Is grade retention actually of benefit to students?

A common educational belief is the act of holding children back also referred to as grade retention. Grade retention is keeping a student back for another year in the same grade because the student is not keeping up with or accomplishing the curriculum requirements for that grade. The idea is that holding them back will give them more time to master the material before moving on instead of just automatically granting them social promotion. However, this brings me to the question of is grade retention actually of benefit to the student, long term or short term? I question this because it is of such large cost in time and money for both the student and the school. Consequently, there ought to be empirical evidence supporting schools’ decisions to consider grade retention over social promotion.

My initial opinion was that it would be more of a long term negative effect on the student over a positive one if he or she experienced grade retention. According to Martin (2011), both early and recent research has concluded that grade retention has largely negative outcomes. There have been a lot of studies that have shown that grade retention is highly correlated with poorer academic achievement and low involvement in post-high school education (Martin, 2011). Furthermore, studies have shown that a higher dropout rate is seen among students that are held back because it appears students actually learn more if promoted (Deschenes, 2001). In fact, the dropout rates among students that are held back are usually higher than those that were promoted even though they exhibited low academic achievement as well. A study was conducted including data from 3,261 high school students and they found that even after considering the various demographic factors among the participants, there were statistically significant effects of grade retention on the students (Martin, 2011). Areas studied were self-concept, homework completion, motivation and amount of school absences (Martin, 2011). Martin’s (2011) study showed that these factors were negatively affected by grade retention, along with decreased self-esteem among students that were held back; however, peer relationships did not appear to be statistically affected. 

Other studies have also found negative effects on student academic performance, post-grade retention. For example, Vandecandelaere et. al. (2016), found that when retained in first grade, students' math scores were affected even more negatively than in if retained after kindergarten.  This suggests to me that maybe the older the students get, the worse the effects of grade retention. Lastly, some research has supported that short term students that are held back may illustrate positive effects because at first they feel advantaged in a sense because they are older than the other students and may have some prior experience with the material. Nevertheless, these “advantages” only appear short term and then disappear (Klapproth et. al., 2016). When talking to my Cooperating Teacher about the topic of grade retention, he said they generally don't hold students back in their middle school; however, he can think of a few students that were held back and when they got to high school a majority of them actually dropped out and did not come back. We also discussed the influence of parents on grade retention and he said from his experience it seems the parents usually push more for the student to be held back then the school does. He said that he can maybe see the short term effects of grade retention being seen as positive but overall he said "I am not a strong proponent of grade retention as I am not sure that it is actually of benefit to the student long term, especially once they are in middle school or older. I could see holding a student back in kindergarten or first grade potentially being helpful for the student, but after that I would say social promotion is ultimately a better way to go."

Overall, I have determined that personally and based on evidence, grade retention is a common educational belief and practice that is not founded in evidence. It appears that grade retention long term does not benefit the student, and the net effects of being held back are highly negative. In discussion with peers I have heard many differing views on grade retention, and majorities were in favor of grade retention. From personal experience, one of my friends was held back in middle school and she end up dropping out of high school and then later getting her GED. Consequently, if I was having a conversation with someone with an opposing, non-evidence based opinion to mine regarding grade retention, I would politely refute them and point them to the studies that I have read about. I would also outline factors such as dropout rates, self-concept, school absences and homework completion and how they are negatively influenced by grade retention.

References:

Deschenes S., Tyack D., & Cuban L. (2001). Mistmatch: Historical Perspective on Schools and Students Who Don’t Fit Them.Teachers College Record, V. 103, N. 4p. 525-547.

Martin, A. J. (2011). Holding back and holding behind: Grade retention and students' non-academic and academic outcomes. British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 739-763

Vandecandelaere, M., Vansteelandt, S., De Fraine, B., & Van Damme, J. (2016). The effects of early grade retention: Effect modification by prior achievement and age. Journal of School Psychology, 54, 77-93.

Klapproth, F., Schaltz, P., Brunner, M., Keller, U., Fischbach, A., Ugen, S., & Martin, R. (2016). Short-term and medium-term effects of grade retention in secondary school on academic achievement and psychosocial outcome variables. Learning and Individual Differences, 50, 182-194.