WYNT News

WYNT News. (2009, April 1). 2009 April Segment. WYNT News.

The news Anchor for WNYT an NBC Affiliate is Interviewing Peter Dewitt, an education specialist, about his view of retention and its overall effectiveness. Dewitt explains that parents are the ones that usually ask for their child to be retained more than teachers and it only to be used as a last resort because students are more likely to drop out of school if they are retained. He goes on to discuss alternative programs that are more effective and that are in place in schools now, such as the response to intervention program. This program was created to provide students with modifications based on academic needs as opposed to whether or not they are meeting goals that they are supposed to meet.  Towards the end of the segment the Anchor asks Dewitt the question, “If retention is ineffective why is it still an option?” Dewitt explains that retention is still an option because children are showing significant signs of struggle and cannot move onto the next grade. In addition, he states that if a child is very young he might be too immature to progress to the next grade.