Iowa State Board of Education

Position Statement on Student Retention

March 22, 2000

The Iowa State Board of Education believes increased investment in early intervention on behalf of Iowa children, combined with local accountability for student achievement, will lead to continued improvement in Iowa’s education system. We are committed to creating an education system that ensures a strong foundation in reading, math, and other basic skills for all students.

The State Board, however, opposes a state requirement prohibiting local school districts from promoting certain students to the next grade. A state mandate regarding student retention, paid for by existing resources, is a costly distraction we cannot support.  Student retention is a concept not currently supported by available research and unlikely to enhance efforts already in place to help all students learn basic skills. 

Research of mandatory student retention programs in Chicago, Baltimore, and New York City and significant student retention in some states fails to show improved long-term academic performance, despite the significant added costs associated with summer school, remediation, and students spending an extra year in school.  Instead, students not promoted are more likely to become truant in middle school and more likely to drop out.

The State Board is not supportive of educational practices that automatically move students to the next grade level regardless of academic performance.  There may be cases when a primary grade student should repeat a grade.  The State Board believes, in keeping with Iowa’s philosophy of local control, that the decision should be made by the parents and teacher based upon thorough consideration of the individual child’s academic performance and physical and emotional development.  It should not be a legal requirement based upon a single standardized test score or measure of student performance.

The answer instead is to invest in Iowa students.  And that investment must begin long before schools would be required to retain low-performing students.  The State Board has long advocated for a stronger commitment to investing in high quality early childhood education.  In this area the research is clear.  High quality preschool has a positive impact on student achievement. 

Once Iowa students have reached first grade, they deserve a quality teacher, low class size, effective reading and mathematics curriculum and instruction, and early intervention programs to assist them before they fall behind.  The State Board advocates that the state and local school districts invest in those intervention efforts until all students have mastered the basic skills of reading and math.