The practice of retaining or holding students back a grade is gaining in popularity. A comprehensive review of the literature over the past 16 years supports that view and uncovers great discrepancies between educators' beliefs and confirmable evidence regarding retentions. This article describes actual retention practices in two Utah school districts and compares the children recommended for retention with a control group. These two groups were found to be significantly different in intellectual ability, academic achievement, and adjustment characteristics. In order to measure the effects of nonpromotion, the retained children's growth was compared to the growth of academically similar-functioning children who were recommended for retention but were promoted. These recommended-for-retention children were retested one year after the retention decision was made. Retention was not found to benefit the children academically or in personal or social adjustment.

As more children are being held back a grade as a result of tougher academic standards, the practice of retention and its effects was studied in two Utah school districts. Retention was not found to benefit the children academically or in personal or social adjustment. The purpose of this article is to further analyze the data in order to study retention effects for subgroups of children commonly believed to profit from being retained. In this reanalysis, three independent variables were added in order to address the following questions: (a) Is retention beneficial for children if supplementary academic instruction is provided? (b) Is retention beneficial if the children are average or above in intelligence? (c) Also, is retention beneficial if it occurs in kindergarten or 1st grade? Retention was not found to benefit these subgroups of children.