Grade Retention in the Chilean School System: Time for a paradigm shift?

In 2018, following the bill approving the " minimum national standards on evaluation, qualification and promotion " (Decree 67, MINEDUC, 2018), a new legal framework for grade retention was introduced into the Chilean education system. This framework took effect in 2020. Decree 67 does not prohibit grade retention, but states that it is only possible in exceptional circumstances. Since grade retention is a well-established practice in Chile, this change in the law is accompanied by a paradigm shift. In Chile, student failure is usually attributed to students and their parents, which allows teachers and schools to pass the responsibility for student success or repetition (Roman, 2013).

In this doctoral research, we are interested in the effects and consequences of grade retention as well as the attitudes underlying the established practice of grade retention. We pay special attention to the school trajectories of students and the family, individual and environmental variables that play a role. In addition, we examine the perceptions, factors and arguments associated with the normalization of this practice within the school, by mapping beliefs on this.

Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we aim to gain a better understanding of the practice of grade retention and student evaluation in the context of a paradigm shift in the Chilean school system.