Research on the effectiveness of grade retention has a long history, yet, has seen an upsurge during the last decade. In this study, we review 84 recent, methodologically sound studies estimating effects of retention in grades K-12 on repeaters' and nonrepeaters' development, in a variety of countries across the world, disentangling grade and age comparison results. Based on vote counting analysis and three-level metaregression analysis we find grade retention to have an average zero effect, indicating that repeaters and non-repeaters seem to show a similar development, on average. At the same time, we find grade retention effects to differ according to some specific effect and study characteristics. More specifically, grade retention seems less effective in countries applying a mixture of grade retention and tracking to tackle student heterogeneity, and when repeaters are compared with non-repeaters of the same age. Conversely, grade retention seems more effective in countries using strategies such as ability grouping, setting, and streaming to deal with student heterogeneity. Positive effects also seem to arise when studying students' psychosocial functioning, when investigating short-run effects, when comparing repeaters with their younger non-retained grade-mates, and when evaluating effects via a regression discontinuity method.

对成绩保留有效性的研究历史悠久，但在过去十年中出现了高潮。在这项研究中，我们回顾了 84 项最近在方法论上合理的研究，这些研究估计了 K-12 年级的保留对重读和非重读者发展的影响，在世界各地的不同国家，解开年级和年龄比较结果。根据计票分析和三级元回归分析，我们发现成绩保留的平均为零效应，表明平均而言，重读者和非重读者似乎表现出相似的发展。同时，我们发现成绩保留效果因某些特定效果和研究特征而异。进一步来说，在将留级和跟踪相结合来解决学生异质性的国家，以及将留级生与同龄非留级生进行比较时，留级似乎不太有效。相反，在使用能力分组、设置和流动等策略来处理学生异质性的国家，保留成绩似乎更有效。在研究学生的社会心理功能、调查短期影响、将留级生与他们年轻的非留级同学进行比较时，以及通过回归不连续性方法评估影响时，似乎也会出现积极影响。和流媒体来处理学生的异质性。在研究学生的社会心理功能、调查短期影响、将留级生与他们年轻的非留级同学进行比较时，以及通过回归不连续性方法评估影响时，似乎也会出现积极影响。和流媒体来处理学生的异质性。在研究学生的社会心理功能、调查短期影响、将留级生与他们年轻的非留级同学进行比较时，以及通过回归不连续性方法评估影响时，似乎也会出现积极影响。