Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? A Longitudinal Study on the Effect of Grade Retention in Secondary Education on Achievement and Academic Self-Concept

Autor/inn/en	Lamote, Carl; Pinxten, Maarten; Van Den Noortgate, Wim; Van Damme, Jan
Titel	Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? A Longitudinal Study on the Effect of Grade Retention in Secondary Education on Achievement and Academic Self-Concept
Quelle	In: Educational Studies, 40 (2014) 5, S.496-514 (19 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-5698
DOI	10.1080/03055698.2014.936828
Schlagwörter	Longitudinal Studies; Grade Repetition; Secondary Education; Academic Achievement; Self Concept; Language Acquisition; Grade 8; Matched Groups; Student Promotion; Achievement Gap; Student Certification; Educational Attainment; Comparative Analysis; Indo European Languages; Weighted Scores; Effect Size; Educational Policy; Educational Practices; Foreign Countries; Belgium + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; Repeat a school year; Repeating; Sitzen bleiben; Sitzenbleiben; Sekundarbereich; Schulleistung; Selbstkonzept; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; School year 08; 8. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 08; Support of studies; Studienförderung; Schulzeugnis; Bildungsabschluss; Bildungsgut; Indoeuropäisch; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Bildungspraxis; Ausland; Belgien
Abstract	Holding students back when they do not meet a specific attainment level is common practice in a lot of countries. However, this practice is not without controversy and recent studies point at the negative effects of grade retention, especially in the long-term. The majority of these studies focused on grade retention in primary education. In our study, we focused on the effect of grade retention in Grade 8 on language achievement and academic self-concept. We matched students who were and were not retained based on their propensity to be retained and compared both groups using a growth curve analysis. The basic treatment "grade retention vs. promotion" was extended with the certificate these students received at the end of Grade 8. With this growth curve analysis, we were able to draw conclusions on the effect in the short-term, as well as in the long-term. In the short-term (i.e. the year of retention), it seems that grade retention had no negative effect on language achievement in the short-term, and even a positive effect on academic self-concept in the year of retention. The effects became more negative when we considered effects in the long-term. Especially for language achievement, we found a strong decline in the achievement of grade retainees. We found no negative effect of grade retention on academic self-concept. We can conclude that grade retention has a negative effect on the achievement of retained students in the long run, but has no negative effect on academic self-concept. When we take into account the certificate they received, it seems that following the teacher's advice to change track is a better decision than repeating the grade in the same track. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10