When a parent is told that their child is at risk of being retained, their initial response is often full of emotion. Frustration, anxiety and even guilt are felt. We can relate to that. As parents and Directors of 3D Learner, we strongly encourage parents to take a proactive approach to helping your child succeed. At 3D Learner our goals are to:
- Help parents realize that third grade retention risks are not your fault.
- There are a number go Good Cause Exemptions to help your child to avoid third grade retention and to be promoted
- Help you be an Informed, Empowered and Proactive parents who:
- Work together to help your child to be promoted
- Understands the depth of your child’s reading comprehension and related issues
- Becomes even more aware of your child’s strengths and challenges
- Partners with your child’s school and the right outside professionals to help your child to make significant gains in their reading comprehension and processing skills, so they are promoted and are much more successful in 4th grade and beyond
If your child is at risk for third grade retention or grade retention in any grade, we encourage you to join us for a presentation on March 13th at 9 pm on:
How to Beat Third Grade Retention or Other Grade Retention Risks by
Improving Reading Comprehension
Click here to register or
Call us at 561-361-7495 to discuss your situation or click here to schedule a
Beat Third Grade Retention by Improving Reading Comprehension Conversation
As one mom said, “How is it that after 5 minutes, you appear to understand my son’s strengths and challenges better than people who have known him for years?”
Our advantage is we have been helping bright right brain learners succeed for 27 years.
5 Key Points About Third Grade Retention
1- There are a number of Good Cause Exemptions that can be utilized to help a child to be promoted. The Florida Department of Education has created a valuable Read to Learn Document that can help you understand your options.
2- Most students facing third grade retention are 1, 1.5 or even 2 years below grade level in reading comprehension. If their reading comprehension issue is not addressed, the student is likely to struggle even more in 4th grade. After 3rd Grade, students are expected to READ TO LEARN; there is no more emphasis on reading instruction in the general classroom. That is the time when math, social studies and science require students to understand what they read. It is also a time when the print gets smaller, the pictures disappear and students with reading comprehension really struggle. Conversely, students who make significant reading comprehension gains by 4th grade have done much better.
3- In a small number of cases, third grade retention is right for a child. The child does not have sufficient all-around foundational skills to succeed in 4th grade. These might include cases where the child has a late summer birthday, they may have learning and attention challenges, and they would be better off not being promoted. This past year, we helped a few students where parents chose to homeschool their child, have a catch-up year, and make the decision about promotion later. In Florida, the Florida Empowerment Scholarship provides parents whose child has a qualifying disability to get around $10,000 a year that can be used for tutoring. For other students, there is a Personalized Education Program scholarship for $8000 that can be used for tutoring.
4- Many students facing third grade retention are right brain, kinesthetic or neurodivergent learners, who learn differently than the way most schools teach. These kids learn best when they see and experience information. They may also have dyslexia and/or working memory, processing speed, attention and/or visual processing issues.
5- By capitalizing on your child’s strengths and addressing their challenges, it is often possible to both beat third grade retention and to position your child to be far more successful in 4th grade and beyond.
Note, we have helped third graders to:
- Beat third grade retention and score well above grade level by 4th grade
- Improve their reading comprehension by 3 grade levels in a year
A year later his teacher commented, “He made more progress in a year than any student I have had in 27 years of teaching”
- Improve their academic and athletic skills, boost their self-esteem and lower their anxiety
If your child is at risk for third grade retention or grade retention in any grade, we encourage you to join us for a presentation on March 13th at 9 pm where we will be discussing:
How to Beat Third Grade Retention or Other Grade Retention Risks by
Improving Reading Comprehension
Click here to register or
Call us at 561-361-7495 to discuss your situation or click here to schedule a
Beat Third Grade Retention by Improving Reading Comprehension Conversation
Why would your bright, creative child be at risk for third grade retention or any grade retention? If your child is a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner (i.e. sometimes referred to as a hands-on learner or visual learner) they are behind due to their learning differences, executive function challenges and pandemic related challenges, even if they were in preschool.
Third grade retention is more likely to be a risk with mandatory retention rules, but students in early grades are at risk for grade retention too.
The good news is that if your child is a smart struggling neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner, they can often make significant gains in reading fluency and reading comprehension in months with our strength-based training.
We know that most smart struggling students:
- Are a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner (hands-on) who can do far better with experiential learning that leverages their strengths
- Have some combination of working memory, processing speed, visual processing, attention, and/or anxiety challenges
- Are far smarter than present results would indicate
At 3D Learner, we have helped many students to:
- Beat grade retention and score at, above, or even well above grade level on tests
- Rediscover their natural love of learning
- Improve their working memory, processing speed, and self-esteem
- Improve their attention and emotional regulation
3D Learner can help the neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner beat third grade retention or other grade retention by making significant gains in reading fluency and reading comprehension in months. 3D Learner’s comprehensive educational assessment reveals important issues that many other assessments miss. For instance, one parent had a recent psycho-educational test that indicated her daughter had an attention, working memory and processing speed issue. After her daughter completed our assessment, she was surprised to learn that her daughter:
- Was a neurodivergent, right brain and/or kinesthetic learner (hands-on)
- Was a lot smarter than present results would indicate
- Had a significant visual processing issue, skipping words and lines when reading
- Struggled with small words, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and sequencing
- Had significant attention and emotional regulation issues
- Was very strong in 5 of the 11 skills we assessed — she had a great visual memory, was very creative and had a larger vocabulary than most
- But she had a real problem with the small words that often change the meaning of a sentence (i.e. words like the, but, what, if) and had significant anxiety challenges
By understanding how she learned best, we developed an engaging, personalized program built around her strengths and interests. In just months. 3D Learner helped her score above grade level on the standardized test. When they saw these results, the parents asked “Why do schools not teach the way the neurodivergent learner learns best?” We explained that schools, like most learning centers, focus on a child’s weaknesses.
Schools often do not:
- Leverage the student’s strengths and interests
- Identify and address issues like working memory, visual processing, or processing speed
- Ignite a love for learning, which is an essential part of the 3D Learner Experiential Learning Process.
Her daughter made great progress and was actually in the highest reading group the following year.
We see grade retention risks as a great opportunity for parents to make a true life-long difference in their child’s learning.
If you have a child in any elementary school grade who is struggling in school, 3D Learner can help. To discuss your child’s learning style and needs, call us at 561-361-7495.
Frequently asked questions about grade retention & the neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner
Question: What is the key reason for third grade retention and for earlier grade retention?
Answer: In Florida public and charter schools, third grade retention is primarily based on the student’s inability to do well on the English Language Assessment. While anxiety may be an issue, significant reading comprehension issues are often the primary issue. In the earlier grades, reading fluency is often the criteria for grade retention. At 3D Learner, we identify and address both reading fluency and reading comprehension issues.
Question: If many students at risk for grade retention are a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner, why do the schools not teach this way?
Answer: Schools tend to have a one size fits all approach. There has been a real push towards phonics and phonemic awareness. Unfortunately, this does not provide the experiential learning most right brain or visual learners need. Even worse, we have seen smart and even gifted learners face grade retention because their needs were not met.
Question: Many programs focus on phonics and phonemic awareness. What are the key skills the neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner needs to master before phonics will work?
Answer Word recognition and sight word vocabulary are two of the skills needed before phonics will work. Processing speed, working memory, and attention are also skills that must be mastered.
Question: Experiential learning used to be the norm in kindergarten, first and second grade. What happened?
Answer: If that were still the case, the neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner would be more likely to thrive. The challenge today is that many of the standards are not age appropriate. This results in less experiential learning, which negatively impacts the neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner and makes grade retention more likely.
Question Is it too late in the school year to help beat third grade retention or any grade retention?
Answer It is almost never too late to beat third grade retention or grade retention. The rules on third grade retention in Florida provide many ways to beat third grade retention. The best one is to score a Level 2 on the state assessment. There are also ways to be retested at the end of the summer or at the start of the next school year.
Question: I am not sure if my child is a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner or what issues are holding my child back. I fear third grade retention. Is there a way to talk with your team and to assess my child?
Here is a no cost screening tool you can use to see if your child might be a neurodivergent, right brain or kinesthetic learner.
Answer: You can call us at 561-361-7495 or click here to schedule a How to beat Third Grade Retention or other Grade Retention risks Conversation
For immediate help call us at 561-361-7495 or join us May 2nd for our Beat Grade Retention Webinar
There is a Silver Lining to Avoid Third Grade Retention and Other Grade Retention Risks
“Your child is at risk of third grade retention”, was the note from her daughter’s school. Mom was not happy. She called a friend who suggested she contact 3D Learner. She immediately called us and we asked the following questions:
- Does your child learn best when he sees and experiences information?
- Does your child skip words and lines when reading?
- Does your child lose focus when reading or taking tests?
- Does your child read slowly?
- Is your child a lot smarter than her present reading comprehension level would indicate?
Her answers were yes to all the questions, and she commented that it was like we knew her daughter.
The friend had told her that we had helped her child increase her reading comprehension to above grade level and her daughter was reading above grade level on her 4th grade test. She wanted to know if that was possible for her child. We explained that that is our goal.
The good news is that her daughter beat third grade retention, scored above grade level in 4th and 5th grades after working hard and completing the 3D Learner Program ®. She continues to do well in middle school.
We have helped many students beat both third grade retention and grade retention in the earlier grades.
We have a three-pronged strategy:
- Provide the student and the parent with strategies to produce better test results with exercises to reduce stress, recommendations on sleep and diet, how to make sure your child gets the accommodations that are prescribed in an IEP or 504 Plan, and how to talk to your child to reduce their stress and boost their confidence. Click here for a video we created with “Strategies to reduce your child’s stress and anxiety”.
- We understand all the Good Cause Exemptions that can be used to avoid third grade retention.
- Significantly improve reading comprehension and test scores by:
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- Capitalizing on how our students learn best. Most of our students are bright right brain kinesthetic learners, who do far better with our engaging and effective hands-on learning
- Identifying and addressing visual processing issues, where needed. Over 70 percent of the students we test either skip words and lines when reading and/or read slowly
- Identifying the executive function skills that are impacting a student’s performance. This might include attention, working memory and/or processing speed
- Addressing the relevant decoding, phonemic awareness and reading fluency challenges, whether or not a child has dyslexia
- Teaching the student visualization skills to relate and understand what they are reading
- We strive to ignite a love for learning
- Systematically improving reading comprehension levels — often by 2 grade levels over 3 to 6 months
This visual explains the 3D Learner Process
Most students at risk for third grade retention or any other grade retention are often a right brain kinesthetic learner and often struggle with visual processing, executive function deficits, dyslexia and/or anxiety. The best way to help these students is to significantly improve their reading comprehension and test scores by capitalizing on their strengths, addressing their challenges and building their self-esteem and confidence.
If your child is facing third grade retention or any grade retention and you would like help,
Call us at 561-361-7495 for a no cost conversation, or
Click here to find a mutually agreeable time on our schedule for a
Avoid Grade Retention Conversation
We encourage you to join us on May 2nd at 8:30 pm for a
Beat Third Grade Retention and Other Grade Retention Risks.
We will provide an explanation of why many students are retained and how parents can help their child to beat grade retention.
Background Information on Third Grade Retention & Other Grade Retention
Mandatory third grade retention is a key strategy some states use. Sometimes this results in schools using grade retention in earlier grades. The theory is that students need to be on grade level by the end of third grade in order to succeed. In states like Florida, third grade retention laws have been in place for over 20 years. The short-term benefits from grade retention tend to dissipate over time. As a parent, if your child is facing grade retention, the pressure is real — on both your child and you.
Note, most students at risk for grade retention are right brain kinesthetic learners, who can significantly improve their reading comprehension skills with a strength-based approach.
5 points for parents to consider:
- There are many ways to avoid third grade retention and grade retention in earlier grades. In Florida, there are a number of good cause exemptions to third grade retention. Here is a link to a Florida Department of Education document that describes the options.
- Note, there are some parents who are focused on having students opt out of the end of year testing. One word of caution: the easiest path to promotion is to get a Level 2 on the last test given in May. It requires your child to be at about the 20th percentile. If you opt out, all the other options are harder to achieve.
- Encourage parents to get more help, so their child no longer struggles.
Note, virtually all students at risk for grade retention are well below grade level in reading comprehension.
- To provide an option where the goal is to help your child to become Outrageously Successful in months by improving reading comprehension, executive functions skills and reducing anxiety.
- To encourage those who would like more information to
Join us on Tuesday night May 2nd for a Webinar on
Parents Guide to Avoid Grade Retention and
Help Your Child Be Outrageously Successful
If you need immediate help,
a) Please contact us directly by calling 561-361-7495
b) Clicking here to schedule a Zoom meeting at a mutually agreeable time for a
Beat Grade Retention Conversation
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