The effects of early grade retention on the academic achievement of fourth-grade students

Abstract

This study investigated the academic effects of early (kindergarten or first-grade) retention on a group of fourth-grade students who had been retained at the K-1 level (n = 20). Two comparison groups were used: (a) fourth-grade students who had been recommended for retention at the K-1 level but who were not actually retained (n = 17), and (b) fourth-grade students who had made normal progress through the grades (n = 20). No significant differences in academic achievement level were found between the retained and recommended-for-retention-but-not-retained groups, but both of these groups of students were significantly lower on several academic achievement measures than were their normal comparison peers. The results of this study indicate that grade retention as an academic intervention was ineffective. The continued use of grade retention is discussed in relationship to the use of social promotion and other intervention alternatives.

Quality of Research Design Moderates Effects of Grade Retention on Achievement: A Meta-Analytic, Multilevel Analysis

“…Some studies reported both total or composite scores and individual subscale scores on standardized achievement tests (e.g., Johnson, Merrel, & Stover, 1990). If any of the subscale scores were included in the calculation of composite scores, we selected only the subscale scores in order to avoid accounting for overlapping effects.…”

Retention, Social Promotion, and Academic Redshirting

“…You should regard your professional task as if it consisted chiefly and essentially in training the pupil to behavior; taking behavior, not in the narrow sense of his manners, but in the very widest By some estimates, retention rates in the early part of this century were nearly 50%, and 20% of all students left school by eighth grade (Holmes & Matthews, 1984;Johnson, Merrell, & Stover, 1990). Retention had clearly become the intervention of choice for those who did not achieve.…”

Grade Retention of Students During Grades K–8 Predicts Reading Achievement and Progress During Secondary Schooling

“…Matched not-retained students were used because other researchers have reported the need to compare groups of retained and matched not-retained students (see Ferguson, Jimerson, & Dalton, 2001;Hagborg et al, 1991;Jimerson, 2001;Jimerson et al, 1997;Johnson, Merrell, & Stover, 1990). …”