Effectiveness of grade retention: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Research on the effectiveness of grade retention has a long history, yet, has seen an upsurge during the last decade. In this study, we review 84 recent, methodologically sound studies estimating effects of retention in grades K-12 on repeaters' and nonrepeaters' development, in a variety of countries across the world, disentangling grade and age comparison results. Based on vote counting analysis and three-level metaregression analysis we find grade retention to have an average zero effect, indicating that repeaters and non-repeaters seem to show a similar development, on average. At the same time, we find grade retention effects to differ according to some specific effect and study characteristics. More specifically, grade retention seems less effective in countries applying a mixture of grade retention and tracking to tackle student heterogeneity, and when repeaters are compared with non-repeaters of the same age. Conversely, grade retention seems more effective in countries using strategies such as ability grouping, setting, and streaming to deal with student heterogeneity. Positive effects also seem to arise when studying students' psychosocial functioning, when investigating short-run effects, when comparing repeaters with their younger non-retained grade-mates, and when evaluating effects via a regression discontinuity method.