Chapter 9: Understanding Research on the Consequences of Retention

Current “no-social-promotion” policies reflect the urgent desire to improve the quality of education in America. Policymakers are dismayed by fast-food servers who cannot make change, the poor showing of U.S. seniors in the Third International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS), and complaints from business leaders about the inadequate skills of entry-level workers—and they attribute this poor performance to low standards and the willingness of educators to promote students to the next grade whether or not they have mastered requisite skills. For the sake of the nation’s economy and for the good of low-achieving students themselves, no-social-promotion policies mandate retention in grade for students failing to meet grade level standards. Some no-social-promotion policies also provide early identification and intervention to prevent grade failure, but for those not helped enough, retention remains the remedy.