Grade Retention has been a contentious item. Parents sometimes have asked schools to retain their child and schools have often decline.
Now with schools closed, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has told parents they now have the right to keep their child in the same grade. The logic being, without remedial reading help for 3 months, many students may not be ready to be promoted.
This makes sense given three major factors:
- With prevailing standards, there is a significant increase in difficulty from one grade to the next – especially between third and fourth grades where there is a shift from learning to read to learning to read
- Next year, teachers will be required to cover what was not covered this year and next year’s curriculum. Therefore, the pace will be faster than ever
- It is now possible and probably likely that schools will be closed from March through August. A student that was below grade level in March is likely to find the curriculum even more difficult. For those who were further behind the challenge will even greater
Beat Grade Retention By Focusing on Reading
Most parents will reject grade retention, and we understand that. We recommend that at the very least you:
– Read with your child 30 minutes every day
– Turn the text on TV and slowly lower the sound on your TV — this will encourage word recognition skills and build language- Have more discussions with your child and help them build their language skills.=
– Use tools like Learning Ally and Audible for kids – which is free for kids as of April 1st. Audible provides many stories.
Learning Ally is a very comprehensive set of books. Call us at 561-361-7495 for a subscription at a very reasonable price. Learning Ally allows your child to both hear the book and follow the text.
These actions will help, but the far better option is intensive remediation.
As the chart below shows, a third grade who is a year and a half behind may be:
– Two years below grade level by the time the next school year starts
– A year and a half behind with a concerted effort
– Able to get back to grade level with the right intensive remediation
3D Learner Offers Intensive Remediation to Beat Grade Retention
Grade retention is a legitimate option and it might be right when you child is:
- Well below grade level and/or
- Among the youngest in his or her class is struggling
At the 3D Learner Learning Center, we see this time period as an unprecedented amount of students to catch up. With an hour a day effort 5 day a week effort, a student can make dramatic gains with the right help.
Based on our 23 years of experience, we know that many students can:
- Improve their visual processing, working memory and processing speed
- Dramatically improve their vocabulary, math skills and reading comprehension – often by 2, 3 or 4 grade levels
- Be better prepared for next year and beyond with the right help
But, the challenge is with social distancing and “stay-at-home” orders, how does a student accomplish this?
The 3D Learner Learning Center, we have temporarily closed our physical location, and we are offering:
- Assessments that can be done:
- Initially on line using our Success Assessment that screens for a learning difference, attention and visual processing challenges
- Online with more comprehensive assessments
- One on one services using Zoom software. We have used this for several years with out of state clients, and recently we started using it with local clients. The response has been very promising
- Brain training to improve working memory, visual processing and/or processing speed
- A Reading Comprehension and/or Visual Processing program
- Based on demand, we may offer small group training via zoom
- We will be providing Facebook Live conversations each day at no cost — for more information visit our 3D Learner Facebook page
The 3D Learner Difference
- Our program was developed when we were given some negative use. We find that highly motivated parents often make great clients
- We work on the foundational skills required to succeed. We help students to:
- Improve their word recognition and sight word vocabulary
- Attention and visual processing
- Reducing anxiety
- Improving
- Working memory
- Reading speed and comprehension
- Self-esteem
- Helping parents to be the coach and advocate their child needs
- We have been helping students go from Stress to Success in Months Not Years
If your child is either facing a grade retention risk and/or has significant upside potential either
– Take our no cost Success Assessment with your child. You will get immediate feedback and you can then call us at 561-361-7495 for a no cost Stress to Success Strategy Session
– Call us at 561-361-7495
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