Red Flags, Research & Retention: What to Know Before Repeating a Grade

Description:

Is your child being recommended for retention? Are you feeling pressure after spring testing—especially if your child didn’t pass the 3rd grade TCAP?

In this episode, I’m sharing my own journey as a teacher who once recommended retention, what I learned the hard way, and why holding a child back is rarely the right move—especially for students with dyslexia or other learning differences.

We’ll walk through:

• What the research actually says (with sources you can find and share)
• Why schools may be defaulting to retention after the pandemic
• The emotional toll it takes on a child’s self-worth
• What actually works instead of repeating a grade
• Your rights under Tennessee’s TCAP law—and how to advocate with confidence

This is more than a data dump. It’s a guide to help you walk into those school meetings with clarity, compassion, and courage.

PLUS: Download the free printable Parent Resource Guide linked in the show notes to take with you into your next meeting.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pkuBPx6ehGZPXL3Zd8fFmid4VtKvHOCT/view?usp=drivesdk

Thank you for listening to Dyslexia Decoded! Remember, every journey begins with a single step, and progress always beats perfection.

Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and if you found this story inspiring, please share it with someone who might need to hear it.

Until next time, stay strong, stay curious, and stay fearless. 💚

Transcript

0:00

Hey friends. Welcome back to dyslexia, decoded. Today we're tackling a topic that I feel deeply passionate about. last week I talked about testing, and I promise that this week we would talk about grade retention. It comes up a lot this time of year. and it's pretty frustrating for me as a tutor for the parents and even more frustrating for the students. So with spring testing season in full swing, a lot of parents, maybe even you are hearing that their child might be held back. maybe it's because they didn't pass a standardized reading test. Maybe they haven't met certain benchmarks, or they're just not reading fluently yet, and the school is suggesting another year might help. I want you to know you're not alone in feeling overwhelmed. You're not overreacting if you feel that tug in your gut saying, is this really the best choice? I've seen so many parents bullied and pushed into holding their child back and then regretting it for years. if I can do anything today, say anything today that can help you through this, I am here for it. had wanted to have this conversation with so many parents with sometimes they've already made a decision and I don't. Wanted to come across wrong, like I'm judging them or guilting them for their decision. But I'm gonna share today everything I have wanted to tell every parent I've recently talked to about retention. So in this episode, we're going to walk through my personal experience with recommending retention as a teacher. When I was a new teacher, I recommended retention multiple times, most of which I have come to, to question if it was the right. Best decision, the emotional and academic effects of retention, especially for students with dyslexia and what the research says and how to find this research yourself I'm also going to address how the pandemic shifted the way schools view retention and what you as a parent can do, including your rights under the law. Are you ready? Let's go. I wanna talk very honestly and candidly about my journey with recommending retention to students. my first year I was a kindergarten teacher. I taught kindergarten my first couple years and there were a few times I recommended retention. I've been on both sides of. The coin here as a teacher who genuinely thought it was in the student's best interest, and also as someone who saw the impact it had so early in my teaching career, there were a few students who just weren't picking up reading. They couldn't blend sounds, weren't connecting letters. It just felt like they weren't ready for first grade. I personally pushed for retention. In fact, there were three students who repeated kindergarten based on my recommendation over multiple years. later, all three of them were eventually diagnosed with dyslexia, and in hindsight, I don't think retention was the right call. They didn't need more time to develop. They needed different instruction and what stuck with me the most was the way it hurt their confidence. I saw it, some of them I taught both years at kindergarten when they were retained, and I saw the moments. The light in their eyes that would fade when they're like, I've done this before, and when the other kids ask questions on the playground, it's not an easy journey to walk. They felt left behind because they were left behind. At the time, I was doing the best I could with the information I had. I'd hear administration say things like, well, he'll be the biggest boy on the football team. As if that somehow made up for everything. Like that's the reason to hold a child back. That always felt so off to me like we were trying to sell something to parents that wasn't really in the best interest of the child. So let's fast forward a few years and I was under a different administration and I had a third grader who had just been adopted and had missed a lot of school before coming to the new school, coming to my classroom. Pretty late in the school year. He wasn't reading at all, not because he couldn't learn, not because of a learning disability, but because he had not had a fair chance The school had me use. Lights retention scale, and in this case it actually pointed towards retention being a good option. This is the first time I had been pointed towards using this measure to decide whether, being held back would benefit or harm the child. I really liked the information that it gave. it was a pretty in depth survey and it gave us. An idea of why the student had the struggles they were, even though they were clear to us in this situation. I think if my previous students that I have recommended retention to had done this scale, I don't think they would've been held back. The next year gave that student a clean slate and a chance to catch up. That was one of the few times I saw retention work well, but it stood out because his situation was unique and because he had a tool. And a plan. I've learned that retention isn't one size fits all, and for kids with dyslexia, it's almost never the solution. Their self-worth matters so much more than the grade level And repeating the same content the same way won't suddenly make it click. You can't do the same thing over again and expect different results. So I share this, not to scare you, but to remind you. You are allowed to ask questions. You are allowed to say, is this really the best way to help my child? And most of all, you're allowed to protect their confidence while still advocating for their learning. So I wanna get into what the research says. There is so much research on retention. So let me give you a few big picture findings, and I encourage you to look these up yourself. Just Google the study name or authors, or just Google Grade retention research, and you'll find PDF versions, summaries, and full text links. In 2001, meta-analysis by Shane Jimerson. Reviewed 20 plus studies and found that retention is associated with poor academic achievement, worse emotional outcomes, and an increased risk for dropping out. So you can just search Jimerson grade retention meta analysis, 2001. another study is by the National Association of School Psychologists. They have a formal position against retention. Across the board, they write, the weight of the evidence shows that the benefit of grade retention are short-lived and that students often fall behind again within two to three years. And we gonna do. Hold them back again like it's so they are finding, the school psychologist are finding it doesn't work. So to find this article search in a SP position statement, grade retention, I. Another one is the Child Mind Institute's Children Mental Health Report in 2018 noted that students who are retained show higher rates of anxiety, depression, and behavior issues. To find this study, you're going to search Child Mind Institute 2018, retention Emotional Effects. some newer research Like a 2023 study out of Indiana shows that some students who are retained in third grade perform better academically for a few years if they receive intensive support. But that same study didn't examine emotional effects, and even the research said their findings could be generalized to all students. So to find this study, you would search Indiana third grade retention study 2023. the big takeaway here, retention doesn't usually help long term. And for students with dyslexia, it almost never addresses the root of the problem. And now I want to shift gears. And look at the pandemic effect. just my own personal observation before the pandemic. I rarely heard of students getting help back. I even heard often parents and teachers complaining about kids just being pushed forward, pushed forward, push forward when they weren't ready. now I personally am seeing. Dozens of students every year that are being threatened, I guess with retention. let me share something that I've been observing. After the pandemic, there were a lot of students who genuinely. Fell behind and in many cases, holding them back was appropriate. They had missed a lot of school either because of illness, constant disruptions, or maybe virtual schooling just didn't work for them. Some of them spent entire years without consistent instruction, especially younger students while they're trying to learn to read In those situations, giving a student an extra year with support. it wasn't about failure. It was about recovery and making up for the time that was lost. It was just out of so many people's control. But here's the thing, somewhere along the line, schools got in the habit of saying students behind. Let's retain them. Still struggling, holding back. That made sense for a while during and right after the pandemic. But now I am seeing students who were not even impacted by the pandemic students who are in kindergarten this year. Being pushed to hold their students back. Students with dyslexia, students with learning differences. Students who don't need more time, they maybe just need different instruction. It's like retention became the default setting, and I believe it's a lingering side effect of the pandemic. This is just my personal opinion. Schools got used to retention as a response to learning gaps, and now that response is being applied across the board even when it's not appropriate. Even when it might do harm, especially for a student with dyslexia or a DHD or anxiety or a whole array of, of additional struggles, Because when a child has dyslexia, it's not about a missing year. It's not about catching up with one more round of the same lessons. They're not struggling because of mis instruction. They're struggling because of how their brain is wired to learn, And that needs to be addressed with intentional, specialized support and not just another round of what they got the year before. I want us to think about the emotional toll of a retention. Struggling is hard. Having dyslexia is hard, but being retained is like everyone else in the world telling you that. All of the greatest fears that a student has. It's like them telling that child that all the bad things you think about yourself, that's true. This is just my interpretation. This is how I would feel if I was retained because of my dyslexia. 'cause students were already really, really hard on themselves. And when you retain them and then maybe they still can't make the progress, you retain them and a few years later, they're back in the same spot. What does this tell them? What is the story? Retention is not just academic. It's emotional. Deeply emotional. Students who are retained are constantly reminded of it. Every field trip repeated, every holiday project, every, remember when we did this last year moment, but now they're doing it with new, younger classmates. It creates a sense of loss of identity, loss of belonging. For kids with dyslexia who may already feel different. This can damage their confidence even further. And no amount of phonics worksheets can undo that. We have to stop pretending that the cost of retention is neutral. It's not. what will help my child teacher, Maggie. if not retention, what works? Students with dyslexia need more time. They need a different kind of teaching. That's where structured literacy comes in. Explicit, systematic approaches like Orton-Gillingham Barton is an Orton-Gillingham program that parents can work through at home Orton-Gillingham Orton-Gillingham is the symbols and putting sounds to the symbols and building words that way. Ebley, which is evidence-based literacy instruction, starts with the sound, breaking words into the phon, names breaking first in the syllables and the sounds Very quickly, emphasizes the growth of phonemic awareness, which can help close those gaps. I personally love to use a strong Minds method, which is a blend of both. These programs focus on how the brain actually learns to read your student would also benefit from small group or one-on-one instruction. a teacher dedicated to finding out where they're at, finding those gaps and filling them in. Progress monitoring to see what's working and what's not. There are a lot of amazing programs out there, but they are not one size fits all. So if your student is working hard and not making progress, you probably need to pivot. To try something else. 'cause there's not just one way, especially with a dyslexics brain. Dyslexia, as you know, is a spectrum we have different strengths and weaknesses What works for most dyslexics might not work for your child. Make sure you embrace the accommodations. Take shame away from accommodations. take away any attitude that it is less work or less valuable. Embrace the accommodations. Embrace audio books, giving extra time, reducing the workload. As a teacher, if we were working on multiplication tables in a class of 25 students, everyone would have the same 20 minutes of practice. Some students would finish their page and move on to extra practice and some students might get half of it done, but they still got that same 20 minutes of practice as long as their attitude was positive and they were working hard and doing their best. It is acceptable. I accepted the reduced workload as I hope your teachers do too. And most importantly, if you can find a teacher or a tutor who understands dyslexia. If you have a teacher who has great intentions, but they just don't get your child, find someone. Who can be your child's cheerleader, who will help them find the positives in having dyslexia. Retention just puts a child back in the same path these interventions can create a new path, a new journey, a new adventure. It's really important to know your rights. So I'm gonna talk Tennessee for a minute 'cause that's where I currently am. most of the other states. Are following something similar, some more strict, some more flexible. But under current state law in Tennessee, third grade, students who score approaching or below on the English language arts portion of the tcap can be flagged for retention. But it's not automatic. There are ways to avoid it. Students can retake the test, you can get intervention, prepare, and redo the test. some students are just really poor test takers and giving 'em that chance. They saw it one time, they went through it. They got to see what the questions look like, what they feel like. A retake may be all they need, and if it's available, why not? Students can attend summer learning programs. Now they're supposed to offer it to all students being threatened with retention, but they don't always. So you can advocate for this, but sending your student to summer school doesn't always fit into your. Family's plans. Maybe you have travel plans for the summer. if you cannot do, a summer learning program through the school, you can also, show the school that you're committing to tutoring Students with a documented disability like dyslexia can be exempt under good cause exemptions. I do Acknowledge that it can be hard to get a dyslexia diagnosis from the school. it's very common they'll give you a unspecified learning disability or maybe their, exam just doesn't catch that. The reason your child's struggling is dyslexia. knowing all of your options can be empowering. Parents can also request a full evaluation. under the IDEA law. If your child qualifies for an IEP, they can receive customized instruction and services. You can request a specific curriculum, or it has to be OG or that the teacher needs to be certified and that IEP can override a retention decision. If you're in another state, the laws will likely vary, but the bottom line is you are your child's best advocate. You don't have to say yes to retention just because it's suggested. So how do you go about talking to the school? teachers and administrators are not the enemy. They care. They're doing the best they can with what they know and they want to help your child. As a teacher, I lost so much sleep over my students as if they were my own children because I wanted to do. What was right by them. I wanted the best for them. But many teachers just haven't been trained in dyslexia. They may not know what structured literacy even is. So when you walk into that meeting, bring compassion and clarity. You can say things like. Can you walk me through the interventions that have been tried so far? You can ask, has anyone considered whether my child may have a learning difference? Could we explore promotion with support instead of retention? These are questions to start a new conversation if needed, you can print out one of the research studies I mentioned before, ask to schedule a follow-up, and if you are feeling overwhelmed, bring an advocate or a trusted support person. So to the parent listening right now, maybe you're holding back tears, maybe you're feeling unsure, please hear me. You are not overreacting, you are not wrong, and you are not alone. Retention can feel like a simple fix. Your child deserves more than the default solution They deserve understanding, support, and instruction that actually works. You can protect their self worth while still pushing for academic growth. You can ask questions. You can slow down the process. You can advocate for what your child really needs. And if you ever need someone in your corner, I am here. I have a busy schedule. I tutor a lot. I have eight children. I am very busy, but I care so much and if I can do anything I. To empower you to support you. I will send an email. I will give a free assessment to your student. just reach out and I can do virtual or in person assessments. So let me know how I can help you, or if I can direct you to other people who can support you in your local area. thanks for listening today. just feels so heavy to me. It feels too important. Be sure to check the show notes for all the research links and a printable parent resource guide, and if this episode help you send it to another parent who's in the same boat. Let's keep growing, learning, and advocating together. Because this is the greatest job in the world caring for our children, right? as a parent, being my child's cheerleader is my favorite job. Thank you guys so much, and I'll see you next week.