The Academic Effects of Summer Instruction and Retention in New York City

2012/08/13 by Louis T. Mariano, Paco Martorell · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Education Systems and Policy #School Choice and Performance

paper · doi:10.3102/0162373712454327

openalex publication_date 2012/08/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This article examines the impacts of summer instruction and test-based grade retention in New York City. We use a research design that exploits test score cutoffs used in assignment to these treatments. We find modest positive effects of summer instruction on English language arts (ELA) achievement for students assigned to summer instruction because of poor ELA performance but find little evidence of positive effects of summer instruction on math outcomes. After netting out estimates of differential test score growth within grades across years, the estimated effects of grade retention are substantial and positive through seventh grade on both math and ELA outcomes, suggesting that the additional year of instruction in fifth grade leads to improvements in subsequent grade achievement.

Citations

• Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects
• Doubly Robust Estimation in Missing Data and Causal Inference Models

Cited by

• What Would It Take to Change an Inference? Using Rubin’s Causal Model to Interpret the Robustness of Causal Inferences
• Effectiveness of grade retention: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Related

• School’s Out: The Role of Summers in Understanding Achievement Disparities
• Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap
• Helping or Hurting: The Effects of Retention in the Third Grade on Student Outcomes
• Effects of Dual-Language Immersion Programs on Student Achievement
• Are Schools the Great Equalizer? Cognitive Inequality during the Summer Months and the School Year