The Effect of Grade Retention on Secondary School Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Maria Ferreira Sequeda, Bart Golsteyn () and Sergio Parra-Cely ()

No 11604, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the effects of grade retention on secondary school performance by considering a change in Colombia's educative legislation. In 2010, the rule that forced schools to retain up to a 5% of students was abolished. Exploiting variation in schools' retention rates in a difference-in-differences framework, we find that retained (marginally non-retained) students improve (decline) their performance on language but not on math test scores. We suggest the school's position in the retention distribution, and the proportion of inexperienced teachers in the classroom, can be the mechanisms by which the marginally decreasing returns of grade retention are determined.

Keywords: retention; Colombia; difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Grade Retention on Secondary School Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment (2018)
Working Paper: The effect of grade retention on secondary school performance: Evidence from a natural experiment (2018)
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