Grade Retention

Academic accountability is of great concern, therefore graderetention is being considered for both students with and without disabilities who arenot meeting end-of-the-year achievement benchmarks. The purpose of this study was toinvestigate teacher attitudes toward grade retention and whether practices differ whenrecommending retention of students with or without disabilities. This mixed-methodsstudy utilized a paper-and-pencil questionnaire using a Likert-type scale, as well astwo open-ended questions and a checklist. Teacher interviews were also conducted. Thefindings of this study indicate that teachers are considering a multitude of factorswhen considering grade retention for their struggling students. Academic performance wasthe factor that teachers (77%) indicated the most frequently. Although teachers feltpressure and accountability from high stakes testing, they felt test results should beone of many factors considered in the retention decision