Grade Repetition Risk for Boys in early Schooling in Queensland, Australia

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 87-95
Author(s):  
Robyn Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Grade Repetition ◽  
Early Schooling

Grade repetition and boys’ risk of being repeated in early schooling in Queensland, Australia

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-158
Author(s):  
Robyn Anderson ◽  
Carla Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Department Of Education ◽  
Relative Risk Ratio ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grade Repetition ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
State Education ◽  
State Education Department ◽  
Early School ◽  
Early Schooling ◽  
Future Policy

AbstractDespite the fact that many research studies (Canon & Lipscomb, 2011; Jimerson, 2001a, 2001b, 2004; Martin, 2011) have shown that grade repetition offers few benefits to students, it continues to be used as an early intervention practice to address students’ low levels of readiness for school or early school failure. The study contributes to the evidence-based research on grade repetition in Australian schools by drawing on, and analysing, the most recent data on grade repetition from Queensland’s state education department, the Department of Education and Training. Descriptive statistics and relative risk ratio, used to analyse the data, found that boys aged 5 years are overrepresented in grade repetition in the first year of schooling, ‘Prep’, in Queensland state schools. Possible reasons for the disproportionate overrepresentation of boys aged 5 years repeated in Prep are discussed, together with recommendations for future policy and practice.

scholarly journals Indigenous Students’ Increasing Risk of Grade Repetition in Early Schooling

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Anderson
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Grade Repetition ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Educationally Disadvantaged ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Intervention Practice ◽  
Early Schooling ◽  
State Schools

The current study considers grade repetition rates in the early years of school, Preparatory (Prep) to Year 3, in Queensland state schools, of which there is a significant gap in the Australian research literature. Data accessed from the Queensland Government's Department of Education and Training (DET), shows that particular groups of students are more at risk of being repeated in the preschool/Prep year. These groups include boys and until recently, non-Indigenous students. However, the most recent data collected in 2009 shows that Indigenous students are more at risk of being repeated in all early years of schooling. As grade repetition has been shown to have limited value, it remains a concern that this intervention practice continues to be offered to students, and in particular Indigenous students, who may already be educationally disadvantaged. While grade repetition rates are low in Queensland state schools, the possible negative academic, social and emotional consequences for students who are repeated warrants serious re-evaluation of this long-term, early intervention practice in Australian schools.

A Sociological Approach to Early Schooling

1984 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-60
Author(s):  
Jere Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Early Schooling

Do Well-off Families Compensate for Low Cognitive Ability? Evidence on Social Inequality in Early Schooling from a Twin Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos J. Gil-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
Educational Transitions ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Academic Track ◽  
Early Schooling ◽  
Academic Potential

This article bridges the literature on educational inequality between and within families to test whether high–socioeconomic status (SES) families compensate for low cognitive ability in the transition to secondary education in Germany. The German educational system of early-ability tracking (at age 10) represents a stringent setting for the compensatory hypothesis. Overall, previous literature offers inconclusive findings. Previous research between families suffers from the misspecification of parental SES and ability, while most within-family research did not stratify the analysis by SES or the ability distribution. To address these issues, I draw from the TwinLife study to implement a twin fixed-effects design that minimizes unobserved confounding. I report two main findings. First, highly educated families do not compensate for twins’ differences in cognitive ability at the bottom of the ability distribution. In the German system of early-ability tracking, advantaged families may have more difficulties to compensate than in countries where educational transitions are less dependent on ability. Second, holding parents’ and children’s cognitive ability constant, pupils from highly educated families are 27% more likely to attend the academic track. This result implies wastage of academic potential for disadvantaged families, challenging the role of cognitive ability as the leading criterion of merit for liberal theories of equal opportunity. These findings point to the importance of other factors that vary between families with different resources and explain educational success, such as noncognitive abilities, risk aversion to downward mobility, and teachers’ bias.

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