More than a decade of data from schools across the United States shows deep divisions in who is kept back: boys are more likely than girls to repeat a grade, and black boys are nearly three times as likely as white boys to repeat a grade.
Overall, schools are retaining fewer students than more than a decade ago, according to data from 2011-12 through 2021-22 analyzed by Stanford University’s Big Local News, in partnership with The Hechinger Report. Despite the decline in retention rates, the gap between black boys and white boys has remained constant. (The Office for Civil Rights, the only source of consistent data across all states, is now eight months behind in releasing new data.)
The reasons aren’t entirely clear, but research provides some guidance. Studies have shown that disparities in academic success and school discipline often closely reflect racial disparities in retention data.
“Schools reproduce the same inequalities that exist throughout society,” said James Ford, executive director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education, a North Carolina nonprofit that published a study. report on racial disparities in public schools. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about education and retention, police arrest rates, or uninsured subgroups. For the most part, you’ll see blacks at or near the bottom.”
Related: A national division on retaining students: some states do it young, others wait until high school
Research suggests that the way retention policies are implemented may also contribute to these disparities. State policies that allow discretion in who is selected, where the decision is not determined solely on the basis of a test score, may have an impact disproportionate negative impact on black and Hispanic students.
In recent years, states like Mississippi have passed laws that require schools to retain students who are not proficient in reading by third grade. But many state laws, including North Carolina’s, allow for exceptions, which can lead to inconsistent policies between schools and districts, according to an analysis of state law conducted for the Hechinger Report by the Education Commission of the States.
From 2021 to 2023, Michigan had a third-grade retention law that required schools to retain students who scored in the bottom 5th percentile on the third-grade reading test. The law allows schools to exempt students from being held back for several reasons, including disability status and language barriers. Parents can also request that their children be moved to a higher class.
Research at Michigan State University showed that schools ultimately retained less than 1% of third-graders in 2023. But among those retained, black students made up a larger share, even among all students whose achievement was low enough to be considered for retention. About 72 percent of third graders retained in 2023 were Black students, despite the fact that Black students made up only 48 percent of students eligible for retention that year based on test scores. The researchers speculated that these gaps resulted in part because black students were more likely to attend charter schools, which had higher retention rates, and that they were less likely to receive certain types of exemptions, such as those related to disability.
The state repealed its detention law in 2023.
Related: There’s a lot going on in classrooms from kindergarten through high school. Follow our free weekly K-12 education newsletter.
The reasons behind the gender gap in grade retention are less clear, although educators and researchers have guessed that it might have to do with differences in the maturity rates of boys and girls, and that boys are more likely than girls to be disciplined for their behavior, said Constance Lindsay, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose research has focused on achievement gaps.
“To the extent that boys are more harshly disciplined, that probably plays a role,” Lindsay said.
Educators across the country have also noticed this trend.
North Carolina’s New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Christopher Barnes said that could be because boys are more likely to engage in visible physical fights, which can lead to suspensions and contribute to retention.
He added that it is especially important that educators find ways to spark boys’ interest in school. “If we don’t find something that piques the boys’ interest, they tend to find their own activities,” he said.
Ariel Gilreath is a journalist at the Hechinger Report. Contact her on Signal at arielgilreath.46 or at gilreath@hechingerreport.org. Carli Brosseau is a journalist at L’Assembly. Contact her at carli@theassemblync.com.
This story about Black boys held back was produced by Big local news at Stanford University and The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, in collaboration with The Assembly in North Carolina. Data analysis was carried out by Eric Sagara, senior data journalist at Big Local News. Register for the Hechinger newsletter.
The post Who is retained? Black boys, at a 3-1 ratio to white boys, appeared first in the Hechinger report.
