Dr. Lynne Swantz

In this study previously retained students and their parents were individually interviewed to determine their feelings and attitudes about the experience of retention and the effects of having been retained. The study was conducted in a mid-size Nebraska community with an all white population. The students had been retained in grades K-3 during the 1985-1990 school years, a minimum of five years prior to their participation in the study. A total of twenty-two students and eleven parents participated in the study. The interview questions for both the students and parents were adapted from Deborah Byrnes' research (1985) with elementary students during their repeat year. Individual school data were gathered to provide a context for the feelings and attitudes of each the students. A series of individual narrative descriptions was presented combining the student interview information, school data, and, when available, parent interview information. The majority of the retained students in this study had accepted their retentions as beneficial to them. These students generally believed that retention helped them to do better. Others in this group came to believe that their retentions were beneficial to them because they had been told by others at school and home that these retentions were good for them. For a few students, retention was remembered as a painful experience and these students still carried with them feelings of hurt and anger. All but one of the parents in this study were positive in their attitudes and feelings about retention. They affirmed that their children had needed and benefitted from repeating a grade.