Middle school students in classrooms with children who have been retained or who are older than their peers are more likely to have discipline problems such as substance use, fighting and classroom disruptions than students in classrooms without older or retained students, according to a new study by Duke University researchers.
The findings will be presented Sunday at the American Educational Research Association conference in San Francisco.
DukeCenter for Child and Family Policy sociologists Clara Muschkin, Elizabeth Glennie and Audrey Beck studied discipline records of nearly 80,000 seventh graders in 334 North Carolina middle schools. In one of the largest studies of its kind, they included rural, urban and socially diverse schools.
They found that the likelihood of discipline problems and the chances of being suspended are significantly higher among students attending schools with many retained and older students. For example, if 20 percent of children in the seventh grade are older than their peers, the chance that other students will commit an infraction or be suspended increases by 200 percent compared to students without older peers.
"Until now, retention research hasn't looked at the effect of retention on other children," Glennie said. "We find that retained and older children have a significant effect on the behavior of all children. This disruptive behavior can ultimately influence how much a child learns."
School accountability policies linked to No Child Left Behind encourage the retention of low-performing students so schools can meet performance targets in the following year. Policies also encourage delayed entry to school. However, these researchers say little consideration has been given to the long-term effects of retention or delayed school entries on student behavior or to the influence older or retained children have on their classmates.
In the 2000-2001 school year, 18 percent of North Carolina seventh graders had been previously retained or were "old-for-grade," which this study defined as older than 75 percent of their peers. Old-for-grade students are on average one year older than their classmates; most old-for-grade seventh graders are 13 to 14.5 years old at the start of the school year.
In addition, physical and psychological changes during early adolescence make older students in middle school more likely to misbehave and to be influenced by peers.
The study concludes that educators should take additional steps to minimize the academic struggles of older and retained children. The researchers suggest that policymakers consider the following approaches for helping low-performing students:
-- Administrators should consider the school-wide implications of having many old-for-grade and retained students. Targeting support for these high-risk students, as well as for their teachers, can significantly improve the behavior and academic performance of these students and, indirectly, of their grade peers.
-- Retention should be used as a last resort, and more emphasis should be placed on interventions such as tutoring, summer school and peer mentoring.
-- Academic failure and behavior problems place older and retained students at high risk for dropping out of school. Dropout prevention programs should include middle school students who have been retained or are old-for-grade.
"Our findings suggest that support for older and retained students would not only benefit students who are at high risk, but also would be an investment in the achievement and climate of the entire school," Muschkin said.
_ _ _ _
The study uses data from the North CarolinaEducationResearchDataCenter at the Center for Child and Family Policy at DukeUniversity. The data were collected by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
The Center for Child and Family Policy strives to find solutions to problems facing children and families in contemporary society. The center conducts policy-oriented research in the areas of K-12 education, child maltreatment, youth violence and adolescent substance abuse prevention.
For more information, go to www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu or call (919) 613-7318.