Paper Abstract

When a student’s academic knowledge or preparation is well below that of his or her age group, a common policy response is to have that student repeat a grade level and join the following, younger cohort. Evaluating the impacts of grade retention is made complicated by the potential incomparability of (1) retained students to promoted peers and (2) outcomes measured differently across grade levels. In this paper, we use novel data from New York City to ask whether parents’ and students’ self-reported educational experiences are significantly affected by grade retention. We take advantage of surveys that ask the same questions regardless of a student’s grade level, and implement a regression discontinuity approach, identifying causal effects on students retained due to missed cutoffs on math and English exams. We find that parental satisfaction with the quality of their child’s education and students’ sense of personal safety both improve significantly over the three years we can observe from the time of retention. Our findings suggest that the stringent and somewhat controversial test-based retention policies enacted in New York had positive effects on the educational experience of these marginal students.

Jonah E. Rockoff is a Professor of Business at the Columbia Graduate School of Business and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Rockoff's interests center on the finance and management of public schools. His most recent research focuses on systems for hiring new teachers, the effects of No Child Left Behind on students and schools, the impact of removing school desegregation orders, and how primary school teachers affect students' outcomes in early adulthood. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in Economics from Amherst College.