Researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed reading scores for more than 168,000 students who were 3rd graders in Michigan during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, when the state had a retention policy in place. (Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed a bill to repeal the policy in 2023.) They compared students who scored just below the cutoff for retention on the state test to students who scored just above.
“It’s not a really big effect, but it’s something that is meaningful to consider,” said Brian Jacob, a professor of education policy at the University of Michigan, and an author on the paper. The difference amounts to about an eighth of the growth that students would typically make between 3rd and 4th grade, he said.