This study examines the association between grade retention and civic attitudes among adolescents. Schools attempt to create engaged, critical, and informed citizens, based on the assumption that the internalization of those values benefits future social behaviour among students. School curricula often stress the promotion of a sense of community among students, since this is believed to be a backbone of democratic societies. At the same time, some schools use grade retention as a mechanism to sort students based on their perceived capacities. As such, there appears to exist a tension between actively promoting social cohesion and giving certain students a fundamentally different treatment. In our study, we aim to test three hypotheses: (1) grade retention is associated with cynical civic attitudes (based on democratic frustration theory, Harrison, 2020); (2) a high grade retention composition at the school and educational level is associated with cynical civic attitudes (normative reference group theory (Richer, 1976); and (3) grade retention is most strongly associated with cynical civic attitudes in schools and educational systems with a low grade retention composition (comparative reference group theory, Richer, 1976). Cross-national multilevel analyses on PISA-2018 data were performed in order to test these hypotheses. In particular, 127,008 students from 6,045 secondary schools and 17 educational systems (all OECD member countries allowing and applying grade retention) were incorporated in this study. Students’ retention status in ISCED 1/2/3 and students’ civic attitudes were assessed by means of the PISA-2018 student questionnaire. Retention school composition was constructed as the percentage of repeaters per school, based on an aggregation of the individual retention status data. Educational systems with a low amount of retainees were compared with educational systems with a high amount of retainees (Mons, 2007). Three-level linear regression models were used to evaluate the effects of retention at ISCED 1/2/3 on students’ civic attitudes. Results confirm that retainees have a more cynic world view, which is in line with democratic frustration theory. As expected based on comparative reference group theory, this cynicism increases when retainees are surrounded by a low amount of other retainees. Finally, contrary to normative reference group theory, both repeaters and non-repeaters in schools with a high retention composition had a significantly less cynic world view than their counterparts in schools with low retention compositions.

Harrison, S. (2020). Democratic frustration: Concept, dimensions and behavioural consequences. Societies, 10(1), 19. Mons, N. (2007). Les nouvelles politiques éducatives: La France fait-elle les bons choix? Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Richer, S. (1976). Reference-group theory and ability grouping: A convergence of sociological theory and educational research. Sociology of Education, 49(1), 65-71.