Retention and nonretention of at-risk readers in first grade and their subsequent reading achievement.

Abstract

Some of the specific reasons for the success or failure of retention in the area of reading were examined via an in-depth study of a small number of both at-risk retained students and comparably low skilled promoted children. Longitudinal data were collected as students went from first grade to either repeating first grade and through second grade, or from first through second grade. The children's development in phonemic awareness, spelling-sound knowledge, word recognition, and the ability to read words in their reading series was closely examined. In addition, the children's listening comprehension was examined, especially as it related to reading comprehension and intelligence. Findings suggested that children who finish first grade with poor word recognition skill may benefit from retention if they start the repeated year with increased phonemic awareness. But further growth in word recognition may be impaired in second grade unless spelling-sound knowledge continues to grow. Retention did not appear to facilitate listening comprehension to the extent it did word recognition, with the effect of further limiting improvement in reading comprehension.