Grade retention and school performance: An extended investigation

A follow-up study of the predictors and consequences of grade retention up to age 14 was conducted. This study investigated the effects of retention o n school achievement, perceived school competence, and delinquency. The stu dy sample included 1,164 low-income, minority (95% Black, 5% Hispanic) chil dren from the Chicago Longitudinal Study. This was 93% of the original stud y by Reynolds (1992). Twenty-eight percent of the study sample were retaine d-in-grade by age 14 (first grade-eighth grade). The strongest predictors o f retention were early school performance (test scores and grades), gender (boys were more likely to be retained), parental participation in school, a nd the number of school moves. Grade retention was significantly associated with lower reading and mathematics achievement at age 14, above and beyond an extensive set of explanatory variables. Results based on same-age compa rison groups yielded larger effects of retention on school achievement than results based on same-grade comparison groups. Both approaches, however, i ndicated that grade retention was associated with significantly lower readi ng achievement. Grade retention was not related either to perceived school competence at age 12 or to delinquency infractions at age 14. With one exce ption, the effects of early grade retention (Grades 1-3) were similar to th ose of later grade retention (Grades 4-7). Like the earlier study, these fi ndings suggest that intervention approaches other than grade retention are needed to better promote school achievement and adjustment. (C) 1999 Societ y for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.