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Does Taking One Step Back Get You Two Steps Forward? Grade Retention and School Performance in Poor Areas in Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Xinxin Chen

    (Zhejiang Gongshang University)

  • Linxiu Zhang

    (Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Chengfang Liu

    (Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yaojiang Shi

    (Northwest University of Xi'an)

  • Scott Rozelle

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

Despite the rise in grade retention in poor areas in rural China recently, little work has been done to understand the impact of grade retention on the educational performance of students in these areas in rural China. This paper seeks to redress this shortcoming and examines the effect of grade retention on educational performance on 1649 students in 36 elementary schools in Shaanxi province. With a dataset that was collected from a survey designed specifically to capture school performance of students before and after they were retained, we use Differences-in-Differences, Propensity Score Matching and Differences-in-Differences Matching approaches to analyze the effect of grade retention on school performance. Although the descriptive analysis shows that grade retention helps to improve the scores of the students that were retained, somewhat surprisingly, the results from the multivariate analysis consistently show that there is no significant positive effect of grade retention on school performance of the students. In fact, in some cases (e.g., for the students who repeat grade 2), grade retention is shown to hurt school performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinxin Chen & Linxiu Zhang & Chengfang Liu & Yaojiang Shi & Scott Rozelle, "undated". "Does Taking One Step Back Get You Two Steps Forward? Grade Retention and School Performance in Poor Areas in Rural China," REAP Papers 22780, Rural Education Action Project at Stanford University.
    • Handle: RePEc:fsi:wpaper:22780
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