The Impact of Peer Retention

• In Event: Retention’s Reach: Incentive and Peer Effects Beyond the Gate Grade

Abstract

While many studies examine the effects of retention on retained students, less is known about its impact on their peers. This study investigates the peer effects of Indiana’s third-grade retention policy, a test-based literacy intervention. To identify these effects, we leverage cohort-level retention rate variations driven by a discontinuity in the retention rule, using an aggregated regression discontinuity design.

Retention reshapes peer composition in two ways: rising fourth graders lose a low-achieving peer, while rising third graders gain one. Our findings suggest that for fourth graders, peer retention leads to short-term improvements in disciplinary outcomes, but we find no consistent effects on achievement or attendance. Additionally, we find no lasting effects through seventh grade. For third graders, we find no significant effects in either the short or long term. Overall, the peer effects of Indiana’s retention policy appear limited.

Author

• NaYoung Hwang, University of New Hampshire
  Presenting Author