For the last 20 years, there has been a persistent escalation of academic demand on kindergartners and first-graders. Many middle-class parents who visit their child's school convey the message that their only criterion for judging a teacher's effectiveness is the teacher's success in advancing their child's reading accomplishments. What was formerly expected for the next grade has been shoved downward into the lower grade. More academics borrowed from the next grade is not necessarily better learning. But educators do not express an awareness that retention may actually contribute to the escalation of curriculum.
Teachers naturally adjust what they teach to the level of their students.
One alternative can be found in schools where teachers and principals are committed to adapting curriculum and instructional practices to a wide range of individual differences. In such schools, a child who is not yet proficient is not failed. The kindergarten teacher begins at the child's level and moves him along to the extent possible. The first-grade teacher picks up where the kindergarten teacher left off. The average standardized achievement test scores for third graders in these schools are no different from those of students in high-retaining schools.