Education Commons^™

Grade Retention: A History Of Failure, William A. Owings, Susan Magliaro

Educational Foundations & Leadership Faculty Publications

Although almost 50 years of research has shown that grade-level retention affords no academic advantages to students, this practice is gaining increasing attention as schools face political pressure to be accountable for student achievement. The negative effect that retention has on children is ignored in favor of an overly simplistic view of it as a panacea for education woes. In an attempt to better meet student needs, educators historically have seen retention as a way to reduce skill variance in the classroom. However, this practice has not achieved its objective. An at-risk population is cognitively and affectively harmed by retention. …