Retention, the practice of requiring a child to repeat a particular grade, is often presented as the answer for poor academic or behavioral performance in school. To explore the effectiveness of this approach, the long-term impact of retention is discussed here. The paper focuses on students who were retained in kindergarten and these students'…

Because studies have variously analyzed the effects of nonpromotion on elementary and junior high school students--with some studies selecting control groups from within the same school and others without, some from age-peers and others from grade-peers--this meta-analysis mathematically integrates the research findings to coordinate their…

This report examines the limitations of research that has been conducted on the effects of retention and social promotion. It reexamines seven research studies that provide strong evidence based on strong methodology that includes the following three characteristics: (1) the studies identify the basis of comparison, that is, whether they are…