Grade retention is often perceived as an academic failure and a negative response from the educational system. Hence, based on the social cognitive theory, being retained might decrease self-efficacy. This way, we expect that retainees are less likely to pursue a degree in higher education. Retainees that do enroll in higher education, are…

This qualitative phenomenological study focused on the lived experiences of adult immigrants repeating courses to meet academic requirements in higher education in the United States. The problem addressed in this qualitative phenomenological study was that United States educational institutions may not recognize and validate credentials adult…

Grade retention and inequalities that derive from grade retention can influence student school trajectories and careers. Grade retention can discourage students from education, and increase school failure and dropout. This study explored the relationship between grade retention and student intentions to enrol in higher education. We also studied…

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the digital competence of Higher Education students, as a function of their academic performance (have either repeated or a not previously), as well as to predict its significant predictors. For this, an ex-post factor and a sample of 17301 students from Chile (Latin America) were utilized. A…

Debates about grade retention weigh the academic benefits of remediation against its social and psychological costs. Louisiana adopted a retention policy aimed at capturing these benefits while mitigating the harm. It used test score thresholds to distinguish between retention in grade 8, promotion to grade 9, and a grade "8.5" where…

In this dissertation, I examine various factors shaping students' trajectories and opportunities later in life. In Chapter 1, I explore the role of grade retention policies. Grade retention as a remedial policy is controversial because the benefits of extra instruction time may not outweigh its costs. Previous research has primarily examined…

This dissertation examines the different aspects of education policies and their socioeconomic implications through three distinct research papers. The first chapter investigates the causal impact of grade retention in primary school on juvenile crime in Chile and it was written jointly with Juan Diaz, Nicolas Grau, and Jorge Rivera. Utilizing a…

This paper presents new benefit-cost estimates for the Tulsa universal preschool program. These calculations are based on estimated effects from previous papers of Tulsa pre-K on high school graduation rates and college attendance rates of students who were enrolled in kindergarten in Tulsa Public Schools in the fall of 2006. In this paper,…

Background/Context: Students designated as English Learners (ELs) account for 10.4 percent of all students nationwide but have historically been provided unequal access to educational resources (Gándara et al., 2003; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Further, education policies are often blind to ELs' strengths and challenges,…

School districts in the United States are responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in significantly different ways. The authors of this report fielded the third American School District Panel (ASDP) survey in June 2021 to discover what changes districts are making to their academic and nonacademic offerings for the upcoming…

In Bhutan half of the population is under the age of 25 (United Nations 2017) and strengthening the pathways of all young people, regardless of their background, is one of the priorities in the Bhutan Education Blueprint 2014-2024. This study examines the transitions from school of a sample of 895 young school completers from Western Bhutan in…

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice teachers' beliefs about retention. In spite of evidence that grade retention has negative effects on students' academic and socio-emotional outcomes, retention continues to be a common practice. Sixty-one elementary and secondary education majors at a small community college responded to an…

North Carolina's Early College model is the subject of an IES-funded eleven-year longitudinal experimental study that utilized a lottery process to assign early college applicants to either treatment or control groups. This paper presents findings related to high school outcomes. The primary goal of the early college model is to increase the…

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. Centrally coordinated summer school programs in 2017 included accelerated instruction for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) re-testers;…

Each year, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) offers a summer education program designed to assist students with a variety of instructional needs. Centrally coordinated summer school programs in 2018 included accelerated instruction for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) re-testers;…