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Early-Grade Retention and Children’s Reading and Math Learning in Elementary Years

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

Many schools have adopted early-grade retention as an intervention strategy for children displaying academic or behavioral problems. Previous analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort data have found evidence of negative effects of kindergarten retention on academic learning during the repeated year. Will kindergarten retainees recover their lost ground and excel in the long run? What are the effects of first grade retention? According to the analytic results of this study, the negative effects of kindergarten retention on retainees’ reading and math outcomes at the end of the treatment year substantially fade by fifth grade. Meanwhile, first grade retention shows negative effects that stay almost constant from 1 year after treatment to 3 years later. In general, we find no evidence that early-grade retention brings benefits to the retainees’ reading and math learning toward the end of the elementary years.

Key Words: causal inference • first graders • kindergartners • multilevel modeling • propensity score

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