Ending
Social Promotion -- Does It Work in Chicago?
As policy makers
look for ways to fix the nation's ailing schools, many eyes focus on Chicago's
four-year-old effort to end social promotion. Although more students pass
the city's standardized tests, half the students who are retained continue
to struggle. Nearly a third of the students who repeat a grade drop out
when they turn 16.
An independent research consortium studying the Chicago decision to
end social promotion, which was aimed at helping students not working
at grade level, reports a mixed bag of news. Although more than half the
students who spend an extra year in the same grade and attend summer school
improve their scores on standardized tests, the remaining students held
back continue to struggle.
In some ways, ending social promotion seems to be working, according
to the Consortium
on Chicago School Research. Their report,
Update: Ending Social Promotion, states that the number of students
who pass the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), the standardized test the
city's schools use, has increased. The reasons are complex, and the consortium's
research points to a variety of factors that contribute to the improvement
in passing rates.
More students are being held back in earlier grades.
Fewer students are at-risk in grades six and eight.
Students who are identified as at risk get extra help after
school and during the summer.
The Summer Bridge Program, an intensive summer school program, has
been effective. Students seem to retain what they learn, and many score
better on standardized tests.
The bottom line is an overall improvement in test scores and passing
rates.
A SURPRISE RESULT
One finding surprised the researchers -- students held back in the early
grades -- kindergarten through grade two -- were more able as third graders
to meet the minimum ITBS score cutoff in 1999. The number of children
being retained in kindergarten through second grade began to increase
in 1996 and has continued to do so. For example, in 1999, 6.6 percent
of first graders repeated the grade. In 1992, that figure was 3.9 percent.
Another positive finding is that Chicago's Summer Bridge Program seems
to work, said John Q. Easton, deputy director of the Consortium on Chicago
School Research. "Summer Bridge is very effective," Easton told Education
World. "The effects appear to be enduring, and the students don't seem
to lose what they learned."
The news is not all good, Easton said. "Many retained kids aren't doing
better," he said. "Although not in the report, we question whether retained
kids were being hurt by the [end of social promotion]," he said. Only slightly
more than half the students who repeated a grade and attended summer school
two years in a row were able to meet the ITBS cutoffs. Students in certain
grades must pass the ITBS for promotion through the Chicago system.
The researchers found that in 1998, about 38 percent of the eighth graders
sent to the district's Transition Centers -- alternative schools for students
who turn 15 before graduating from eighth grade -- were still unable to
raise their scores to meet the promotion cutoff after being retained and
attending summer school again this August.
The consortium also found that many retained students don't do any better
than those students who won social promotions do. The researchers compared
ITBS scores of students held back with those who received waivers and
were promoted in 1997. Their scores were about the same.
Another consequence of the Chicago policy is that a third of the grade-three
students retained in second grade were held back again in 1999. They also
found that about 20 percent of children held back in the first and second
grades are held back again in the third grade.
The consortium characterized this trend as troubling. "Experiencing
two retentions by third grade means that these students, by definition,
will be unable to graduate from eighth grade because they will turn 15
in the seventh grade and will have to go to Transition Centers [per Chicago
policy]," the report stated.
Easton also questioned the value of the ITBS for young kids significantly
behind classmates. "The test scores are so low that [the test] picks up
only the fact that [students] aren't reading," Easton said. "But it tells
us nothing else about their learning."
DROPPING OUT EARLIER
Another downside of the Chicago policy is that nearly a third of the
students who repeat a grade or attend an alternative school drop out when
they reach age 16. Many of those kids haven't completed eighth grade.
It doesn't appear that the promotion policy has adversely affected overall
dropout rates, however. "Our dropout rate has gone down over the past
three years," said Philip Hansen, chief accountability officer. The current
dropout rate is 13.9 percent, down from 15.3 percent in the 1997-1998
school year. Hansen said the school system keeps a close eye on dropout
rates because most previous research indicates that dropout rates rise
among students who are retained. Although total dropout rates have declined,
there has been an increase in the number of students dropping out in earlier
grades.
REACHING OUT TO SOCIAL AGENCIES
"What we've done is to look at those kids [who are not performing better
and dropping out earlier]," Hansen told Education World. "Many of them
are foster children, many are missing tests, are in and out of the system,
have poor attendance, and change from one school to another. These kids
would not benefit so much from remedial programs [which provide after
school and summer school] because they miss so much school and they don't
have that consistency. It's tough going."
Chicago schools have appealed to Chicago social service agencies for
help in reaching those students the school system hasn't helped, Hansen
said. "We need to develop an educational program that will help them when
they are in school," he said.
NOT ALL SCORES COUNTED
The consortium's findings do not include all Chicago students because
Chicago doesn't include all ITBS scores in its accountability system.
Nearly a third of the scores of third graders are excluded. Most of those
students receive waivers because they are English learners or special
education students.
In fact, a declining number of students have been included in the city's
accountability system since 1992, according to
Annual CPS Test Trend Review, 1999, another study conducted by the
consortium.
In 1992, about 82 percent of the students were included in the public
reporting of the ITBS. In 1999, the percentage of students included was
down to 73.9 percent.
"The changing exclusion rates make it difficult to draw accurate judgments
about school improvement and student progress in many schools, as well
as across the system as a whole," the report states.
Ending
Social Promotion -- Does It Work in Chicago?