奇速英语

Some American children struggled to keep up with schoolwork in the first half of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many states saw large increases in the number of students who had to repeat grades.

Traditionally, experts say that repeating a grade can hurt a child’s social life and academic future. But many parents have asked for their children to repeat grades to help them recover from the difficulties of online learning, quarantines(隔离) and school worker shortages.

The Associated Press examined data from 26 states on the most recent academic year. It found that 22 of the states saw an increase in the number of students who were retained(留级), or held back a year. Three of those states — South Carolina, West Virginia and Delaware — saw the number of retained students more than double. Pennsylvania passed a law during the pandemic permitting parents to let their children redo classes. The following year, the number of retained students in the state increased by about 20,000.

Kristi Price is the mother of a student in Pennsylvania who repeated a grade. She said it was a great decision for him. “At first I didn’t really want to do it,” said her son Braylon, now 13. “But then later in the year I thought it would probably be better for me if I did.”

On his repeat of sixth grade, Braylon had an individualized(个性化的) education program that helped him be more focused. Having more one-on-one attention from teachers helped too. Socially, he said the change was easy. Most of his friends had been in lower grades or attended different schools already.

Education research, however, has been critical of making students repeat grades. Arthur Reynolds is a professor at the University of Minnesota. He said students who are retained are twice as likely to drop out of school. Kids see it as a punishment, Reynolds said. “It reduces their academic motivation, and it doesn’t increase their instructional advancement.”

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