Student Retention Paper

Literature that reported the effectiveness of student retention focuses on two student outcomes: (a) the academic achievement of students and (b) the socio-emotional outcomes of students (Hong & Yu, 2008). Although some studies indicate that students exhibit short-term benefits, these gains quickly fade, especially as students move into the secondary grades (Bonvin, Bless, & Schuepbach, 2008). Initial academic improvements occurred during the year of student retention; however, many studies found that achievement gains declined within two-three years of retention. Over time, retained children either did not do better, or sometimes did worse than similar low-achieving non-retained groups of children. Most retained students did not catch up without specific targeted interventions (Jimerson, et. al., 2004). Researchers found that peers, academic achievement, and socio-emotional difficulties, heavily influence teachers’ beliefs about retention, which reflect the false belief that retention improves students’ academic performance and help them reach the maturity level of their peers (Range, Holt, Pijanowski, & Young, 2012). Retention, disproportionately used with male, minority, and low socioeconomic status students, is ineffective, detrimental, and disproportionately implemented,

At the individual level, results demonstrated that a wide range of factors contribute to students dropping out of school. Factors such as family issues and school related factors affect the dropout rate dramatically from an individual perspective. At the institutional level, differences existed due to the socioeconomic differences in students across institutions. Several school-related factors were significant predictors of dropping out. The single, and most powerful, predictor was whether a student was retained in an earlier grade (Rumberger,