On the Success of Failure: A Reassessment of the Effects of Retention in the Primary School Grades - Hardcover

Alexander, Karl L.; Entwisle, Doris R.; Dauber, Susan L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521790646 ISBN 13: 9780521790642

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Synopsis

This book is about the practice of grade retention in elementary school, a particularly vexing problem in urban school systems, where upward of half the students may repeat a grade. On the Success of Failure addresses whether repeating a grade is helpful or harmful when children are not keeping up. It describes the school context of retention and evaluates its consequences by tracking the experiences of a large, representative sample of Baltimore school children from first grade through high school. In addition to evaluating the consequences of retention, the book describes the cohort's dispersion along many different educational pathways from first grade through middle school, the articulation of retention with other forms of educational tracking (like reading group placements in the early primary grades and course-level assignments in middle school), and repeaters' academic and school adjustment problems before they were held back.

About this title

Review

Praise for the first edition: 'This is the first book I have seen that sheds light on the failed social promotion reform. This well researched book intersects with reality and will be enthusiastically embraced by parents, teachers, and principals.' Jim Grant, Executive Director, Society for Developmental Education

'Should not only provoke new research but open the minds of policy analysts and educators to the value of clear, rigorous standards. It should also help shatter the assumptions that city kids can't be expected to learn and that little can be expected of them.' Herbert J. Walberg, University of Illinois at Chicago and the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Book Description

On the Success of Failure is about the practice of grade retention in elementary schools, a particularly vexing problem in urban school systems. It addresses whether repeating a grade is helpful or harmful when children are not keeping up, describes the school context of retention, and evaluates its consequences.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521790646
• ISBN 13: 9780521790642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 326