Interpac Business and Migration Solutions Melbourne Australia

(July.15)

History never repeats...Research indicates high school students may not perform well a second time 'round. Photo: Robert Pearce

FORCING low-achieving students to repeat grades is a recipe for poor performance, according to an analysis of recent international test data.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development analysis, based on the results of international reading, maths and science exams taken by 15-year-olds, also links the practice of transferring weak or disruptive students to other schools to bad outcomes.

About 8 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds have repeated at least one grade, below the OECD average of 13 per cent. Students do not repeat grades in Finland and Korea, the best-performing countries in the tests.

Ben Jensen, a former OECD analyst who now directs the School Education program at the Grattan Institute, said grade repetition generally reflected a poor response to children who were failing. ''It is reactive rather than proactive,'' Dr Jensen said. ''High-performing countries target resources and programs at low-performing students at a very young age.''

Richard Teese, director of the Centre for Research on Education Systems at the University of Melbourne, said that while parents of low-performing students were told repeating grades would give their children the chance to catch up, this often didn't happen because such students were generally not given extra support. ''They are simply exposed to the same curriculum and teaching process which didn't work the first time around,'' he said.

Professor Teese said keeping students back decreased their interest in school work and lowered their aspirations, stigmatised them and made them more vulnerable to negative peer pressures.

He said while poorly educated parents commonly accepted their children's teachers were acting in their child's interests by keeping them back, well-heeled parents fought grade repetition.

Karen Money, principal at William Ruthven Secondary College in Reservoir, said the report backed up the experiences of teachers at her school.

There are no repeating students at William Ruthven and Ms Money said the school worked closely with children and parents to ensure underperforming kids got the help needed.

''I think repeating a grade has a lot of social impacts on a student. They can be quite isolated if they're seen as a student who's repeating and that impact on their social growth has an impact on their academic learning.''

Ms Money said changes to the design of schools that allow more flexible classroom spaces has meant teachers can tailor programs better to students' needs.

Peter Egeberg, principal at Thornbury High School, said the decision to hold a child back was always made through consultation with the family.

''We sit down with the parents and the child and talk about what the options are. Maybe that would be repeating - the other option may be going up to the next year level on an agreement in terms of certain goals,'' he said.

The OECD said countries that transferred students to other schools because of poor academic performance or bad behaviour did worse than those where the practice was uncommon. This was because such students often ended up in schools with high proportions of similar students and were less likely to benefit from higher-achieving peers.

In Australia, fewer than 3 per cent of students attend schools whose principals said the school would ''very likely'' transfer students for such reasons. In Austria, Belgium and Greece, more than 40 per cent of students attend such schools.