With all the flexibility implicit in a multiage system, issues such as grades and retention diminish in importance. A child can spend longer than usual in a multiage classroom without being labeled a failure. Staying in the same class for an extra year is a different experience than repeating a grade. Repeating a grade means all new classmates, a new teacher, learning the same lessons and, worst of all, having failed a grade. Many children never recover their self-confidence after being retained.
Statistics show a very high incidence of dropping out among students who have repeated a grade.
Concern for the dropout rate has prompted the practice of social promotion. Students are moved along regardless of their learning level. But in the last few years, both the business and educational communities have expressed concern about the results of social promotion. Graduates with inadequate skills have difficulty entering the workforce, let alone succeeding. Social promotion is coming under fire and has been banned in some districts.