This publication focuses on the retention/promotion debate regarding failing and low-achieving students. An introductory essay describes the inherent limitation in the research done on this issue--the impossibility of obtaining an appropriate control group--and suggests that the retention/promotion quandary can best be resolved by accommodating the present educational system to the special needs of low-achieving students. Thereafter, five recent studies on this issue are summarized and reviewed. The first, by Doug Chafe, is a review of the literature on criteria for retention or promotion. The second, by Jane K. Elligett and Thomas S. Tocco, describes the stringent promotion/retention policy in Pinellas County, Florida, and analyzes its results. The third, by Nancy B. Schuyler, is a technical report from the Austin (Texas) Independent School District on its new stringent promotion/retention policy at the elementary level. Fourth is a California study, by Jonathan Sandoval and G. Penee Hughes, that analyzed a wide variety of indicators to determine predictors of success for retained first-grade students. The final study, by Marilyn Pheasant, describes a first-grade readiness program at the Aumsville (Oregon) School District. ERIC document numbers are noted. (TE)