Teachers’ beliefs about grade retention influence important decisions about students’ educational progression (Santos et al., 2023, Wang et al., 2018). However, little is known about how these beliefs relate to everyday teaching practices, perceived challenges, and teachers’ years of experience. This study examines these relationships using large-scale data from Germany. The analyses are based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, Starting Cohort 8; NEPS-Network, 2025) and include 2,443 teachers. Grade retention beliefs were measured using four Likert-scaled items (König et al., 2012) and modelled as a latent construct. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the associations with differentiated instruction, autonomy, cooperation, occupational stress, job satisfaction, and teaching difficulties, while controlling for basic background characteristics (age, gender, years of teaching experience). An exploratory indicator capturing career timing (age relative to years of teaching experience) was included to account for suppression effects. The results show that teachers who report more use of differentiated instruction are less supportive of grade retention, while teachers who experience more classroom management difficulties are more supportive of retention. Career timing is also related to beliefs, with teachers who are older relative to their years of teaching experience holding less favourable views of grade retention. Other factors are not significantly related, and overall explained variance is limited. The findings suggest that teachers’ grade retention beliefs are strongly influenced by contextual and normative factors, such as school policies, school structures, and local practices. This highlights the importance of multi-level approaches to understanding teacher beliefs and decision-making, and the need to place individual practices within broader educational contexts.

König, J., Darge, K., & Schreiber, M. (2012). Teachers’ beliefs about retention: Effects on teaching quality. In J. König (Ed.), Teachers’ pedagogical beliefs definition and operationalisation – Connections to knowledge and performance – Development and change (pp. 191-204). Waxmann. NEPS Network. (2025). Scientific Use File der NEPS-Startkohorte 8: Klasse 5. [Scientific Use File of NEPS Starting Cohort 8: Grade 5] (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset]. Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories. https://doi.org/10.5157/NEPS:SC8:1.0.0 Santos, N. N., Pipa, J., & Monteiro, V. (2023). Analysing grade retention beliefs within teachers’ psycho-pedagogic beliefs system. Teaching and Teacher Education, 121, 103939. Wang, S., Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Meissel, K. (2018). A systematic review of the teacher expectation literature over the past 30 years. Educational Research and Evaluation, 24(3-5), 124-179.