Until the 1930s it was common educational practice to require students doing poor academic work to repeat classes, to repeat entire grades, or to remain for some period of time in a grade level where they needed additional work. When psychologists and others determined that these techniques had negative psycho-emotional effects, the practices were generally abandoned. Declining student achievement rates have brought a revival of interest in repetition and grade retention in the 1970s. Studies of the effects of retention methods on academic achievement are generally inconclusive, showing no major benefits to be gained in contrast to the real possibility for psychological harm. On the whole, subject repetition seems to offer the fewest difficulties among these traditional methods of remediation at the middle and high school levels. At the elementary level remedial instruction within the grade level may prove more valuable than the older methods. (Author/PGD)