retentionletter

LETTER AGAINST THE MAYOR'S PROPOSED RETENTION POLICY

February 11, 2004

Dear Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein:

We ask that you reconsider and withdraw your proposal to retain 3rd grade students on the basis of test scores. All of the major educational research and testing organizations oppose using test results as the sole criterion for advancement or retention, since judging a particular student on the basis of a single exam is an inherently unreliable and an unfair measure of his or her actual level of achievement. In fact, there are few issues about which there is such a powerful consensus among the professionals in the field.

The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the nation's largest professional organization devoted to the scientific study of education, opposes their use, as does the National Board on Educational Testing, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which argues that “far-reaching and critical educational decisions should be made only on the basis of multiple measures.” The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, developed by the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education, contain the following statement:

“Any decision about a student's continued education, such as retention, tracking, or graduation, should not be based on the results of a single test, but should include other relevant and valid information.”

The National Academy of Sciences published a comprehensive report a number of years ago, explaining in detail why the use of high-stakes testing is intellectually indefensible as well as counterproductive. As the authors point out, “A student’s score can be expected to vary across different versions of a test….as a function of the particular sample of questions asked and/or transitory factors, such as the student’s health on the day of the test. Thus, no single test score can be considered a definitive measure of a student’s knowledge.”

Harcourt and CTB McGraw Hill, the two largest companies that produce standardized tests, and the developers of New York City’s 3rd grade reading and math exams, are on record opposing the use of their tests as the exclusive criterion for decisions about retention, because they can never be a reliable and/or complete measure of what students may or may not know.

As Harcourt, the company that produces New York City’s 3rd grade reading exam, has written:

"Another misuse of standardized achievement test scores is making promotion and retention decisions for individual students solely on the basis of these scores....Achievement test scores may certainly enter into a promotion or retention decision. However, they should be just one of the many factors considered and probably should receive less weight than factors such as teacher observation, day-to-day classroom performance, maturity level, and attitude."

CTB-McGraw has the following statement on its website: “No single test can ascertain whether all educational goals are being met. A variety of tests--or, multiple measures--is necessary to provide educators with a well-rounded view of what students know and can do. Just as different tests provide different information, no one kind of test can tell us all we need to know about a student's learning.”

In addition, as with all standardized tests, a substantial margin of error exists, inescapable given the nature of these exams. Thus, we are likely to fail many students who would really pass if we took account of the statistical uncertainties involved. There is also the distinct possibility that the tests themselves may be flawed, or are scored incorrectly, as has occurred in the recent past. In this case, even more students would be unfairly held back, and their futures put at unnecessary risk.

Another reason we strongly oppose this policy is that the consensus among researchers and experts is overwhelming that retaining students, no matter what their actual level of achievement, is likely to damage rather than help their educational prospects.

After reviewing the many controlled studies of grade retention, the National Academy of Sciences report concluded that: “Low performing students who have been retained in kindergarten or primary grades lose ground both academically and socially relative to similar students who have been promoted.”

Several large scale studies of retention have found that these policies are counterproductive. A meta-analysis of 63 controlled studies found 54 that were negative, with only 9 positive. The author concluded that "[o]n average, retained children are worse off than their promoted counterparts on both personal-adjustment and academic outcomes."

After controlling for student background and academic achievement, a longitudinal study of more than 12,000 students concluded that being held back before the 8th grade increased the likelihood of dropping out by the 12th grade by more than 200%. Furthermore, "students who were held back before the 8th grade were more than four times as likely as students who were not held back to not complete high school or receive a GED" six years later.

The results of New York City’s “Gates” program from the early 1980’s were found to be similarly harmful. In 1981, then-chancellor Macchiarola launched a large-scale retention program that held back 25,000 students from the fourth and seventh grades, on the basis of low scores on the citywide reading tests. In following years the program was expanded to students who had low scores on the standardized math exams as well.

The program was later rescinded when research indicated that the achievement level of retained students had not improved compared to students with similar scores who were promoted in earlier years, even after extensive intervention and summer school, at a cost of more than $100 million per year. Moreover, long-term follow up showed that 40% of the students who were retained eventually dropped out, compared to 25% of those with similar test scores who had been promoted. According to Ernest House, one of the authors of the evaluation, “the Promotional Gates Program had retained tens of thousands of students at huge dollar and human costs without benefits.”

More recently, the large-scale retention policy carried out in Chicago has also been at best, ineffective, and at worst, extremely detrimental. An independent evaluation concluded that for those students who were promoted after attending summer school, the program “produced short-term test score gains but did not significantly address the ongoing learning problems of low-achieving students,” with the results particularly disappointing for 3rd graders.

The fate of those Chicago public school students who were retained even after summer school has been even more dismal. As the researchers noted, “Few of these students retained in 1997 made adequate progress the next year. After two years in the same grade and a second Summer Bridge, only 43% of retained third graders and 47% of retained sixth graders were able to raise their test scores to the promotional cutoffs. Passing rates were lowest among retained eighth graders because so many of these students dropped out.”

The large-scale retention policy now under consideration is not only unfair and counterproductive; it is also inherently inequitable.

The practice of retaining large numbers of New York City students on the basis of test scores alone is likely to disproportionately affect those who are poor and minority. Moreover, the policy of using high-stakes tests to make retention decisions has been shown to be much more common in school districts with high percentages of black and Hispanic students compared to the rest of the nation. Given the fact that research shows that these policies on balance are harmful to students who are subjected to them, their use appears to exacerbate rather than ameliorate racial and class differences.

As the authors of the National Academy of Sciences report conclude, “…it is cause for concern that low-SES children and minority students are disproportionately subject to any negative consequences. Those who leave school without diplomas have diminished chances. High dropout rates carry many social costs.”

At the very least, even if you decide to carry through with this misguided policy, despite its inherent unfairness and poor record in the past, we ask that you delay its implementation to the fall of 2004. Only then will those 3rd grade students at risk of being retained have the opportunity to take advantage of whatever intervention services you intend to offer them for more than a few months, as well as making it more feasible that a workable summer school program could be designed and implemented.

We trust that you will reconsider this proposal, and instead, put into practice measures that identify students at risk of low achievement earlier in their educational careers, and provide them with programs that research and experience have been shown to actually improve their chance of success: increased access to preKindergarten, smaller classes where they can receive more individual attention and support from their classroom teachers, and intensive intervention for those who have fallen behind, including afterschool and/or weekend tutoring.

As George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Let us not make our children suffer from our failure to learn from the unsuccessful policies of the past.

Yours respectfully,

Jill Chaifetz, Executive Director, Advocates for Children

Leonie Haimson, Chair, Class Size Matters

Robin C. Brown, President, United Parents Associations

Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, The Brazelton Institute and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus, Harvard Medical School

Henry M. Levin, William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education,

Teachers College, Columbia University

Robert M. Hauser, Vilas Research Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chair of Committee on Appropriate Uses of Educational Tests, National Academy of Sciences.

Catherine E. Snow, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, past President of the American Educational Research Association

Ernest R. House, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado, Boulder

Jay P. Heubert, Associate Professor of Education, Teachers College, Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, co-editor of the NAS report, High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation.

William T. Trent, Professor, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and member of Committee on Appropriate Uses of Educational Tests, National Academy of Sciences

Robert L. Linn, Distinguished Professor of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, past president of the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), former chair of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council, and past President, American Educational Research Association

Gary Orfield, Professor of Education & Social Policy, Co-Director, Civil Rights Project, Harvard University

Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University and past President, American Education Research Association

Alan Krueger, Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Director, Princeton University Survey Research Center, and former chief economist, U.S. Department of Labor

Beverly Falk, Associate Professor and Program Head, Graduate Programs in Early Childhood Education, City College and co-author of "Using Standards and Assessments to Support Student Learning: Alternatives to Grade Retention" (1997) prepared for the NYC Chancellor's Committee on Grade Transition Standards

Jennifer L. Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government, Harvard University, member of Committee on Appropriate Uses of Educational Tests, National Academy of Sciences.

Milton D. Hakel, Ohio Board of Regents Eminent Scholar in Psychology, Bowling Green State University, member of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council

Arnold S. Cohen, President & CEO, The Partnership for the Homeless

Kim Sweet, Associate General Counsel, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest

Robert Tobias, Director, Center for Research on Teaching and Learning, Steinhardt School of Education, New York University

W. James Popham, past President of the American Educational Research Association, founding editor of the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy, and Professor Emeritus, UCLA

Karen Zumwalt, Evenden Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Sue Ruskin-Mayher, Director, Middle School Program, Bank Street College of Education

Norm Fruchter, Director, NYU Institute for Education & Social Policy

Ann Cook, Co-chair, NYC Coalition of Essential Schools

Ulric Neisser, Susan Linn Sage Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Cornell University

Kim Sweet, Associate General Counsel, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest

Irving Hamer, Professor of Practice in Education, Teachers College and former member of the New York City Board of Education

Shane R. Jimerson, Professor of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology; Professor of Child and Adolescent Development; Associate Dean for Research; University of California, Santa Barbara

Pam Solo, President of the Civil Society Institute

Gerald W. Bracey, Associate Professor, George Mason University

Rhonda Carloss Smith, President, Black Child Development Institute, NY Affiliate, Inc.

Monica Drinane, Attorney-in-Charge, The Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Division

Sam Anderson, Education Director, Center for Law & Social Justice, Medgar Evers College-CUNY

Ken Goodman, past President, International Reading Association, Professor Emeritus of University of Arizona

Rolando Bini, Director, Parents in Action

Charles M. Achilles, professor of Educational Leadership at Eastern Michigan University and Professor, Seton Hall University

Donald R. Moore, Ed.D., Executive Director, Designs for Change

Jacqueline Ancess, Co-Director, NCREST, Teachers College, Columbia University

Phyllis Tashlik, Director, Center for Inquiry in Teaching and Learning

Maureen Grolnick, Education Director, Teachers College Innovations, Columbia University

Community School Board One

Richard E. Baecher, Professor, Graduate School of Education, Fordham University at Lincoln Center

Marvin Cohen, Director of Instructional Technology, Bank Street College of Education

Judith R. Birsh, Ed.D., President, New York Branch International Dyslexia Association

John M. Beam, Executive Director, National Center for Schools and Communities, Fordham University

Herminio Martinez, Professor of Middle and Secondary Education and Executive Director, Bronx Institute, Lehman College

Bernadette Anand, Director, General Teacher Education Programs, Bank Street College of Education

Susan Semel, Chair, Department of Secondary Education and Program Head, Secondary Social Studies at City College

Judith Stern Torres, Director of New York City Projects, The Education Alliance at Brown University

Sonia Nieto, Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts

Jane Hirschmann, Co-chair of Time Out from Testing

Ofelia Garcia, Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

Michael Termini, Executive Director, Cooke Center for Learning and Development

John S. Mayher, Professor, Steinhardt School of Education, NYU

Norman Shapiro, Professor Emeritus, School of Education, City College and Director of the Center for School Development

Normann Jorgensen, Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Luis O. Reyes, Asst. Professor, Hunter College, CUNY, and former member of the NYC Board of Education

Oliver Patterson, Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, New York University

Barbara Stern, Graduate School Faculty, Bank Street College of Education

Margaret Yatsevitch Phinney, Associate Professor and Director, Master's Program in Reading University of Wisconsin

PJ Hallam, Project Manager, Berkeley Assessment and Research Center, UC Berkeley

Mary Anne Raywid, Professor Emerita at Hofstra University, currently at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Carol W. Pfaff, Professor, John F. Kennedy Institut für Nordamerikastudien,

Freie Universitaet, Berlin, Germany

Salvatore Vascellaro, Graduate Faculty, Bank Street College of Education

John Lawhead, on behalf of the Independent Community of Educators (UFT)

Virginia H. Miller, Reading/Literacy Program, Bank Street College

Ana Roca, Professor, Florida International University, Miami

Pedro Pedraza, Research Director, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College

Nancy McKeever, Faculty, Bank Street College of Education

Beth McDonald, Project Coordinator, Center for Research on Teaching and Learning,

Steinhardt School of Education, NYU

Frank Pignatelli, Faculty, Bank Street College of Education

Carole Edelsky, Professor, Arizona State University

Rena Rice, Graduate faculty, Bank Street College of Education

Rosina Spitzer, Professor, California State University at Long Beach

Jean Fennacy, Chair, Department of Language, Literacy and Culture, Fresno Pacific University

Eric Sweeting , Director of Education, New Alternatives for Children

Donna Grace, Associate Professor of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Arthur Salz, Associate Professor, Department of Elementary Education, Queens College

Nina Jensen, Director, Museum Education Program, Bank Street College

Adrienne Andi Sosin, Associate Professor, Adelphi University School of Education

Kate Sussman, Liberty Partnerships Program, Bank Street College

Glennellen Pace, Associate Professor of Education, Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education, Portland, Oregon

Shu Jen Chen, Assistant Professor in Leadership and Special Education, City College

Elaine Garan, Professor of Reading Instruction, California State University, Fresno

M. Ruth Davenport, Associate Professor of Education, Eastern Oregon University

Lee Fleischer, Assistant Professor of Education, Empire State College/SUNY

Lori Berman Wolf, Assistant Professor, Adelphi University

Nancy Nager, faculty, Bank Street College of Education

Jacqueline Shannon, Research Associate, New York University

Anne Wheelock, Senior Research Associate, Boston College

Kathe Jervis, Coordinator, Columbia Urban Educators

Charles Paprocki, Program Manager, Early Childhood Strategic Group

Yvonne Rafferty, Associate Professor of Psychology, Pace University

Joseph Patrick Rafter, Assistant Professor, Steinhardt School of Education, NYU

Alexandra Miletta, Assistant Professor of Childhood Education, City College of New York

Kate Mahoney, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University-East

Marian Mogulescu, Institute for Student Achievement

Yetta M. Goodman, University of Arizona College of Education

Tara W. Fortune, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota

B. L. Fish, Assistant Professor, Elementary and Early Childhood Education

Jackson State University

Barbara Knight, faculty, School Management Program, UCLA

Lillian Vega Castaneda, Professor, California State University Channel Islands

Kate Menken, Chair, Language Policy Special Interest Group, National Association for Bilingual Education

Donna J. Grace, Associate Professor, Institute of Teacher Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Susan Gold, teacher, San Francisco Unified School District and Adjunct Professor, University of San Francisco School of Education

Parents, teachers and other concerned members of the education community:

Bijou Miller, Co-President of District 2 Parents' Council

Melah Gindi, Co-President, CSD3 Presidents Council, PA President MS246

Imee Jackson, PTA Co-President, PS 9, D13

Marva Bhalla, Co-President, PTA MS 67Q, D26

Cecilia Blewer, Co-president, PS163 PTA, D3 & Independent Commission on Public Education

Linda Colon, NYC public school parent and Program Manager, Educational Equity Concepts, Inc.

Meg Fidler, parent, Manhattan East, D4, Executive Director, The Petra Foundation

Sonia Meyer, P.A. President, P.S. 222, D22, Brooklyn

Sherry Frier, parent, PS 116, D2

Jayne Bloch, Parent, PS166 D3

Felicita Morales, Facilitator/Trainer, United Parents Associations

Marguerite Stawaris, parent, PS 40, D2

Enercida Guerrero, Member of Parents Coalition against High Stakes Tests

Bree Picower, Doctoral Fellow, Steinhardt School of Education, NYU

Michelle M Gonzalez, Teacher, Park East High School, NYC

Martia Patrick Gordon, parent of 3rd grader, Amistad Dual Language Academy (PS/IS 176), D6

David Friedman, parent, Midtown West , D 2

Christine Parker-Bunn, parent, SLT, PS 9, D13

Julie Applebaum, parent, PS150 and Clinton, D2

Ellen Bilovsky, parent, Stuyvesant H.S. and Mark Twain J.H.S (I.S. 239, D21 Brooklyn).

Janet R. Buck , parent, P.S.41, D2

Julie Woodward, NYC Teacher

Susan Resnick , parent PS 166, D3

Linda C. Walker, Principal, Kent City Schools, Ohio

Manuel Wally, PHd, parent of 3rd grader, Midtown West PS 212, D2

Marian Trupiano, parent, IS 226, Leon Goldstein HS, Talent Unlimited HS, and former CPAC REP for District 15.

Rose Stockton, parent, NYC public schools

Lisa Purcell, teacher, Park East High School, and MetLife Fellow, Teachers Network Policy Institute

Larry Wood, Co-President of CSD-3 Presidents Council (VP PS-9 PTA, VP MS-54 PTA)

Paula Rogovin, teacher, P.S. 290, D2

Karin Gustafson, parent, Stuyvesant High School

Simone Weissman, parent, PS 41, D2

Stuart and Lara Aaronson, parents, PS 191 and PS 75, D3 in Manhattan

Diana Saunders , mother of a 3rd grader at PS 145.

Susan Kotansky, pre-K teacher, PS 220, D7, Bronx

Brandi Jacobi, parent, PS41 and MS 260, District 2

Karen Friedland, parent, MS 51, D15 & Edward R. Murrow HS

Arlene Chung Bednar, parent, Institute for Collaborative Education,

Ellen J. Ferranti, M.D., parent, PS 116, D2

Amy Wittner, 2nd Grade Teacher, ,P.S. 187

Carol James, Elementary Curriculum Director, Habersham County Schools, Georgia

John Lawhead, ESL Teacher, Bushwick H.S

Linda Dalton, parent, P.S. 95

Lindsay LaShell, 4th grade teacher El Cerrito, CA

Josephine Wan, PTA, Board President of PS 1, D1, Manhattan

Iris Present, Parent of a 3rd Grader in District 2, Manhattan

Nancy Barth, Special Education Teacher, Tustin Unified, Ca.

Robert Kovats, Coordinator, Merced County Office of Education, CA

Carol Grocki Lewis, public school parent and professor of ceramics, Marymount Manhattan College

Peter Farruggio, Reading Specialist, Hayward USD and PhD. Candidate, Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Rosa A. Delgado, Doctoral Student, Teachers College, Columbia University

Elizabeth Diaz-Cortez, Graduate Student, Texas Tech University

Patricia Sheehan, 3rd grade teacher, Oakland CA.

Kevin Wolff, Doctoral Student, Teachers College, Columbia University

Georgia Darrah, Reading Consultant, Kent City Schools, Ohio

Elena Sheets, Third Grade Teacher, Kent City Schools, Ohio

Kelley Messina, NYC Teacher

Sheila Carrillo, Co-coordinator, Branciforte Elementary School Dual Language Program, CA

Susan Harman, school Principal and Co-Founder of California Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education

Sandra Stratton-Gonzalez, Dance Educator, PS 372, Parent, PS 261, D15

Suzanne Ort, Coach, Park East High School and Institute for Student Achievement

Harry Feder, teacher, Urban Academy

Melissa Bell, parent and PTA Co-Treasurer, Midtown West (PS 212), D2

Susan Gordon-Clark, Parent at Computer School, D3

Jaime Vines, teacher, California

Jane S. Maisel, teacher, The Earth School, D1 and public school parent

Damaris Solis Padilla, Esq., Parent, Central Park East 1 Elementary School

James W. Venable, Title I Teacher, Alameda Unified School District, CA.

Sharlene Aquiler, teacher, San Francisco.