Think Again: Is Grade Retention Bad for Kids?

For many years, the conventional wisdom in the field was that grade retention was a bad idea. A 1997 opinion piece in "Education Week" titled "Grade retention doesn't work" reflected the prevailing sentiment in the education community and the available research evidence at that time: retained students performed worse than their promoted peers in the years that followed. This brief challenges that notion, based on more recent studies that do a better job of isolating the causal effect of retention. Key Questions: (1) Can grade retention be beneficial for students?; (2) What risks are associated with retention?; and (3) Is grade retention too costly for school systems?.