Social Promotion
Problem: The schools promote students from grade to grade even though the students have not learned the material.
This is the critical problem we must solve. The fact that high-school graduates must take remedial course in college, and that employers complain that job applicants are drop-outs and illiterates, is a direct result of this promotion policy. Year after year many students move through school without learning what they should.
This problem seems to be known as ‘Social Promotion,‘ and in 1999 President Clinton announced that it was time to end the practice of promoting students to the next grade regardless of their academic progress. There is a very interesting article at http://www.educationnext.org/20051/49.html describing how the Chicago Public Schools worked on this problem, starting in about 1995. And the US Department of Education provides a great deal of useful help at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/socialpromotion/index.html
In implementing this program Chicago found that, in the beginning, there was some concern about the feasibility of this change. But in the end, parents, students, teachers, principals, and school administrators largely agreed it was a success. One common point made was that the new policy caused students to be better motivated, and their parents to be more involved in their children‘s education. Putting it another way, ‘Social Promotion’ discourages students from working hard -- they’ll get promoted whether they work or not -- and for the same reason gives parents no reason to become involved.
To solve the promotion problem, we must:
At any rate, as an Albuquerque mid-school teacher pointed out, sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students enter mid-school with an average reading and math level of third grade. Another mid-school teacher wrote “A student can fail all classes and be promoted in school”. (To read these comments, click HERE ) So for the above solution to be practical, we must begin by applying it only to (say) the first and second grades. Then each year we can apply it to a higher grade.
The solution to the promotion problem will take determination on the part of the School Superintendent and the School Board. Some parents may demand that their children be promoted. Some teachers may insist that a child who is held back will be somehow harmed. These objections cannot be accepted if we are to have literate children.
This solution will impose new costs, because we need tutors to help our slower learners, (possibly) extra training for teachers to improve their skills, and summer courses so kids can try to learn the material they failed to learn.
Action hoped-for from the reader.
We’d be delighted to hear from anyone (in New Mexico or anywhere) who has comments on the Social Promotion problem. To comment, just click the underlined word ‘comments’ at the bottom of this page (or any of the other pages), and tell us what you think. We’d be glad to hear from anyone. You might like to tell us:
1. Why you think schools don’t need improving.
2. Why we’re wrong about the problems discussed above, and why (or what additional problems exist that we‘ve ignored or overlooked).
3. What you think should be done to improve schools.
(Incidentally, your comment or remark or criticism can be anonymous.)
CLICK HERE to read the complete plan in its present form.
CLICK HERE to read suggested solutions to the teacher problem.
CLICK HERE to read suggested solutions to the ‘new ideas’ problem.
CLICK HERE to read about other problems which have been suggested as being important
CLICK HERE to return to the Home Page.
To read comments already made, click the time-of-day down below.
To make a comment, click the word ‘comment’ below.
To send a copy of this page to a friend, click the small envelope down below.
(This blog is an independent enterprise, not in any way affiliatedwith the Santa Fe Public Schools)
This is the critical problem we must solve. The fact that high-school graduates must take remedial course in college, and that employers complain that job applicants are drop-outs and illiterates, is a direct result of this promotion policy. Year after year many students move through school without learning what they should.
This problem seems to be known as ‘Social Promotion,‘ and in 1999 President Clinton announced that it was time to end the practice of promoting students to the next grade regardless of their academic progress. There is a very interesting article at http://www.educationnext.org/20051/49.html describing how the Chicago Public Schools worked on this problem, starting in about 1995. And the US Department of Education provides a great deal of useful help at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/socialpromotion/index.html
In implementing this program Chicago found that, in the beginning, there was some concern about the feasibility of this change. But in the end, parents, students, teachers, principals, and school administrators largely agreed it was a success. One common point made was that the new policy caused students to be better motivated, and their parents to be more involved in their children‘s education. Putting it another way, ‘Social Promotion’ discourages students from working hard -- they’ll get promoted whether they work or not -- and for the same reason gives parents no reason to become involved.
To solve the promotion problem, we must:
- Set minimum test-score standards for reading and writing in all grades.
- Insure that children who are having trouble during the school year get special attention, either in the class, or in tutoring sessions after class.
- Require that students who fail to meet the standards at year-end, despite the extra attention, go to summer school.
- Require that students who fail after the summer school repeat the grade the next year.
At any rate, as an Albuquerque mid-school teacher pointed out, sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students enter mid-school with an average reading and math level of third grade. Another mid-school teacher wrote “A student can fail all classes and be promoted in school”. (To read these comments, click HERE ) So for the above solution to be practical, we must begin by applying it only to (say) the first and second grades. Then each year we can apply it to a higher grade.
The solution to the promotion problem will take determination on the part of the School Superintendent and the School Board. Some parents may demand that their children be promoted. Some teachers may insist that a child who is held back will be somehow harmed. These objections cannot be accepted if we are to have literate children.
This solution will impose new costs, because we need tutors to help our slower learners, (possibly) extra training for teachers to improve their skills, and summer courses so kids can try to learn the material they failed to learn.
Action hoped-for from the reader.
We’d be delighted to hear from anyone (in New Mexico or anywhere) who has comments on the Social Promotion problem. To comment, just click the underlined word ‘comments’ at the bottom of this page (or any of the other pages), and tell us what you think. We’d be glad to hear from anyone. You might like to tell us:
1. Why you think schools don’t need improving.
2. Why we’re wrong about the problems discussed above, and why (or what additional problems exist that we‘ve ignored or overlooked).
3. What you think should be done to improve schools.
(Incidentally, your comment or remark or criticism can be anonymous.)
CLICK HERE to read the complete plan in its present form.
CLICK HERE to read suggested solutions to the teacher problem.
CLICK HERE to read suggested solutions to the ‘new ideas’ problem.
CLICK HERE to read about other problems which have been suggested as being important
CLICK HERE to return to the Home Page.
To read comments already made, click the time-of-day down below.
To make a comment, click the word ‘comment’ below.
To send a copy of this page to a friend, click the small envelope down below.
(This blog is an independent enterprise, not in any way affiliatedwith the Santa Fe Public Schools)
posted by Monty | 3:31 PM
4 Comments:
I agree students should not be socially promoted. Until a student has sucessfully mastered one thing (semester, topic, year), there is no point to continue further lessons, because they lack the basics to be able to understand what and why they are doing it. The better foundation that the students have, the more they will be able to learn on their own and advanced to higher levels. If a person does not understand the concept of addition, multiplication, fractions, etc, there is no point to try to teach them Algebra, because this is meant to add on and increase their knowledge. If a student cannot read, anything you teach him out of a book is completely lost, that child cannot even take a quiz or test without having it read to them.
Summer school and repeating the grade/class until mastered is the only way to ensure that there is possible success, for the child now and later in life.
Former High School teacher and current homeschool teacher
Thanks for agreeing. But it's difficult to understand what's happening in ones local schools, I find. In Santa Fe there are apparently excellent procedures in place to identify failing students, offer them summer help, evaluate the result of that help, and provide that result to parents and teacher. However, parents or student may refuse the summer help, and even if it is accepted and the evaluation is provided, apparently the parent can insist that the student be promoted, even though indications are he/she should not be.
And in fact the net result of the procedures described above is that perhaps half of students leave high school without the basics of English and Math.
It would seem to me that one of the problems with holding a student back is the social stigma of the situation. How do you face classmates that are now ahead of you in school? Even worse, what if you have to take classes with the same teachers using the same methods that failed to get through last year?
Is there a way to facilitate these failing students getting back on track by:
a) Transferring them away from the distraction of classmates that may have a negative current or future impact.
b) Take time to assess individual students learning styles and match them with teachers that teach to that particularly learning style.
c) Providing workshops and/or materials to parents to help them take a more active role in their children's education. This should include helping parents get G.E.D. or community college education to lead their families out of educational ghettos.
I like your suggestions. Here are my answers:
Social stigma is a problem, but it is also a motivator. And once we're taking steps to avoid Social Promotion, there will only be a few children who fail.
a) A transfer is certainly possible, and the principal and parent should have that as an option.
b) Part of the solution to this problem is to improve teachers' skills (see the Teachers part of this blog).
c) Education of parents is something that hadn't occurred to me. But it seems perhaps that should not be the job of the School District, but rather of the community as a whole. I'll bet you're right, and the parents of many failing children don't themselves have a GED.
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