Effects of grade retention on students’ motivation: A longitudinal study over 3 years of secondary school.

Abstract

Despite the fact that grade retention is now seen as controversial in many quarters, it remains common practice in numerous countries. Previous research on the effects of grade retention on student development has, however, generated ambiguous results, particularly in terms of motivational outcomes. This ambiguity has been attributed in part to a lack of high-quality studies including a longitudinal design, a suitable comparison group, and adequate statistical control of preretention differences. Based on longitudinal data of N = 3,288 German students over 3 years of secondary school, we examined differences in their academic self-concept, scholarly interests, learning motivation, and achievement motivation between those being retained in the 6th grade (n = 61) and those of the same age being promoted annually. To account for confounding variables, we applied full propensity score matching on baseline measures of the dependent variables, as well as various other covariates that have been found to be associated with the risk of retention (e.g., cognitive ability, academic performance, and family background variables). Results reveal a steep decline in students’ academic self-concept, interests, and learning motivation during the last months spent in the original class, just before retention. For those measures that were available, negative effects were still partly significant after 1 year, but had diminished 2 years after grade retention. Contrary to predictions suggested by the big-fish-little-pond effect, we found no positive effects of retention on students’ academic self-concept.

Critical Events throughout the Educational Career: The Effect of Grade Retention and Repetition on School-Aged Children’s Well-Being

“…Our results reveal only an immediate negative effect in the year of grade retention decision on school satisfaction (but not on life satisfaction) that, however, vanishes quickly within the subsequent years after grade repetition. Unlike previous studies, which mainly used growth curves and propensity score matching [65,84], and similar to the longitudinal study on students' motivation by Kretschmann et al [58], we do not find any evidence for an enduring negative impact of grade repetition on students' well-being. From a longitudinal perspective, grade retention and repetition do not seem to be purposeless; our results indicate its effectiveness, starting already in the year of grade repetition.…”

“…The consequence of a grade repetition has been, so far, considered primarily in relation to academic achievement in individual school subjects and student's motivation [58][59][60]. Meta-analyses based mostly on studies from 1990s found mixed evidence on the efficacy of early grade repetition showing it rather as an ineffective intervention for later academic achievement and socioemotional adjustment [61,62].…”

Soziale Herkunft, Lebensverlaufsereignisse und die verspätete Aufnahme einer beruflichen Ausbildung formal Geringqualifizierter

“…Empirische Befunde -basierend auf amerikanischen Daten -zeigen den negativen kausalen Effekt des Wiederholens einer Schulklasse in der frühen Bildungsphase auf den Erwerb eines Schulabschlusses, sich an einer Universität einzuschreiben und ein Studium erfolgreich zu absolvieren (Andrew 2014). Eine aktuelle Studie für Deutschland belegt gleichermaßen kurzfristig negative Effekte einer Klassenwiederholung, die sich jedoch längerfristig wieder abschwächen können (Kretschmann et al 2019). Frühe negative Erfahrungen im Bildungssystem können demzufolge langfristige Folgen haben.…”

Grade Retention in Primary School has Robust and Long-term Positive Effects on Academic Performance and Psychosocial Well-being. How to Avoid Model Dependence and Selection-bias in Grade Retention Research.

“…This means that the reason that is usually given to explain any negative effects of grade repetition on school performance is not substantiated. After all, it is often assumed that the awareness of being retained has such a negative effect on the self-concept and the motivation of the student that school performance is more likely to suffer (Alexander, Entwistle, & Dauber, 2003;Kretschmann, Vock, Lüdtke, Jansen, & Gronostaj, 2019). However, on the basis of research into social comparison theories (Huguet et al, 2009) and the extensively studied and robust 'Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect' (BFLPE) (Marsh, 1987;Marsh et al, 2014), one may expect that a pupil who, by repeating a grade, performs better in comparison with the new class group will experience a more favorable self-concept and associated well-being (Marsh, 2016).…”