Background: Many school systems have ended social promotion by implementing accountability systems where students who fail academic assessments are retained in grade. Additionally, some parents have delayed their children's entry into school, believing that older students have an advantage. While research has examined outcomes for students who…

Two aspects of age segregation in American educational history are traced--segregation of children from adults due to expansion of public education in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and increasing stratification of children by age within schools due to the practice of age-grading. (IAH)

Examines the history of students who cannot do what educators want them to do, noting how educators have labeled poor performers in different periods and how these labels reflect both attitudes and institutional conditions. The paper summarizes four major historical explanations for why children fail and explores implications of this history for…