Massachusetts Public School Student Retention Rates by Grade Since 2018

Student retention counts and percentages for Massachusetts public schools, tracking students who repeated a grade from the previous school year. The dataset is published by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and includes data from 2018 onward. It covers all grade levels and student subgroups, with data also available on the DESE Profiles website.

Use Cases

• Analyze retention rate disparities across student subgroups (STU_GRP) and grade levels (RET_G01_PCT to RET_G12_PCT).
• Compare retention counts (RET_ALL_CNT) against total enrollment (ENROLL_ALL_CNT) to calculate school-level rates.
• Identify schools (ORG_NAME) and districts with high overall retention percentages (RET_ALL_PCT) for targeted intervention.
• Track longitudinal trends in grade-specific retention (e.g., RET_G08_CNT, RET_G08_PCT) across different school types (ORG_TYPE).

Strengths

• Includes data for all grade levels from 1 to 12, with separate count and percentage columns for each.
• Provides breakdowns by student subgroup (STU_GRP), enabling equity-focused analysis.
• Data is directly published and maintained by the state education authority (DESE).
• Available in multiple machine-readable formats including CSV, JSON, XML, and RDF.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata notes changes in economic disadvantage metrics over time, which may affect longitudinal consistency.
• Last updated 2026-05-13 20:41:08; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)

Collection Method

Administrative data collection from Massachusetts public schools.

Time Range

Since 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 20:41:08.

Geography

Massachusetts, United States