Four years ago in two St. Clair County, Michigan school districts, officials started a highly controversial new accountability program whereby students who were not reading at grade level at the end of third grade would be held back. Critics of retention blasted the program, citing dropout statistics that show that students who are held back are more likely to drop out than students who are pushed along through social promotion. The two district superintendents stood their ground, however, despite cries from individual schools, teachers, principals and parents asking to delay the consequences of the program to another year. "Why should we wait?" Superintendent Dennis Guiser said. "If what we're doing is the right thing, why not affect this year's third-graders?" Besides, the superintendents maintained, there is "other data [that] shows that kids who are not on grade level in reading by the end of third grade are less likely to graduate." Turns out the commitment to the program was exactly what the students of St. Clair County needed. In both districts, "83 percent of fourth-graders met the state's expectations in reading, up from 55 percent in Algonac Community Schools and 65 percent in Yale Public Schools in 1999. They also came in ahead of the state average, 75 percent."
"MEAP success: Holding kids back seems to pay off," by Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki,
Detroit Free Press, October 8, 2003