When a child does not seem to be ready for primary school, a popular practice is to grant the child more time by letting it repeat kindergarten. However, previous quasi-experimental research demonstrated negative, though diminishing, effects of kindergarten retention on academic learning during the first years of primary school. The present study…

We investigated the effects of grade retention in first grade on the growth of the Woodcock-Johnson broad mathematics and reading scores over three years using linear growth curve modeling on an academically at-risk sample. A large sample (n=784) of first grade children who were at risk for retention was initially identified based on low literacy…