Parental Educational Aspirations as a Predictor of Grade Retention

• In Event: In Search of Predictors of Grade Retention, an Unfair Educational Practice

Abstract

Several meta-analyses (e.g., Goos et al., 2021; Hattie 2009) have indicated that grade retention is not beneficial for students, in general, compared to grade promotion. Several student characteristics have been found to be related to grade retention, e.g., achievement, gender, migration status, and socioeconomic status (Klapproth & Schaltz, 2015). Parental educational aspirations usually also positively affect students’ academic success (Boonk et al., 2018). However, the relationship between parental educational aspirations and students’ likelihood of grade retention has rarely been examined (Willson & Hughes, 2009). The aim of the present study was to examine whether parents’ educational aspirations are negatively related to grade retention, and whether this relationship is moderated by parents’ immigration status. Data were drawn from 38,176 students from 34 schools in Luxembourg, representing seven cohorts, who began secondary school in G7, from 2002 to 2008. The dependent variable was the occurrence of grade retention (0 = promoted, 1 = retained) in the third year of secondary school. For retained students (13%), this was usually in G8. Predictor variables were parental educational aspirations, measured as parents’ wishes regarding their child’s future school track (0 = vocational track, 1 = academic track), students’ GPA in the third year of secondary school, parents’ immigration status (0 = Luxembourgish, 1 = not Luxembourgish), and students’ school track in the third year of secondary school (0 = vocational track, 1 = academic track). Two-level logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the multiple effects of the predictors on students’ grade retention likelihood. Results show significant main effects of parents’ educational aspirations, students’ GPA, and students’ school track, but no significant main or moderating effect of parents’ immigration status. This study suggests that students whose parents favored the academic track, were less prone to be retained in the third year of secondary education than were students whose parents favored the vocational track, even when their actual track and GPA were controlled for. However, the interaction between parents’ educational aspirations and parents’ immigration status was not significant, suggesting that the effect of parental educational aspirations on students’ likelihood of grade retention was not different between immigrant parents and non-immigrant parents. These results indicate that family background still plays a major role for students’ academic success.

Authors

• Florian Klapproth, Medical School Berlin

• Fabian Meissner, MSB Medical School Berlin

• Antoine Fischbach, University of Luxembourg