We study the treatment effect of grade retention, using a panel of French junior highschool students, taking unobserved heterogeneity and the endogeneity of grade repetitions into account. We specify a multi-stage model of human-capital accumulation with a finite number of types representing unobserved individual characteristics. Class-size and latent student-performance indices are assumed to follow finite mixtures of normal distributions. Grade retention may increase or decrease the student's knowledge capital in a type-dependent way. Our estimation results show that the Average Treatment effect on the Treated (ATT) of grade retention on test scores is small but positive at the end of grade 9. The ATT of grade retention is higher for the weakest students. We also show that class size is endogenous and tends to increase with unobserved student ability. The Average Treatment Effect (ATE) of grade retention is negative, again with the exception of the weakest group of students. Grade repetitions reduce the probability of access to grade 9 of all student types.
Pre-one classes are schools' invention to save "developmentally delayed" children from traditional grade retention and its negative effects. This study investigates transition classes from the perspectives of practitioners and parents, documents what transpires inside transition classes and accounts for the discrepancy between research on transition classes and practice. ; Pre-one programs in three RI school districts are examined through classroom observations and in-depth interviews. The analysis considers research on retention and child development, and places the evolution of transition classes in its social, political and economic context. ; Practitioners say transition classes are a humane response to an otherwise rigid system. With research support from the Gesell Institute, they argue that they are doing the best they can given the constraints under which they operate. Parents overwhelmingly prefer pre-one to conventional retention. ; Schools have changed in response to social, economic and political forces. In the name of higher learning standards, reform efforts have inadvertently redesigned kindergartens and first grades to defeat children. When considering the cause of increasing failure in the early grades, policymakers tend to focus on why children are not ready for school rather than why schools are not ready for children. ; Extra-year programs are a short-term solution with long-term consequences for students, the curriculum and schools. Pre-one classes benefit some students by getting them prepared for today's first grade and saving them from experiencing traditional retention. Students whose needs are not met by pre-one, however, risk experiencing multiple retentions, a condition that correlates with dropping out. Segregated from their age cohorts for the remainder of their school years, students may suffer the negative effects of stigma. Discriminatory patterns exist with boys and the chronologically young overrepresented. ; Transition programs raise teacher expectations and prolong the current early primary curriculum with its reliance on instructional approaches suited for older students. They preserve the lockstep system of grades, which perpetuates retention practices. ; To eliminate the need for extra-year programs, policymakers must reconceptualize readiness, eliminate improper assessment practices, offer all students a developmentally appropriate curriculum, re-train teachers to fit classes to children's needs, develop better home-school partnerships and abolish the present grade structure. ; Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-05, Section: A, page: 1393. ; Adviser: Susan Moore Johnson. ; Thesis (Ed.D.)--Harvard University, 1992.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include extreme economic hardship, abuse, neglect, household and family dysfunction, and exposure to community violence. Children with ACEs are at a higher risk of developing mental, physical, and developmental disorders that can lead to difficulty in school. Using the 2012 National Survey of Children's Health, we use multivariate logistic regression to examine the association between ACEs and grade retention and the moderating effects of race/ethnicity on this relationship. Results indicate that specific ACEs are related to higher rates of grade retention (economic hardship, parental incarceration, neighborhood violence, and witnessing domestic violence). Children reporting three or more ACEs were at a significantly higher risk of grade retention compared to children with zero reported ACEs. Further, patterns differed among black children in the sample with higher numbers of ACEs not increasing retention rates for black children compared to white children. This study improves our understanding of the relationship between ACEs and grade retention, but also raises questions about differing patterns among racially and ethnically diverse student populations that warrants further study.
