Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- 1 Grade Retention
- 2 Research on Grade Repetition
- 3 Retainees in the “Beginning School Study”
- 4 Children's Pathways through the Elementary and Middle School Years
- 5 Characteristics and Competencies of Repeaters
- 6 Achievement Scores before and after Retention
- 7 Adjusted Achievement Comparisons
- 8 Academic Performance as Judged by Teachers
- 9 The Stigma of Retention
- 10 Retention in the Broader Context of Elementary and Middle School Tracking
- 11 Dropout in Relation to Grade Retention
- 12 The Retention Puzzle
- Appendix: Authors Meet Critics, Belatedly
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Preface to the Second Edition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- 1 Grade Retention
- 2 Research on Grade Repetition
- 3 Retainees in the “Beginning School Study”
- 4 Children's Pathways through the Elementary and Middle School Years
- 5 Characteristics and Competencies of Repeaters
- 6 Achievement Scores before and after Retention
- 7 Adjusted Achievement Comparisons
- 8 Academic Performance as Judged by Teachers
- 9 The Stigma of Retention
- 10 Retention in the Broader Context of Elementary and Middle School Tracking
- 11 Dropout in Relation to Grade Retention
- 12 The Retention Puzzle
- Appendix: Authors Meet Critics, Belatedly
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
On The Success of Failure, published in 1994, evaluated academic and socioemotional sequelae of early grade retention from the vantage point of our long-term research project, the Beginning School Study (BSS). Baltimore-based and still ongoing, the BSS in fall 1982 began monitoring the educational progress of a panel of city schoolchildren just as they were starting first grade. The study group was mainly low-income (two-thirds) and just over half African-American (55% – all but a few of the rest were White). Over the elementary years many were held back –40% through fifth grade. Success sought to determine how the decision to have these children repeat a grade affected them. Was it helpful, as intended, or harmful, as critics of the practice contend? The question has great practical import, especially for children like the BSS participants – disadvantaged, minority youth who often struggle at school.
Success covered the first 8 years of the group's schooling. It reviewed not just grade retention but also the ways other forms of educational tracking (e.g., special education and ability grouping) shape school experiences. Using multiple approaches, including matched controls, statistical adjustments, and before–after comparisons, the book was as comprehensive as possible at the time.
There is now much to add, but relatively little to change. We have continued to monitor the panel's life progress over the years since Success's publication, so that now we are able to examine high school dropout in relation to grade retention.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On the Success of FailureA Reassessment of the Effects of Retention in the Primary School Grades, pp. vii - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002