a student is on target developmentally. If a student needs to be held back, it should happen. However, I think a lot of other environmental,developmental, and social factors should be reviewed when this is deemed necessary. I'm concerned, but not so much about the humiliation aspect. After all, how humiliating is it to be 18 years old and unable to read?
ReplyDeleteIt is really a shame that the kids' reading scores were so low. I'm glad they are planning to offer tutoring sessions to help meet their needs on where they are at. Holding students back is a controversial issue in the world of education. While earning my undergrad in Education, we were taught that retaining students is detrimental in the long run. If students progress to the next level without the necessary skills, the next teacher is responsible for getting those students up to speed by teaching them at their level and building up from there. I can see both sides being correct. I agree with Adrienne on the fact that many factors need to be considered before the decision is made. It would be terrible to keep moving a child up grade after grade and missing the fact that the child can't read. How will these children function in the real world after school??
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