Promotion to Next Grade

About 10 percent of students in America’s public schools are retained at least once during kindergarten through eighth grade.¹ In 2010, one percent of K-8 students were retained nationally, with the largest numbers retained during the kindergarten and first grade years.²

The cost of third grade retention in North Carolina in 2015-16 was around $158 million, based on 17,600 retentions and an average annual expenditure per student of $8,900.³ Retention creates capacity challenges for schools, but the costs may decline over time. In Florida, for example, a mandatory third grade retention policy begun in 2003 resulted in an immediate 13.5% increase in the total number of third graders; however, the number of student then fell steadily over the next five years as more students met academic expectations.⁴

The costs of social promotion are more difficult to track than the costs of grade retention. They include the effect on both teachers and students of having classes of students with widely varying academic abilities.⁵

Research is mixed on whether academic benefits gained from retaining students in the early grades:

• Last beyond a few years
• Are offset by the negative social-emotional impacts of retention¹

One study found that students view retention as a strongly negative event, ranked just after the loss of a parent.²

Retention can make children’s peers see them as less than capable, and teachers may also hold beliefs about the abilities of students who have been retained. Retained children can then adopt these negative beliefs themselves, which can impact their school performance and engagement in school, setting up a negative cycle that can worsen over time.³

Students retained in elementary school are less likely than their promoted peers to graduate from high school.⁴ Grade retention may also contribute to racial disparities in school performance and high school graduation rates.⁵

The main reasons for grade retention vary by grade.

• Retention in third grade is most often based on failure to hit an academic benchmark (e.g., reading proficiency).
• Retention in kindergarten and first grade is more likely to be based on developmental issues or behavioral challenges.¹

Predictors of and Contributors to Grade Retention

Predictors of third grade retention at kindergarten entry include:

• Low academic skills in reading and math
• Low general knowledge²
• Less well developed fine and gross motor skills
• More behavior problems than peers³

Student circumstances that can contribute to early learning challenges and grade retention include:

• Hearing and vision problems
• Health problems
• Reading-specific disabilities such as dyslexia
• Social-emotional problems that lead to behavioral incidents, suspension or expulsion⁴  

Students in the early grades are more likely to be retained if:

• They are boys. Boys are 70 percent more likely than girls to be retained in the early grades.⁵
• They are children of color.⁶
• They are younger than their peers.⁷ For each month that a child’s age increases at entry to kindergarten, the risk of third grade retention decreases by eight percent.⁸
• They have experienced abuse, neglect or family instability. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in students’ early lives often result in delayed or altered cognitive, language, social and emotional development, and executive function and self-regulation skills.⁹ ACEs can lower academic performance, create attendance problems and result in school retention.¹⁰

Family circumstances that can contribute to children’s early learning challenges include:

• Living with low-income
• Family trauma and dysfunction
• Housing instability
• Parents with less formal education¹¹

Teacher and school circumstances that can impact student success include:

• Implicit bias (unconscious stereotypes held by adults that can impact how they view student performance and behavior)
• A non-supportive school climate
• Lack of sufficient school funding
• Inadequately prepared teachers and/or principals

A systemic barrier to early literacy is system fragmentation. In many states, including North Carolina, there are multiple public systems that contribute to children’s early learning from birth through age eight. These systems do not always work together to form a comprehensive continuum of learning and development.¹²

There are also factors that guard against children needing to be retained in grade.

Institutional factors include:

• A caring school climate
• Parental involvement in schooling
• Clear rules and consequences in the school and family
• High expectations from teachers and parents

Students do best in a welcoming school environment where they feel connected and which also has high academic expectations, also called “academic press.”¹

Individual factors include:

• Motivation to achieve
• School engagement² and feeling connected with the school³