Ninth Grade Continues to Have Highest Retention Rate
TEA: 122,861 Students Were Not Promoted
To the Next Grade from 2018-19 to 2019-20
The TEA reported in its recently released Grade-Level Retention in Texas Public Schools, 2018-19 report (available here) that 122,861 of the state’s 5,078,524 public school students in School Year 2018-19 were not promoted to the next grade for 2019-20.
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The overall retention rate of 2.4 percent for 2018-19 was unchanged from the prior year.
- Note: The retention rates were calculated by comparing 2018-19 attendance records to Fall 2019 enrollment records, with adjustments made for new students, students who had graduated and students who left the state.
Students found to have been enrolled in the same grade in both years were counted as retained, and students found to have been in a higher grade were counted as promoted.
Ninth Grade
In every year since the TEA has been keeping track of this data, ninth grade has always had the highest retention rate of any grade — and the latest data is no exception (see graphic below).
The 2018-19 8.3 percent ninth grade retention rate increased from the 7.7 percent rate the prior school year.
Other Data
For the five largest ethnic groups, the K-12 retention rates were highest for: 1) African American (3.1 percent), 2) Hispanic (2.8 percent), 3) multiracial (1.8 percent), 4) White (1.6 percent) and 5) Asian (0.7 percent).
The TEA also released a companion report, Grade-Level Retention and Student Performance in Texas Public Schools 2018-19 (available here), that focuses on data of retained students on the STAAR and other state student assessments.