Promotion commotion
The Christian Science Monitor
Teresa Mendez
April 6, 2004
New York City's mayor has a goal: stamping out 'social promotion.' But can he succeed where so many others have failed?
Paul is standing at the front of Ms. Lawrence's fourth-grade class. He looks small and bashful in jeans and a denim shirt, yet at the same time earnest and determined as he delivers a message to a visitor to his Bronx classroom at PS 86. "Parents are worried that their kids might be left behind," he tells her. "Especially the third-graders."
Such is the depth to which a climate of accountability through high-stakes testing has permeated the education landscape - and a small example of the anxiety it is provoking. Setting the tone nationwide is No Child Left Behind, the sweeping 2002 education reform act, with its strict annual testing requirements and its goal to elevate all students to grade level in reading and math by 2014.
But here in New York City, the debate over the best way to stamp out social promotion - the practice of graduating students with their peers, regardless of whether or not they are prepared academically - has taken on an urgency perhaps not currently matched anywhere else in the United States.
Beginning this year, a new policy will take effect in all of the city's public schools. Third-graders who cannot demonstrate basic competency on citywide math and English tests will not be promoted to the fourth grade.
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A significant body of research indicates that holding students back increases their likelihood of becoming discouraged and dropping out of school.
Many New Yorkers on the front line of this question - principals, teachers, and parents who work every day beside the city's students - also remain deeply skeptical.
"With kids as young as third grade, you can't have a policy of one size fits all," says Sheldon Benardo, principal of PS 86, of using standardized test scores to quantify student achievement.
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Yet, in defense of Bloomberg's plan, there is also a handful of current studies showing that retention - when infused with extras like individualized learning plans and one-on-one tutoring - may have some benefits.
In general, though, those benefits tend to appear only over a longer period - and are unlikely to produce the kinds of quick results favored by politicians.
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The question policymakers should be asking, says Paul Reville, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is: "How's the second year going to be better than the first for this child?"
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Today, most education experts argue that social promotion and retention are equally flawed approaches. Instead, they say, attention should be paid to the earlier grades. "The sooner you can pick up the problem the better," says Professor Alexander. "Third grade is often too late."
"We do these heroic interventions when things reach a crisis point. The preferred course of action would be to intervene before the problems get that severe."
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© Copyright 2004. The Christian Science Monitor
