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A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experience with their Children's Mandated Retention: Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee in Action

Owens, Erin Heather
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2475-8305
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563288098635677

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Education, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
In 2012, Ohio’s Governor, John Kasich, signed into legislation Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee. The law required that schools use the state reading test performance of third graders as a gatekeeper to promotion to 4th grade. For the last five years, thousands of 3rd grade students across the state have repeated their third grade year because of their performance on the state reading test. While research on retention at various levels and various contexts has been conducted in abundance, Ohio has yet to study their own mandate and reflect on the impact of the law. The parents in one large suburban Southwestern, Ohio school district, who had children retained due to the state mandate for 3rd grade retention in 2018, were contacted to share their experience. Those who chose to participate were all non-English-speaking immigrant parents. Their stories about their children’s retention help to create a narrative and fill part of the gap in research regarding Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Four prevalent themes emerged from their stories: helplessness, shame, concern for social stigma of their child, and hope. The results of this study also bring attention to the children of immigrants and their experience in American schools. Mitigating the negative feelings associated with the law falls on the shoulders of schools and communities. Using and improving prevailing family engagement frameworks to be inclusive of the needs of families that do not speak English as their first/primary language might allow future research to focus on positive themes associated with immigrant schooling. This study revealed that social-emotional support for families and students experiencing mandated retention can be incorporated through expansion of Epstein’s (1995, 2004) Family Engagement Process to include cultural awareness both by schools and families. Schools must acknowledge that the expectancy-value parents communicate to their children and that schools communicate to parents and children can have the potential to impact long-term success. Recognition of parents’ key experiences can serve to provide further guidance to districts and communities about the ways in which they can partner to ease the experiences of mandated retention that lacks both school and parent decision-making.
Lucian Szlizewski (Advisor)
Joel Malin (Committee Chair)
Sherrill Sellers (Committee Member)
69 p.
Education; Educational Leadership; Elementary Education; English As A Second Language; Families and Family Life; School Administration
grade retention; Ohio; Third Grade Reading Guarantee; immigrant; third grade; reading; phenomenology; state-mandated retention; non-English speaking; family involvement in school; expectancy-value;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Owens, E. H. (2019). A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experience with their Children's Mandated Retention: Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee in Action [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563288098635677

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Owens, Erin. A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experience with their Children's Mandated Retention: Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee in Action. 2019. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563288098635677.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Owens, Erin. "A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experience with their Children's Mandated Retention: Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee in Action." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563288098635677

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1563288098635677
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© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.