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This study examines how often and in which form students use the option of gradeskipping in Germany and what characterizes those students. The database was derived from a sample of N = 4,103 students (grades 8-10), who were tested within the standardisation process of the national educational standards in mathematics. For these students data existed on their mathematical competence (educational standard items) and intelligence (subtests word analogies and figural analogies of the KFT 4-12 + R). Furthermore, we identified n = 33 (0,8%) students by questionnaire, who had already skipped one grade. Those accelerated students are predominantly boys, had skipped the grade during their first years at school and performed only slightly above-average on two cognitive ability scales. At the time the survey was conducted, 39% did not attend a Gymnasium and 34 % had to repeat one grade after having been accelerated. While they report average grades in relation to their peers, their mathematical competence is well above average.
Using German data, we examined the effects of one specific type of acceleration-grade skipping-on academic performance. Prior research on the effects of acceleration has suffered from methodological restrictions, especially due to a lack of appropriate comparison groups and a priori measurements. For this reason, propensity score matching was applied in this analysis to minimize selection bias due to observed confounding variables. Various types of matching were attempted, and, in consideration of balancing the covariates, full matching was the final choice. We used data from the Berlin ELEMENT Study, analyzing, after matching, the information of 81 students who had skipped a grade over the course of elementary school and up to 1,668 nonaccelerated students who attended the same grade level as the accelerated students. Measurements took place 3 times between the 4th and 6th grades, including the assessment of reading, spelling, and mathematics performance. After matching, the results of between-group comparisons regarding performance indices showed no significant effects of skipping a grade, other than a small positive effect found on spelling performance. Theoretical implications and methodological limitations are discussed.