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Social promotions flunk out of school
Sunday, November 22, 1998 By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
Nobody knows how many there are, but many people -- from the president of the United States to the president of the city school board -- want to get rid of them.
Social promotions -- when a student who is failing is passed along to the next grade because he seems to be too big or too old -- have long been an educational dilemma. Hold students back, and they may repeat the failure and become discouraged. Move them ahead without extra help, and they may never catch up.
No one keeps track of how many students are socially promoted, but an American Federation of Teachers report last year contended that they were "rampant across the country" and that few schools had required programs to help failing students.
But with the current push toward requiring students to meet academic standards, Pittsburgh city schools and other districts are turning away from social promotions -- although some researchers argue that an undeserved promotion can be more effective than repeating a grade.
In Pennsylvania, new state standards are expected to take effect next year, triggering the question: What happens to students who don't meet the standards?
Public opinion supports retention, according to a statewide survey conducted by Mansfield University this year. Eighty-eight percent of those who answered said students who didn't meet the standards should repeat the grades, even if it embarrassed the students or cost the district more money.
But some educators say that won't help.
Something more, or something different, must be done for children in the year they're held back, said Gary Natriello, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College at Columbia University.
"That's not usually how it goes," he acknowledged. "Usually, we take the tough stand of holding them back -- put them back with maybe a different teacher but nonetheless into the same class."
Not only can repetition be ineffective, it can be pricey because taxpayers end up paying for an additional year of education for the retained students, Natriello said.
Arthur Reynolds, professor of social work and educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, put it this way: "The evidence is pretty hard and accurate: Simple retention is not going to be an answer for anything."
Reynolds studied Chicago students from 1987 to 1993, and found that similar students who were socially promoted did better in the long run than those who were retained. The retained students also fell further behind those in their new, lower grade level.
What works, Reynolds said, is preventive approaches that help children in the early years of school.
In February, President Clinton called for an end to social promotions, but added, "Ending social promotions by simply holding more students back is the wrong choice."
He called for identifying students who need extra help early on and providing the help immediately. He also urged smaller classes, well-prepared teachers, grade-by-grade standards, a challenging curriculum and after-school and summer programs.
Other ways
One of the largest districts in the United States to ban most social promotions is Chicago, which since 1996 has required a six-week summer school program for underachieving students in reading or math at certain grade levels.
These students are required to complete summer school: third-graders who are more than one year below grade level, sixth-graders who are more than 1.5 years behind, and eighth-graders more than two years behind. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills is used as the measure.
The only social promotions permitted are for eighth-graders already 15 years old, and extra help is to be provided in high school.
Chicago school officials contend that the program has made a difference. Last summer, 75 percent of the eighth-graders met the promotion requirements before the summer began. By August, that number was 90 percent.
In other U.S. schools:
In District of Columbia Public Schools, eighth-graders may be promoted if they will turn 16 in the next school year, but they are to receive help in high school and must attend summer school each year until they meet certain achievement standards. Elementary students are retained or required to attend summer school if they don't meet the standards. About 25,000 students -- nearly a third of the district's students -- attended six weeks of summer school, including some who weren't required to do so.
In Denver public schools, 2,661 students were retained by the beginning of this school year, up from 2,010 two years ago, when the district didn't have summer school requirements. About 2,000 were required to attend summer school.
In Cincinnati, students must meet academic standards in all of four core areas in third, sixth and eighth grades to be promoted. Summer school and special classes are available for students who are failing.
Arthur Reynolds, professor of social work and educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who previously studied the Chicago system, said there wasn't enough research yet to know whether these approaches do enough.
He noted that the Chicago summer school gains were based on taking the same type of test at the end of the summer. "They might have gained, but do they retain that gain the next year? Is it a persistent, long-term effect?"
The Pittsburgh plan
In Pittsburgh, the move away from social promotions is part of the schools' effort to require students to meet standards.
The strategic plan approved last month states that the district "will eliminate social promotions but provide learning assistance for students in elementary, middle and secondary schools who require such help."
The Pittsburgh plan doesn't completely ban social promotions -- it continues the policy that students may be retained in a grade only twice at the elementary level and once in middle school. High school promotion is determined by completing a certain number of classes.
But it does state that programs will be established for students who are "overage" and enter a middle school or high school. City school officials consider a student who is 1.5 years older than expected at the end of a school year -- such as 8.5 years old at the end of first grade -- to be overage.
These programs are to be provided without any additional money.
"It's going to press for more creativity within school improvement plans so that these student learning needs are met," said Phil Parr, district director of strategic planning and development.
School board president Alex Matthews, who favors the new policy, doesn't favor social promotions although he thinks the effects of the new policy at first "will be very devastating" as more children are held back.
He said teachers and principals would be held accountable for helping students to achieve.
"If you say you're going to eliminate social promotions, we've got to make sure we're addressing the needs of every single child as (he's) moving from grade level to grade level.
"We have to say if there is somebody who has fallen behind, what are we doing to make sure that child succeeds? Otherwise, what you're going to do is see a higher drop-out rate."
Being overage is considered a key predictor of dropping out.
"The connection to high school drop-outs is a real worrisome sign about retention," said Reynolds.
City school figures from this June show that some overage students do drop out.
In elementary and middle schools, the percentage of overage students increases steadily, from 1.1 percent in first grade to 3.7 percent in fifth grade. By eighth grade, 5.6 percent are overage.
In high schools, the number grows sharply at the end of ninth grade, with 13.9 percent of the students overage, apparently reflecting students who were promoted to high school but couldn't pass enough courses to become sophomores.
Many of those students are gone once they reach the dropout age, because only 7 percent are overage in 10th grade. To drop out, students must be 16 with parental permission and a job, or 17 otherwise.
Retained adults
Hedy Miller, North Side area coordinator for the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, has had clients who have both been pushed ahead or retained and now need help in reading.
"I do notice that people say, 'I finished 12th grade, but that doesn't mean anything. I lack basic skills. I was just passed on to get rid of me.'
"We do have students who say, 'I was held back and I got to be so old when I was in seventh or eighth grade, I decided to chuck it,"' she said.
Walter Long of Shaler graduated from Shaler Area High School in the Class of 1970 -- at the age of 20.
He had been held back twice in elementary school and pushed along through high school. He later turned to the literacy council to help him bring up his reading skills.
Now he sees the same school system -- from which two of his children have graduated and in which two are enrolled -- offering more support for students, tutoring and team teaching.
If he had had those opportunities, said Long, who's now on the literacy council board, "I think I would have totally had a different outlook on school and the problems I had," he said.
Bette Hughes, executive director of the Pittsburgh Council on Public Education, knows firsthand how important help zeroing in on a child's needs can be.
When her daughter Caitlin Garrity was in first grade at Liberty Elementary School in Shadyside, the school suggested that she be retained. The family had her independently evaluated, and hired a tutor for after-school, weekends and summer. By third grade, she caught up. Now she is a successful senior at Schenley High School.
"I thought of all the people who couldn't do that. We really had to have a lot of resources, drive her to the tutor, pay for the tutor. It made a tremendous difference. She was sad to think she wouldn't go forward with her friends," Hughes said.
Each Pittsburgh public school is supposed to be devising ways to help students to meet the standards.
At Lincoln Elementary School, several programs are in place: An "early learning skills" class bridges the gap between kindergarten and first grade for 13 pupils, and Title 1 money has helped to pay for after-school help in math and reading for 50 students and for summer school, which 103 children attended.
Lincoln principal Regina Hollie said she has noticed a decrease in the number of poor work notices this year.
Which is worse?
In some districts, it's not social promotion that's seen as bad; it's retention. "Holding back" a child is discouraged, and the emphasis is on diagnosing and addressing academic problems early.
For elementary pupils, for example, Fox Chapel Area's policy states, "Research indicates that retention does not have a positive impact upon student success in school, and is therefore discouraged as a practice. Meeting the individual learning needs of the student is of prime importance to a student's success, and must replace the practice of retention.
"There may, however, be a rare instance when retention may be considered based upon close scrutiny of the social, emotional, physical and academic needs of the individual."
For this year, Fox Chapel Area had one retention in middle school and six in elementary.
John Gorsin, assistant superintendent in Fox Chapel Area, said he had seen negative effects from retention, although he also has seen exceptions.
"We've had students that have been retained, and we've monitored their progress; and in the second year, there was no substantial increase in terms of achievement."
West Mifflin Area Superintendent Joseph Dimperio said his district worked to help students to master the material, but promotions sometimes were preferable to retention.
"To constantly retain a youngster in a grade year after year, there are other educational benefits that accrue by moving on, such as maturation," said Dimperio. "That light bulb may come on. Sometimes we can move them on and help them catch up."
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