KINDERGARTEN RETENTION SURVEY
This was the most common response: Light's Retention Scale...... we use it all the time, and it is very helpful
We require the parents to sign a permission slip to retain or not retain
because Kindergarten attendance isn't required. Parents could keep a
student home and then just enroll them in 1st grade.
We use our DIBELS information, local assessments which looks at phonemic
awareness, letter naming, high frequency words, one-to-one correspondence
for numeration, social skills. Students also have to be referred to our
student assistance team in order to be retained in any grade. However, with
kindergarten, since it is not a mandatory class, we cannot retain if the
parent wants the child to go on to first grade.
We use our Kindergarten benchmarks to make the decision with parent input. One thing that we have found most helpful is that we have a meeting with the parents, social worker, classroom teacher, and we invite a 1st grade
teacher. The 1st grade teacher brings the student textbooks, guided
readers, Math book, and shows the parents what the students will be expected to do the first week. This has proven to be very effective with the parents, it makes them realize that their student won't be ready for the
work and will struggle all year.
We use our DIBELS scores and reports from our reading teachers on progress
with either Wilson Fundations or the SFAW Early Intervention program.
It's pretty hard to ignore the data we're able to collect now. It's one of
the benefits of the RtI process. Another benefit is parents are aware every
step of the way of the interventions we're using as well as the progress (or
lack of it) being made as compared to the class or homeroom.
We're a large school with several sections of full day kindergarten so we
are able to show the grade level, the homeroom, and the individual progress.
We us the ISEL test and Universal Benchmarking information to determine adequate growth and readiness. We retain students only when we can offer them a completely different program for the next year. Another year of the same thing, unless you are sure retention is for maturity, rarely works.
Light's retention scale is used along with looking at student progress
(reading, math, social aspects.) Due to K not being mandatory in the state
of Illinois, we always offer our advice to parents and they can decide to
retain. IF they do not, we want the kids in our "Jump Start" summer school
program.