The purpose of the study was to determine possible relationships existing between elementary student retention and academic performance, as measured by standardized achievement tests legally mandated by state initiatives in minimum competency testing, for a four year period beginning with the year culminating in retention. The study also attempted to determine if the relationship is affected by the grade level of retention, gender, ethnicity, or mental aptitude.Subjects of the study were 220 elementary students from a large metropolitan school district in central Indiana, half of whom had been retained in grades one or two, and half of whom were randomly selected and had never been retained. Using achievement data collected from the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill standardized achievement tests, CTB/4 and CAT E/F, the relationships of achievement scores in reading, language expression, and mathematics between and within the two groups were analyzed. Mental aptitude data from The Test of Cognitive Skills (CTB MacMillan/McGrawHill), and data on gender and ethnicity, were also examined to determine the effect of these variables. Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis were employed to analyze the various relationships using the P<.05 level of significance.The study found that (a) for the longitudinal period, retained student performance did not reach the-mean of the promoted group; (b) grade level of retention yielded different longitudinal patterns of performance, but did improve the relationship between retained and promoted student performance in either grade; and (c) mental aptitude, but not gender and ethnicity, was significantly related to student performance.The study concluded that (a) retention is not effective in raising substandard performance to promoted peer levels over a four year period, (b) retention is most effective for improving performance in the repeated year, (c) students retained at grade two maintain performance gains better than students retained in grade one, and (d) mental aptitude plays a significant role in the evaluation of the effectiveness of retention. / Department of Educational Leadership