The Effectiveness of Grade Retention and Alternative Remedial Practices

Dear Colleagues,

Grade retention has been used for decades to help low-performing students catch up, although its effectiveness is controversial. Indeed, a large number of studies indicate that this measure can be very detrimental to students' motivational resources, especially their perception of competence and attitudes toward learning. In addition, students who are subjected to this practice may suffer from having their difficulties being highlighted. This can be stigmatizing and lead to the development of internalized or externalized problems. It is also worth noting that students subjected to this practice are unable to advance to the next grade with their same-age peers, and this can be socially painful. Given these few indications, it is not surprising to find research suggesting that students who repeat a grade are at much greater risk of dropping out of school before obtaining a high school diploma. However, there is some research evidence to suggest that grade retention might actually help some students improve their skills. However, these findings seem to be marginal. Other studies have looked at the effects of alternative measures such as automatic grade promotion, and again, it has not been possible to conclude with confidence their effectiveness. In fact, the implementation of such measures seems to overlook an important issue, namely, the support that should be provided to students to help them catch up with the curriculum. Is it not utopian to think that the simple fact of reviewing learning contents and/or gaining maturity could enable students to acquire the expected knowledge and skills? Perhaps some students do eventually catch up, but can policies and practices be decided on the basis of these marginal cases? The question of what should be done to help students who have fallen behind in their learning to reach the expected level is raised again in this Special Issue. We invite original research and review articles that examine, among other things (but not exclusively), the effects associated with practices such as grade retention, automatic grade promotion and promotion by subject. Studies of promising interventions are also welcome.

Dr. Jonathan Smith
Guest Editor

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• grade retention
• automatic grade promotion
• alternative measures
• educational support
• effectiveness