As of 2021, eighteen states plus the District of Columbia have implemented legislation regarding mandatory test-based grade retention focusing on minimum reading proficiency levels (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2019) with many of those policies targeting the third-grade year. While grade retention has been largely viewed negatively…

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) known as No Child Left Behind, Every Student Succeeds Act, and other school reforms, rigorous demands are placed upon administrators and educators when students do not make Adequate Yearly Progress. In trying to follow state goals to enhance students' academic…

Research Finding: The present study estimates the long-term effects of Chile's national public Early Childhood Care and Education program (ECCE) on children academic achievement, grade retention and school dropouts, to better understand if ECCE is helping reduce the socioeconomic achievement gap. The present study uses a quasi-experimental design…

Background: Over the last twenty years, retention has increased in popularity with policymakers who are concerned with student achievement and aim to end social promotion (i.e., the practice of advancing a student to the next grade level although they have not yet met the academic expectations of their current grade level). Despite calls to expand…

Background/Context: Students designated as English Learners (ELs) account for 10.4 percent of all students nationwide but have historically been provided unequal access to educational resources (Gándara et al., 2003; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Further, education policies are often blind to ELs' strengths and challenges,…

This Information Capsule reviews the research conducted on elementary level grade retention. Research findings on the effect of retention on elementary students' outcomes are inconsistent. One widely accepted conclusion is that when retention occurs, it should be accompanied by additional interventions designed to increase students' academic…

As states have upgraded their commitment to pre-K education over the past two decades, questions have arisen. Critics argue that program effects are likely to fade out or disappear over time, while supporters contend that program effects are likely to persist under certain conditions. Using data from Tulsa Public Schools, three neighboring school…

Research reveals that grade retention as a sole intervention for low achieving students is not sufficient to improve student achievement (Jimerson, 200l). This study used a qualitative design (Marshall & Rossman, 2011) to examine the phenomenon of grade retention and intervention approaches for low achieving students in Connecticut school…

In this paper we use data from students who participated in the oversubscribed Boston Public Schools (BPS) prekindergarten program as a window into variation in the program's medium-term effects. We first examine whether, for the sample of students who applied to oversubscribed BPS prekindergarten programs, there is variation in the effects of the…

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are school-based preventive interventions that aim to improve children's social-emotional skills and behavioral development. Although meta-analytic research has shown that SEL programs can improve academic and behavioral outcomes in the short term, few studies have examined program effects on receipt of…

This paper evaluates the role that an after-school may play in the educational outcomes of children living in poor suburbs. Previous evaluations have focused on average effects, with mixed findings. A possible explanation of these inconclusive findings is that after-school programmes may have heterogeneous effects. Our hypothesis is that the…

Recently, researchers have begun to employ rigorous statistical methods and developmentally-informed theories to evaluate outcomes for students retained in non-kindergarten early elementary school. However, the majority of this research focuses on academic outcomes. Gaps remain regarding retention's effects on psychosocial outcomes important to…

There has been a resurgence in research that investigates the efficacy of early investments as a means of reducing gaps in academic performance. However, the strongest evidence for these effects comes from experimental evaluations of small, highly enriched programs. We add to this literature by assessing the extent to which a large-scale public…

This study presents evidence pertinent to current debates about the lasting impacts of early childhood educational interventions and, specifically, Head Start. A group of students who were first studied to examine the immediate impacts of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Community Action Project (CAP) Head Start program were followed-up in middle school,…

There has been a resurgence in research that investigates the efficacy of early investments as a means of reducing gaps in academic performance. However, the strongest evidence for these effects comes from experimental evaluations of small, highly enriched programs. We add to this literature by assessing the extent to which a large-scale public…