Retaining Students in Grade
A Literature Review of the Effects of Retention on Students' Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes
ResearchPublished Sep 10, 2009
Grade retention is the practice of keeping low-achieving students at the same grade level for an additional year to provide them with extra time to catch up, as opposed to social promotion, the practice of promoting students regardless of whether they have mastered the grade content. As part of an increasing emphasis on standards and accountability, many districts now use standardized test scores as one of the main criteria for grade retention. However, studies have shown that students do not appear to benefit from being retained and, indeed, that retention may increase their risk of dropping out of school. In 2003–2004, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) implemented a new promotion policy for 3rd-grade students, which was later extended to 5th, 7th, and 8th graders. NYCDOE asked RAND to conduct an independent longitudinal evaluation to provide evidence of the program's impact on 5th graders. This report, one of in a series documenting the results of the study (conducted between March 2006 and August 2009) identifies and reviews 91 studies that examine the effect of grade retention on a variety of student academic and socioemotional outcomes.
Related Content
Topics
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Web-Only
- Year: 2009
- Pages: 142
- Document Number: TR-678-NYCDOE
Citation
RAND Style Manual
Chicago Manual of Style
Xia, Nailing and Sheila Nataraj Kirby, Retaining Students in Grade: A Literature Review of the Effects of Retention on Students' Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes, RAND Corporation, TR-678-NYCDOE, 2009. As of September 9, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR678.html
Xia, Nailing and Sheila Nataraj Kirby, Retaining Students in Grade: A Literature Review of the Effects of Retention on Students' Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR678.html.
The research described in this report was prepared for the New York City Department of Education and conducted within RAND Education, a unit of the RAND Corporation.
This publication is part of the RAND technical report series. RAND technical reports, products of RAND from 2003 to 2011, presented research findings on a topic limited in scope or intended for a narrow audience; discussions of the methodology employed in research; literature reviews, survey instruments, modeling exercises, guidelines for practitioners and research professionals, and supporting documentation; and preliminary findings. All RAND technical reports were subject to rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.