> being held back in school is what happens when your school performance is poor, so this seems backward Why is that backward? Couldn't they be mutually affect

> being held back in school is what happens when your school performance is poor, so this seems backward Why is that backward? Couldn't they be mutually affecting factors a la the failures of "No Child Left Behind"'s penalty system (as in: ACEs damage school performance, leading to risk of being held back a year, which risks additional ACEs)? > All of these things just seem to be proxies for "your parents are rich". If that is indeed a strong correlation, then that would be valuable insight gained from this study, I think.