|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
For many years, American schools commonly practiced what is called "social promotion," the advancement of struggling students from one grade level to the next with the intent of keeping children in the same peer group, in the hopes that students would reach grade-level achievement levels in a subsequent school year. However, as a part of states' standards, assessment and accountability initiatives starting in the mid-1990s, states and districts began to implement bans on social promotion, intending to keep children in the same grade level until they could demonstrate mastery of grade-level skills and knowledge. While at first glance a reasonable means of assuring that students gain grade-level proficiency, a number of research studies have indicated that neither retention nor social promotion positively influence students.
Practices such as looping (in which students remain with the same teacher and classmates for more than one academic year), smaller class size and multi-age classrooms also have been proposed as means to help teachers identify struggling children and provide them with individualized instruction. However, the success of these latter three approaches indisputedly rests on teacher quality; students in a small class or spending multiple years with an ineffective teacher will not make adequate progress toward grade-level proficiency. For information on the related issue of high-stakes assessments, please visit "High Stakes/Competency." Sources: Finding Alternatives To Failure: Can States End Social Promotion and Reduce Retention Rates?, Southern Regional Education Board, January 2001; The Grade Retention vs. Social Promotion Trap: Finding Alternatives That Work, Lisa Banicky with Helen K. Foss, University of Delaware, 1999.
|
 |
| Home | Education Issues A-Z
| ECS Publications | State Legislation
| States Resources | Events | Projects and Institutes | Newsroom | About ECS | Website User's Guide | Contact Staff |
||||
|
||||
