Test-Based Promotion Policies, Dropping Out, and Juvenile Crime

Over the past decade, several states and school districts have implemented accountability systems that require students to demonstrate a minimum level of proficiency through standardized tests. With many states and school districts ending social promotion, policy makers and researchers have gained renewed interest in the role of grade retention and remedial education in US schools. This paper examines the potential effects of summer school and grade retention on high school completion and juvenile crime. To do so, we use administrative data from a number of state agencies in Louisiana and a regression discontinuity design to analyze Louisiana's statewide promotion policy administered to students in fourth and eighth grades. In general, our results indicate that potential grade retention, even at fourth grade, increases the propensity that a student drops out of school at a later point in time. In addition, eighth grade remedial education assignment in the form of summer school appears to provide a positive benefit by decreasing the likelihood that a student later drops out. As for fourth grade students, however, we do not find any effect of summer school assignment on the likelihood of dropping out. Finally, for eighth graders, we find that the test-based promotion policies decrease the probability of committing serious juvenile offenses.