The "social promotion"
pendulum swings back and forth. Educators in Chicago, DC, and North Carolina
are setting new standards for student promotion and retention. And a new
report from the American Federation of Teachers -- "Passing on Failure:
District Promotion Policies and Practices" -- examines the issue.
This
fall, more than 10,000 Chicago public school students faced retention
as the school district implemented a program to eliminate social promotion
and enforce consistent standards of achievement.
In Washington, D.C., school officials are proposing to retain all
second, third, and eighth grade students who are not reading at grade
level by the end of the current school year.
In North Carolina, more than 70,000 students could be retained if
they fail to meet newly established promotion guidelines.
These students and tens of thousands of others across the country are
the victims of social promotion, the practice of promoting students
from one grade to the next regardless of academic achievement.
PASSING ON FAILURE: AN AFT REPORT
A recent study conducted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT),
one of the world's largest teacher unions, found that many U.S. school
districts routinely practice social promotion, despite public policies
-- and sometimes laws -- meant to prevent it. Social promotion, says the
AFT report, is "rampant" in this country. In fact, many beleaguered school
systems, overwhelmed by increasing numbers of ill-prepared and unmotivated
students, regard social promotion as a necessary -- and unavoidable --
evil.
Often subtly implemented to facilitate classroom management,
avoid wholesale retentions, and reduce student dropout rates, social promotion
has instead produced countless high school graduates unable to do college
level work or even to hold entry-level jobs. "Social promotion," says
Chicago school CEO Paul Valla, "is a time bomb that exploded in our face."
According to the AFT report, Passing
on Failure: District Promotion Policies and Practices, the practice
of social promotion contributes to the very problems that can make it
seem necessary. Promotion, in the absence of satisfactory academic performance,
perpetuates academic failure by teaching students that effort and achievement
are not important and that objective standards can not and will not be
enforced. It forces classroom teachers to deal with an impossibly wide
range of student knowledge, background, and readiness. And it denies students
both the classroom and remedial resources that could help them reverse
the pattern of academic failure.
IS RETENTION THE ANSWER?
But if social promotion is the problem, is wholesale retention the answer?
In fact, the AFT report states that simple retention, requiring students
to repeat a grade with no additional supports in place, is as rampant
in this country as social promotion -- and meets with as little success.
It is estimated that, each year, between 15 and 19 percent of U.S. students
are kept back and as many as 50 percent of students in large urban areas
are retained at least once before they graduate or drop out of school.
And yet few studies have documented any appreciable long-term academic
gains associated with retention.
In addition, the AFT report cites "serious problems and significant
costs" associated with retention, including student alienation from school,
serious classroom discipline problems, and a significantly increased school
dropout rate. The National Association of School Psychologists also reports
that
most students do not catch up when they repeat a grade,
those who appear to make progress frequently fall behind again in
later grades, and that
students who are retained often dislike school, suffer low self-esteem,
and frequently become discipline problems.
For those reasons, school systems like Chicago, that have found it necessary
to implement wholesale retentions in order to counteract the effects of
past social promotions, have also implemented support systems, such as
tutoring, summer school, and counseling. But is that enough?
FINDING SOLUTIONS
Social promotion ignores and hides student failure. Retention alone
offers students only what failed to work the first time. Mass retention,
even when accompanied by extensive support systems, is a costly and disruptive
procedure. What, then, is the answer?
According to the AFT report, if we are to reverse the trend of student
failure in our nation's schools, school districts must first address the
question of why children fail and then institute widespread policy changes
that will prevent the cycle of failure from ever beginning. Those changes,
say AFT leaders, must include reform in the areas of school organization,
curriculum, instruction, and educational programs.
The report recommends that all school districts:
develop specific, grade-level and subject-oriented curriculum objectives
and adopt rigorous academic standards for meeting those objectives.
Clear, universal standards will ensure fair and objective methods for
determining success, provide teachers with the authority to demand academic
excellence, make academic expectations accessible to all students, teachers,
and parents, and provide a consistent basis for assessment and for making
successful promotion and retention decisions.
provide adequate numbers of well-trained staff to all schools.
School districts must develop policies to attract and retain the best
teachers and provide those teachers with on-going training and support.
All elementary school teachers should be trained in teaching reading,
and schools with large numbers of at-risk students should be provided
with staff specially trained to meet the needs of those students.
institute policies to prevent early school failure and intervene
immediately and vigorously when students show signs of falling behind.
Pre-school and all-day kindergarten programs should be available to
all high-risk students. Class size should be reduced in the early grades.
School districts should have support available for students in danger
of failing, including individual tutoring, extended-day programs, after-school
and summer school programs, and parent counseling services.
A NEW APPROACH
The AFT report points out that, for much of the 20th century, school
districts have alternately embraced and abandoned two responses to student
failure -- social promotion and retention. And neither approach has been
successful. It is time for a solution instead of a response -- a solution
based on a willingness to implement proven models of educational reform,
strict adherence to high standards of achievement, and the belief that
all students can succeed. The AFT report concludes: Children can achieve
when they are taught the basics early; when they are challenged by high
standards and a rich curriculum; and when caring, firm adults pay strict
attention to the quality of students' work and behavior.
Passing
on Failure: District Promotion Policies and Practices is available
on the American Federations of Teachers (AFT) Web site. Or a copy of the
report might be ordered for $5.00 prepaid from the AFT Order Department,
555 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001.
Related Resources
"Grade Retention and Social Promotion" by Gary Cooke and John Stammer,
Childhood Education, 61(4), 302-308.
"Failure in Grade: Do Retained Students Catch Up?" by Samuel J. Meisels
and Fong-Ruey Liaw, Journal of Educational Research, 87(2), 69-77.
Synthesis of Research on Grade Repetition/Promotion Policies, published
by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Research on Effective Schooling
for Disadvantaged Students, Baltimore, MD.
"Repeating a Grade -- Time to Grow or Denial of Opportunity?" by Nancy
L. Karweit, CDS Report No. 16 (May 1991).
"An Approach to Reducing Risk Through School System Restructuring"
by Gary D. Gottfredson and Denise C. Gottfredson, CDS Report No. 10
(August 1990).
"Increasing Teacher Expectations for Student Achievement: An Evaluation"
by Denise C. Gottfredson, Elizabeth Marciniak, Ann T. Birdseye, and
Gary D. Gottfredson, CDS Report No. 25 (November 1991).
Promotion
and Retention Policies Studies on retention and promotion policies
from the Center for Research on the Education of Disadvantaged Students
(CDS).
Passing
on Failure A "Where We Stand" column on social promotion by Albert
Shanker, past president of the American Federation of Teachers
When
Retention Is Recommended, What Should Parents Do? An ERIC Digest
by Anne S. Robertson from the Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early
Childhood Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Includes suggested alternatives to retention.
The "social promotion"
pendulum swings back and forth. Educators in Chicago, DC, and North Carolina
are setting new standards for student promotion and retention. And a new
report from the American Federation of Teachers -- "Passing on Failure:
District Promotion Policies and Practices" -- examines the issue.
This
fall, more than 10,000 Chicago public school students faced retention
as the school district implemented a program to eliminate social promotion
and enforce consistent standards of achievement.