A last, desperate plea for Iowa legislators to not retain 3rd graders
Dear Iowa legislators,
I am pleading with you to not pass an education reform law that includes retention of 3rd graders.
4+ decades of unanimous peer-reviewed research studies show that retention of elementary students results in short-term academic gains that disappear completely in later school years. What you get for that now-you-see-it, now-you-don't test score bump is incredible damage to students' self-concept, substantial increases in students' dropout rates, and significant reductions in students' future life success.
If you read them, the handful of recent non-peer-reviewed research studies that are being cited in favor of this proposed legislation actually reinforce - rather than rebut - all existing studies: short term test score gains that wash out in later years, accompanied by no mitigation of long-term, negative dropout rate or life success