What’s the Prevailing Policy and What Needs to be Done?
December 3, 2014Transformative Leadership for Social-Emotional Learning. National Association of School Psychologists
December 3, 2014Early Grade Retention and Student Success Evidence from Los Angeles
Cannon, J., & Lipscomb, S. (2011, January 1). Early Grade Retention and Student Success Evidence from Los Angeles. Public Policy Institute of California.
Cannon and Lipscomb aim to answer the following questions in their study: Who is retained? How do retained students fare in the repeated year? And can retention help struggling students reach proficiency? The study focuses on early education in California more specifically, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the largest public school district in California. They found that in total 7.5% of students in the district were being retained before the third grade. They discovered certain factors that are highly connected to retention in addition to poor academic performance such as: relatively younger students and boys are much more likely than other students to be held back, even when all else is equal. Other risk factors include low household income, English learner status, and Latino or African American race/ethnicity. Overall, Cannon and Lipscomb found that retention is a can benefit students immediately in which they perform well in the repeated year.