Learning Diversity 

Research on repeating a year level

Teaching and Learning Toolkit, Evidence for Learning, The Education Endowment Foundation (2020). Repeating a year

Summary of findings:

• In the majority of cases, year level repetition is harmful to a student’s chances of academic success.
• Repeating a year level has greater negative effects for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Repeating a year is likely to lead to greater negative effects when used in the early years of primary school, for culturally and linguistically diverse students, or for students who are relatively young in their year group.
• Students who repeat a year make an average of four months’ less academic progress over the course of a year than students who progress to the next year level.
• Students who repeat a year are unlikely to catch up with peers of a similar level who move on, even after completing an additional year’s schooling.

'To be or not to be retained ... That’s the question!' Retention, self-esteem, self-concept, achievement goals, and grades. Peixoto, F., Monteiro, V., Mata, L., Sanches, C., Pipa, J. and Almeida, L.S. (2016). Frontiers in Psychology, 7(1550), 1-13. To be or not to be retained

Summary of findings:

• Repeating a year level has long term negative impacts that remain even when students recover academic achievement and the experience is in the distant past.
• Students who repeat a year can lose confidence in their learning, develop negative attitudes towards school and learning, have low self-esteem, and increased aggressive and disruptive behaviours.
• Year level repetition can increase the risk of not completing school and decrease the likelihood of participation in tertiary education.

Holding back and holding behind: Grade retention and students' non-academic and academic outcomes. Martin, A. J. (2011). British Educational Research Journal, 37(5), 739-763. Holding back and holding behind

Summary of findings:

• Repeating a year level has negative implications for academic motivation, academic engagement, academic self-concept, and general self-esteem.
• Repeating a year level increased student maladaptive motivation and weeks absent from school.

Source: education.vic.gov.au