Numerous studies have concluded that retention provides little benefit to students. Yet it is estimated that half of all students have been retained by the time they reach ninth grade. This study was undertaken to examine the process through which retention occurs. Explicit focus was placed upon the timing and salient student characteristics that were an integral part of the classroom teachers' retention decisions. The research was guided by the following questions: What is the process whereby students are retained in grade? In what time frames are decisions made that assign a student to a second year at a specific grade level? Is the timing of a retention decision influenced by the factor upon which it is based? / The ethnographic study focused on one grade level of teachers in one school for a full school year. First grade was chosen because it typically has the largest number of retentions for this school. Data for this study were collected through interviews, observations, and examination of documents. / A number of trends seemed to emerge from the data. This school used retention conferences that included the teacher, administrator, counselor, learning disabilities teacher, and Chapter 1 teachers. While all the participants could raise questions and discuss the case, the administrator made the decision based primarily upon the input of the teacher. However, all members of the conference shared responsibility for the decision. When the teacher's main reason for retention was based upon immaturity, the decisions seemed to be made early in the year. Transfer students often were viewed as having moved from a school that provided an inferior academic background, and the teacher's decision to seek retention was made soon after the child's entry into school. In the relatively few cases that seemed to predominantly involve academic standing, decisions appeared to be made much later in the term. / Additional factors that seemed to enter into the retention decisions were: parental approval, maintenance of teacher's standing with teacher peer group, family factors, previous retentions, classroom conduct, student age, fear that the child would not be fostered by teachers in the next grade, protection from difficulty in later grades, and belief that it was better to retain in first rather than later grades. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-03, Section: A, page: 0769. / Major Professor: Virginia P. Green. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77379 |
| Contributors | Biegler, Cynthia Dennis., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 140 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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