The Effect of Grade Retention on High School Completion
- 1 June 2009
- journal article
- Published by American Economic Association in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
- Vol. 1 (3) , 33-58
- https://doi.org/10.1257/app.1.3.33
Abstract
Low-achieving students in many school districts are retained in a grade to allow them to gain the academic or social skills that teachers believe are necessary to succeed academically. In this paper, we use plausibly exogenous variation in retention generated by a test-based promotion policy to assess the causal impact of grade retention on high school completion. We find that retention among younger students does not affect the likelihood of high school completion, but that retaining low-achieving eighth grade students in elementary school substantially increases the probability that these students will drop out of high school. (JEL I21, J13)Keywords
All Related Versions
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Regression discontinuity inference with specification errorJournal of Econometrics, 2008
- Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practicePublished by Elsevier ,2007
- Dropout Rates After High-Stakes Testing in Elementary School: A Study of the Contradictory Effects of Chicago’s Efforts to End Social PromotionEducational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2005
- Accountability, incentives and behavior: the impact of high-stakes testing in the Chicago Public SchoolsJournal of Public Economics, 2005
- The effect of grade retention on educational and labor market outcomesEconomics of Education Review, 2001
- Grade Retention and School Dropout: Investigating the AssociationAmerican Educational Research Journal, 1994
- Effect of grade retention on self-system processes, school engagement, and academic performance.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1992
- High School Dropouts: A Review of Issues and EvidenceReview of Educational Research, 1987