The Differences between Retained and Promoted Children in Educational Services Received

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students retained in first grade, relative to similarly low achieving students who were promoted, differed in the number of remedial educational services received by students in the year pre- retention year and in the repeat year. Study participants were 769 relatively low achieving first grade students, of whom 165 were retained in first grade and 604 were promoted. Controlling for students' conditional probability of being retained, based on propensity scores calculated prior to retention, retained students received the same number of services as promoted students during the pre-retention year. The following year, when retained students were in first grade and promoted students were in second grade, retained students received fewer services than promoted students. Furthermore, retained children had a larger decrease in services from year 1 to year 2. These data support the notion that grade retention is being employed as the primary intervention instead of a component of a more comprehensive remediation plan.