Promotion with and without Learning : Effects on Student Enrollment and Dropout Behavior
Many educators and policymakers have argued for lenient grade promotion policy - even automatic promotion - in developing country settings where grade retention rates are high. The argument assumes that grade retention discourages persistence or co...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/09/9881999/promotion-without-learning-effects-student-enrollment-dropout-behavior http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6974 |
Summary: | Many educators and policymakers have
argued for lenient grade promotion policy - even automatic
promotion - in developing country settings where grade
retention rates are high. The argument assumes that grade
retention discourages persistence or continuation in school
and that the promotion of children with lower achievement
does not hamper their ability or their peers' ability
to perform at the next level. Alternatively, promoting
students into grades for which they are not prepared may
lead to early dropout behavior. This study shows that in a
sample of schools from the Northwest Frontier Province of
Pakistan, students are promoted primarily on the basis of
merit. An econometric decomposition of promotion decisions
into a component that is based on merit indicators
(attendance and achievement in mathematics and language) and
another that is uncorrelated with those indicators allows a
test of whether parental decisions to keep their child in
school is influenced by merit-based or non-merit-based
promotions. Results suggest that the enrollment decision is
significantly influenced by whether learning has taken
place, and that grade promotion that is uncorrelated with
merit has a negligible impact on school continuation. |
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