Social Promotion & Grade Retention Back to Spotlight Issues Back to CTEST Home Page	Introduction to the issue
	Official Documents regarding grade retention
	Social Promotion & Grade Retention In the News
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	References to Grade Retention

Introduction to the Issues

By Anne Wheelock

When policy makers define standards primarily in terms of measurable outcomes, especially for accountability purposes, they almost invariably seek to couch these standards in familiar terms so as to make them more understandable and concrete. Thus, on both national and local levels, policy makers increasingly describe test scores themselves as if they were "standards." Then, as the public applauds policies designed to convey "zero-tolerance" for lackadaisical performance, these test scores become the means for determining which students to retain in grade or slot into specific programs... At the same time that decision-makers are attempting to motivate students to work harder through "tough consequences," they are also moving to "hold schools accountable," with monetary awards and sanctions distributed according to schools that "make progress" or backslide. Despite the widespread popularity of these practices, neither is likely to result in lasting improvement, especially for the most vulnerable students in the most vulnerable schools.

Couched in terms of "holding students accountable," retaining students in grade purports to be a well-reasoned response to students who have not mastered the learning requirements in a given grade. As proponents of non-promotion see it, repeating a grade may be painful for students in the short term, but they believe that over time students will learn that they must work harder to meet "standards." Moreover, say supporters of non-promotion, retained students will be fully "prepared" for more difficult work once they reach subsequent grades. Indeed, President Clinton in his 1997 State of the Union Address linked the movement for higher standards to a national test for fourth and eighth graders and called for an end to what he called "social promotion."

Equating standards with test scores and grade retention, however, is likely to backfire. Fueled by the notion that "standards" should sort students into categories, separating the "ready" from the "unprepared," grade retention actually depresses student achievement and motivation, making many students vulnerable to behavior that risks both school engagement and social well-being. And when large numbers of a school's students are overage for their grade, the entire school takes on the characteristics of low-track classrooms, with the overall school climate reflecting depressed expectations for learning.

Actual numbers on grade retention are difficult to come by. The U.S. Department of Education does not routinely collect data on the practice, and data collection in the states is idiosyncratic. For example, some states like Pennsylvania, Iowa, and New York collect no data on non-promotion. Others collect state wide data, but do not disaggregate them by race, as in North Carolina, or by grade, as in Indiana. Still others collect data for particular grade levels only. For example, Michigan collects grade retention data only for grades 9-12, with no disaggregation by race. Moreover, counting methods themselves vary from state to state.

Data that are available suggest that far from an occasionally-used practice, non-promotion is a familiar experience for many students. For example, in the middle grades, the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS:88) found that one fifth of all eighth graders had repeated at least one grade, with the proportion climbing to one out of three eighth graders from low-income families. A more recent report from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health puts the prevalence of adolescents who were retained in grade at least one year at 21.3% (Resnick, et al, 1997). Moreover, data compiled by some of the nation's state departments of education suggest that the numbers of students retained in grade may be legion. For example, in the 1994-95 school year, the last year for which data are available in some states, Michigan retained 10,312 students in the high school grades alone, Kentucky retained 15,289 in fourth through twelfth grades, and Texas retained 128,369 for all grades. In 1995-96, Florida retained 96,753 students; Georgia retained 51,044; Tennessee retained 45,498; Wisconsin retained 19,391; and Massachusetts retained 18,298.

Over all the states, according to Columbia University's Linda Darling-Hammond (1997), four million students were retained in 1994. American Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman (1997) estimates that more than half of all students in many urban districts repeat at least one grade before they leave school, with or without a diploma. Not surprisingly given these numbers, grade retention proves to be an expensive reform that reaps few benefits. For example, with an average per-pupil cost of $4,504, Texas spends an estimated $578 million for each extra year of schooling required from retained students (Texas Education Agency, 1996).

In some districts and states, failure to meet certain standardized test score levels frequently mandates non-promotion... For example, in June 1997, Chicago schools notified about one quarter of their eighth-graders and 48 per cent of their ninth grades that their promotion would be contingent on achieving a specified grade-equivalent cutoff score on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills after summer-school remedial help. The superintendent predicted that some 2,000 to 2,500 eighth graders would not achieve the required score of 7.0 and would be repeating their grade the following year. Commenting on Chicago's policy, Kathy Christie, a spokeswoman for the Education Commission of the States said, "[Chicago's] a little ahead of the game. We're going to be seeing a lot of this around the country in the next year or two" (Johnson, 1997). News reports have confirmed her prediction as growing numbers of students from Denver to North Carolina are retained in grade.

Perhaps if a second year in grade resulted in higher achievement and a stronger commitment to school, educators would be justified in retaining so many students. However, research on grade retention reveals that no such thing occurs. Students who repeat a grade typically do worse academically than those in carefully matched control groups (Smith and Shepard, 1989). In districts with high percentages of students retained in the elementary grades, many students reach middle school already overage for their grade; when they experience a second grade retention in the middle grades, they begin to disengage from schooling altogether. For example, an extensive study in one district found that middle school truancy correlated most strongly with students' overage-for-grade status (Weitzman, et al, 1986). Far from stimulating students to perform "at standard," being overage for grade gnaws away at students' sense of efficacy, with the impact especially severe for African-American students (Spurlock, Munford, and Madhere, 1995). Moreover, students retained in grade do not go on to higher achievement levels in subsequent grades. Compared to on-grade students, overage students are twice as likely to be retained in grade (Texas Education Agency, 1996). In addition, they often end up in the lowest ability groups or special education in later grades, or, in middle schools, may repeat the grade at a lower track level (Alexander and Entwisle, 1996; Smith and Shepard, 1989; Dentzer and Wheelock, 1990). As a result, these vulnerable students are often those who also experience the most diluted curriculum and diminished opportunities to learn (Oakes, 1985, 1990).

In communities that employ grade retention in the name of "standards" while holding on to standardized testing, textbook-based curriculum, and widespread use of ability grouping, many students, especially the most vulnerable, will lose more than they gain from so-called "standards-based reforms." For retained children - bored with their schooling and overage for grade, sometimes by two years by the time they leave the eighth grade - the threat of withholding a diploma rarely stimulates them to engage in school. Many of these students ultimately develop the belief that "school is not for me" and drop out (Wehlage and Rutter, 1986; Wheelock and Dorman, 1988). Indeed, being overage for grade is a better predictor of dropping out that underachievement (Texas Education Agency, 1996). And in the middle grades and beyond, as schools fill up with overage and under-motivated students, the school culture itself becomes vulnerable to depressed expectations and mediocre practice. Such a situation does not bode well for learning that meets "higher standards."

References

Alexander, K.L. and Entwisle, D.R. (1996). "Educational Tracking During the Early Years: First Grade Placements and Middle School Constraints." pp. 75-105 in A. C. Kerckhoff (Ed.), Generating Social Stratification: Toward a New Research Agenda, Boulder: Westview Press.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The Right to Learn: A Blueprint For Creating Schools That Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1992-1993). "Standards of Practice and Delivery for Learner-Centered Schools," Stanford Law and Policy Review, Winter: 37-52.

Dentzer, E. and Wheelock, A. (1990). Locked In/Locked Out: Tracking and Placement Practices in Boston Public Schools... Boston: Massachusetts Advocacy Center.

Feldman, S. (1997). "Passing On Failure." American Educator. 21(3), Fall:4-10.

Johnson, D. (1997). "Chicago Schools Are Setting A Standard," New York Times, 6 June:1.

Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality... New Haven: Yale University Press.

Oakes, J. (1990). Multiplying Inequalities: The Effects of Race, Social Class, and Tracking on Opportunities to Learn Mathematics and Science. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.

Resnick, M.D., Bearman, P.S., Blum, R.W., Bauman, K.E., Harris, K.M., Jones, J., Tabor, J., Beuhring, T., Sieving, R., Shew, M., Ireland, M., Bearinger, L.H., Udry, J.R.. (1997). "Protecting Adolescents from Harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health," Journal of the American Medical Association, 10 September; 278: 823-832.

Smith, M.L. and Shepard, L., Eds. (1989). Flunking Grades: Research and Policies on Retention... New York: Falmer Press.

Spurlock, H.L., Munford, R.L., and Madhere, S. (1995). "Effects of Gender, Race, and Grade Retention on the Developmental Progression of Self-Efficacy Perceptions." Paper presented at the American Psychological Society Conference, New York, July.

Texas Education Agency. (1996). Comprehensive Bienniel Report on Texas Public Schools: A Report to the 75th Texas Legislature. Austin: Texas Education Agency.

Weitzman, M. et al. (1985). "Demographic and Educational Characteristics of Inner City Middle School Problem Absence Students," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 55(3), July.

Wheelock, A. and Dorman, G. (1988). Before It's Too Late: Dropout Prevention in the Middle Grades... Boston: Massachusetts Advocacy Center and Chapel Hill: Center for Early Adolescence.

Official Documents

Excerpt of President Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address in which he speaks to the issue of retention.

Senator Lott's statement with the Republican response to the State of the Union address.

The following are a few citations from the ERIC database which deal with the issue of retention. There are several sites to search ERIC on the Internet, including the AskERIC Virtual Library site at: http://ericir.syr.edu "Grade Repetition" is the formal subject descriptor. This list was compiled compliments of Anne Wheelock

-Ron Banks, ERIC/EECE

EJ480451 TM517803

A Two Year Follow-Up Study on Junior High Students at Risk and Special

Education Factors.

Lombardi, Thomas P.; Odell, Kerry S.

Educational Research Quarterly, v17 n3 p5-13 Jul 1994

ISSN: 0196-5042

Available From: UMI

Language: English

Document Type: RESEARCH REPORT (143); JOURNAL ARTICLE (080)

Journal Announcement: CIJJUL94

A follow-up in-depth study of 100 seventh graders who had been previously identified as at risk (39% of whom were identified as eligible for special education) found that, although at-risk students received more intervention strategies than their counterparts, they were still being retained in grade and failing to a greater degree. (SLD)

ED393026 CG026669

The Impact of Early Grade Retention on the Academic Achievement and Self-Esteem of Seventh and Eighth Grade Students.

Setencich, Jill

3 Mar 1994

11p.; Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the National

Association of School Psychologists (26th, Seattle, WA, March 1-5, 1994).

Study completed in partial fulfillment for Master's of Science degree,

California State University, Fresno.

EDRS Price - MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.

Language: English

Document Type: CONFERENCE PAPER (150); RESEARCH REPORT (143)

Geographic Source: U.S.; California

Journal Announcement: RIEAUG96

Retention has been the answer to the problem of what to do with students who are unprepared for the academic and social demands of the next grade. Studies contend that children view retention as punishment and experience emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness when not promoted. Retention or nonpromotion can be defined as the practice of requiring a child to repeat a particular grade or requiring a child of appropriate chronological age to delay entry to kindergarten or first grade. This study (n=36) was designed to investigate the long-term impact of being retained in kindergarten or first grade on seventh and eighth grade students. The hypothesis was that retained students would score significantly lower than their nonretained peers on academic and self-esteem measures. Academic achievement was measured by the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) and self-esteem was measured by the Self-Esteem Inventory School Form. Results supported the hypothesis that retained students had significantly lower academic achievement and self-esteem scores that the promoted pupils. Contains 12 references. (JBJ)

ED343245 EA023790

Longitudinal Effects of Nonpromotion in Junior High School.

Lenarduzzi, Grant; McLaughlin, T. F. 1992 9p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, January 2-5, 1992).

EDRS Price - MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.

Language: English

Document Type: EVALUATIVE REPORT (142); CONFERENCE PAPER (150)

Geographic Source: Canada; British Columbia

Journal Announcement: RIEAUG92

The issue of grade retention and social promotion is still a very controversial topic. The empirical literature assessing the effectiveness of nonpromotion remains mixed. Nonpromotion seems most effective with students in white, suburban, and middle-class school districts. This paper describes a 4-year follow-up to an earlier controlled study by Lenarduzzi and McLaughlin (1990) showing that nonpromotion significantly improved seventh- and eighth-grade students' academic achievement and scholastic effort. The present report evaluated the long-term effectiveness of grade retention and promotion for portions of this same sample, using data gathered over a 4-year period while the students attended junior and senior high school. Of the original sample of 33, 18 student records could be located and examined. All students had attended the same junior and senior secondary school in the school district in rural interior British Columbia, Canada. Results indicated no significant differences for either attendance or grade point average between the promoted and the retained students. In addition, both groups suffered from very high dropout rates. School districts can work with parents of at-risk students and intervene early with skill-based instruction. Possibly, both retained and promoted groups in this study needed building- and system-wide assistance. Until such assistance is provided, the retention/promotion dilemma may be a moot issue. (16 references) (MLH)

EJ417980 CS740739

The Effects of Nonpromotion in Junior High School on Academic Achievement and Scholastic Effort.

Lenarduzzi, Grant P.; McLaughlin, T. F.

Reading Improvement, v27 n3 p212-17 Fall 1990

Report No: ISSN-0034-0510

Available From: UMI

Language: English

Document Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE (080); RESEARCH REPORT (143)

Journal Announcement: CIJAPR91

Examines the effects of nonpromotion on achievement and effort of junior high school students. Finds that students who were retained improved significantly with respect to academic achievement and effort when compared to students who had been considered for retention but had been promoted. (KEH)

ED397213 UD031095

Grade Retention and School Dropout: Policy Debate and Research Questions.

Roderick, Melissa

Phi Delta Kappa, Bloomington, IN. Center on Evaluation, Development, and Research. Phi Delta Kappa Research Bulletin, n15 p1-6 Dec 1995 Dec 1995 8p.

Available From: Phi Delta Kappa, P.O. Box 789, Bloomington, IN 47402-0789.

EDRS Price - MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.

Language: English

Document Type: SERIAL (022); EVALUATIVE REPORT (142)

Geographic Source: U.S.; Indiana

Journal Announcement: RIENOV96

Educational policy trends have contributed to rising rates of student grade retention over the past two decades. This research bulletin looks at the evidence about whether and how grade retention may influence the chances that a student would drop out of school. In 1992, evidence indicates that about 20% of 14-year-olds may have experienced a grade retention between first and eighth grades. Retention rates and the proportion of students who are overage for grade vary significantly by race and gender. There is indeed a strong association between retention and dropping out, and the literature on grade retention suggests three important aspects of the retention experience that combine to place students at risk of school failure and early school leaving. As a remediation strategy, retention does not appear to improve school performance. In addition, it is a strong message that the teacher and school do not consider the student capable; and it may increase the chances of leaving school because it makes a student overage for grade during adolescence and may increase frustration and disengagement. In many cases, however, teachers are not in accord with these research findings, largely because they cannot follow their students over time. Policy makers will have to address teacher attitudes and the continuing use of test scores for student retention decisions if they wish to change this educational trend. (Contains one figure and two tables.) (SLD)

EJ500882 CG546352

Student Retention: Is It Effective?

Walters, Deneen M.; Borgers, Sherry B.

School Counselor, v42 n4 p300-10 Mar 1995

ISSN: 0036-6536

Available From: UMI

Language: English

Document Type: RESEARCH REPORT (143); JOURNAL ARTICLE (080)

Journal Announcement: CIJAUG95

Provides for those involved in retaining a child a concise, cumulative report of recent literature and research on elementary grade retention. Most research indicated that elementary school level retention does not effectively increase academic achievement among low-achieving students. Research-based decision making on this issue is a must. (RJM)

EJ500602 TM518612

The Effect of Elementary Grade Retention on Subsequent School Achievement and Ability.

Westbury, Marilyn

Canadian Journal of Education, v19 n3 p241-50 Sum 1994

ISSN: 0380-2361

Available From: UMI

Language: English

Document Type: RESEARCH REPORT (143); JOURNAL ARTICLE (080)

Journal Announcement: CIJJUL95

Achievement and ability of 135 retained elementary school students (grade 6) in Canada were compared with those of 103 matched continually promoted students. Reading comprehension, cognitive ability, and achievement test scores indicate that grade retention is ineffective in improving achievement and ability. (SLD)

ED369177 EA025796

To Retain or Not? There Is No Question.

Harvey, Barbara H.

Feb 1994 26p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of School Administrators (San Francisco, CA, February 1994).

EDRS Price - MF01/PC02 Plus Postage.

Language: English

Document Type: CONFERENCE PAPER (150); RESEARCH REPORT (143)

Geographic Source: U.S.; North Carolina

Journal Announcement: RIESEP94

Student retention has been a divisive educational question since the turn of the century. And although early educators found that retention was not particularly effective, they continued using it because their options were limited. Today, educators have many options to retention. Using the database from Project STAR, a study explored the common demographic characteristics and school types of retained kindergartners and first graders. Also, the study examined the effect of class size on the academic achievement of retained kindergartners and first graders. Retained students' achievement scores in reading and math on the Stanford Achievement and the Basic Skills First tests were analyzed in three class sizes: small (13-17 students), regular (21-25 students), and regular with an aide. The average kindergarten and first grade retainee was poor, white, male, and attended a rural school. Class size was unsuccessful in remediating student achievement despite the fact that new enrollees in small classes outscored their peers in larger classes. It is clear that retention does not achieve its goals and is more expensive than remedial services. (Contains 16 references.) (JPT)

EJ476840 SP522912

Failure in Grade: Do Retained Students Catch Up?

Meisels, Samuel J.; Liaw, Fong-ruey

Journal of Educational Research, v87 n2 p69-77 Nov-Dec 1993

ISSN: 0022-0671

Available From: UMI

Language: English

Document Type: RESEARCH REPORT (143); JOURNAL ARTICLE (080)

Journal Announcement: CIJMAY94

This study examined retention in grades K-8 using data from the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study. Male, minority, and lower socioeconomic status (SES) students were more likely to be retained. Retention related to less optimal academic and personal-social outcomes, particularly for female, white, and higher SES students. (SM)

Newspaper Articles

06/25/98; Boston Globe Online

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe/globehtml/176_lr/School_panel_passes_new_promotion_p.htm

• An unusually divided Boston School Committee last night narrowly approved a weaker version of a proposed new student promotion policy, one that will require summer school for thousands of students starting in 2000. The 3-2 vote came after more than three hours of debate during which parents and community members pleaded with the committee to reject the plan. They said teachers and administrators - not students - should be held accountable for promoting thousands of unprepared students each year into higher grades.

06/18/98; Boston Globe Online

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe/globehtml/169_lr/School_panel_mulls_promotion_policy.htm

• As many as 50 percent of third-, fifth-, and eighth-graders in Boston public schools could be forced to go to summer school next year if a strict new promotion policy goes into effect, the School Committee learned last night. The school department released statistics that calculated how many students would be eligible for a six-week mandatory summer school, based on 1997 statistics.

04/21/98; New York Times
By Jacques Steinberg

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/ny-schools-promotion.html

• NEW YORK -- Vowing to roll back a decade-long policy under which hundreds of thousands of city schoolchildren have advanced without mastering basic skills, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew said Monday that he wanted to hold back fourth- and seventh-graders who fail to meet minimum standards for their grade level, beginning in spring 2000. But while raising the bar of achievement, Crew said he also hoped to help students climb over it by giving them expanded opportunities to go to summer school and attend for more hours during the regular school year.

04/07/98; NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/school-recess.html

• Atlanta is one of the few big school districts to implement a no-recess policy. In general, schools are left to decide for themselves, and elementary schools without recess can be found from Chicago to Fairfax County, Va. In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, individual schools decide whether to have recess; schools in New York City generally still have recess. But some districts, like Philadelphia, have turned to a "socialized recess," where children are required to take part in structured, monitored activities. The decline of recess has provoked alarm, even indignation, among most authorities on child development. They insist that free time and unstructured play are vital for intellectual and emotional growth, as well as skills of negotiating and cooperating.

04/03/98; Chicago Sun-Times
BY FRAN SPIELMAN CITY HALL REPORTER

http://www.suntimes.com:80/output/news1/sum03i.htm

• Mayor Daley unveiled plans Thursday to keep more than 200,000 kids busy this summer with camps, jobs and educational programs that move the Chicago Board of Education one step closer to year-round school. The nation's largest summer school program will be expanded to include a record 130,200 students, at a cost of $65 million--up from $58 million and 90,000 students last year. No other city in the nation has even half that many students in summer school. New programs include catch-up classes for bilingual students and ``early intervention'' for 13,500 first- and second-graders who fail to complete a checklist of basic skills. Five thousand fourth- and seventh-grade students who have made considerable progress since being held back will get a chance to jump ahead two grades and rejoin their original classmates after a final summer push.

03/27/98; Las Vegas Sun

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-ed/1998/mar/27/507013865.html

• CARSON CITY (AP) - Nevada lawmakers have endorsed a selection of remedial reading, writing and math programs for use by schools with students who aren't up to par. Schools that don't perform adequately would choose from the 21-program list - once it's reviewed and approved by the state Board of Education - so they can get remedial education money from a $3 million fund set aside by lawmakers.

03/09/98; The Seattle Times
by Jolayne Houtz; Seattle Times staff reporter

http://www.seattletimes.com/news/education/html98/exit_030998.html

• About 200 Seattle fifth-graders face being held back in elementary school, the first students to feel the consequences of the school district's push for higher academic standards. Seattle's new exit-standards system, which kicks in this spring, means students have to meet a number of academic goals before they can move on to sixth grade. Eighth-graders will have to meet a similar set of standards starting in the 1999-2000 school year.

03/09/98;  Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story.mpl/content/chronicle/metropolitan/98/03/09/schools.2-0.html

• An overwhelming majority of Texans agree with Gov. George W. Bush that school districts ought to be required to fail any third-grader who cannot read. What's less clear is how the schools should go about determining who flunks and who passes, a new statewide poll shows. A Scripps Howard Texas Poll found that 92 percent of Texans are in favorof insisting that no pupil leaves third grade without the ability to read. Some 78 percent of respondents also said they view social promotion as a serious issue in public schools, while 13 percent said it is not a problem, 3 percent are neutral and 6 percent don't know. But when it comes to how public schools should determine whether a third-grader should move up to the next grade, 44 percent of Texans said standardized tests should be used while 35 percent said advancement to fourth grade should be based on the teacher's evaluation. The remainder said other methods should be used to decide or they were undecided.

03/08/98; The Denver Post Online
By Janet Bingham

http://www.denverpost.com:80/news/news2341.htm

03/08/98; The Washington Post; Page V03
By Victoria Benning; Washington Post Staff Writer

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-03/08/149l-030898-idx.html

• This week, thousands of Northern Virginia schoolchildren will take the first round of new, high-stakes exams aimed at assessing how well students are meeting the state's tougher academic standards. The tests, part of former governor George Allen's plan to overhaul public education in the state, eventually will be used to determine whether schools should retain their accreditation.

03/03/98; The Augusta Chronicle
By Wendy Grossman; Staff Writer

http://augustachronicle.com/stories/030398/xtr_023-1013.001.shtml                            

• If you're 17 and still in the seventh grade, you're probably not going to be motivated to stay in school the rest of your life to get your high school diploma. Most likely, you'll want to leave. ``Studies show that students who are several grade levels behind when they reach 17, they drop out,'' says Frank Roberson, assistant superintendent for instructional services at Aiken County Public Schools. ``Many of these students never reach ninth grade.'' So Linda Strojan, freshman guidance counselor at North Augusta High School, created the Seven to Nine program, which allows students to skip from seventh to ninth grade.
  

2/18/98; Orange County (CA) Register

http://www.ocregister.com/archives/1998/02/18/education/skul018w2.shtml

• The Santiago Charter Middle School is in the first year of a new program, "Success in School," designed to end social promotion. The Orange Unified school board soon will be asked to consider a similar program for all district middle schools. Here is an outline of the Santiago program for its seventh-graders this year.

2/17/98; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

http://www.jsonline.com/archive/feb98/news/0217mps.stm

• Even though its spending has risen 66% over the past decade, Milwaukee Public Schools has been unable to improve its graduation and attendance rates and its overall grade-point average during that period, a report released Monday says.Math and science scores on national and state achievement tests have declined during the past five years. By contrast, reading scores rose during that period, and all ethnic groups showed improvement on writing tests last year. The attendance rate for middle-school students was only 86% last year, down from 90.1% a decade ago. In the 18 high schools, students attended school, on average, only 75% of the time last year. At three schools, more than four out of five students have been classified as habitual truants. The study says results had risen considerably for students who made it to school more than 90% of the time. Six years ago, these high school students had a grade-point average of 2.41, compared with 2.61 last year.

2/16/98; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

http://www.jsonline.com/archive/feb98/news/0216dropout.stm

• A new report by the U.S. Department of Education released this month showed a staggering dropout rate of 30% for Hispanics nationwide while dropout rates for other minorities have declined over the last 25 years. The study looked at the number of Hispanics between the ages of 16 and 24 who don't have high school diplomas. Milwaukee's Hispanic dropout rate also has reached an alarming level, experts say. In Milwaukee, the annual dropout rate for Hispanics is reported at 13%, just below the 14% for African-Americans, and the 15% dropout rate for Native Americans. That compares with 8% for white students. But if you multiply that annual Hispanic dropout rate of 13% times four years of high school, that brings the dropout rate to more than 50% for Milwaukee Hispanics, says Walter Sava, director of the United Community Center.

02/11/98;  Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story.mpl/content/chronicle/metropolitan/98/02/11/taas-tests.2-0.html

• More than 16,000 Texas high school seniors face the prospect of not graduating this spring because they still have not passed one or more portions of the state's mandatory exit test, education officials said Tuesday. State officials note, however, that the failure rate is about 8 percentage points lower than the previous year, and, for the first time, students who have failed the exit-level Texas Assessment of Academic Skills will be provided a study guide to help them pass on the next try.

2/10/98; The Philadelphia Dailey News
by Kevin Haney, Daily News Staff Writer

http://www.phillynews.com:80/daily_news/98/Feb/10/local/SKUL10.htm

• Students, parents, teachers and taxpayers will soon have a chance to grade the School District on its proposed changes in promotion and graduation requirements. The board yesterday approved a draft document that would end the current "social promotion" policy, which only allows a student to be held back once in the elementary grades, and doesn't include summer school. District officials are proposing the changes because of a dropout rate of nearly 50 percent at some high schools and complaints from businesses and colleges that Philadelphia public school graduates are poorly educated. The proposal would establish summer schools and remedial "transition" classes before failing students could be promoted beyond certain grades. It would also create new high school graduation requirements, including citywide final exams. The district wants to reinstitute summer schools by June 2000 for students in 3rd, 4th, 7th and 11th grades.

02/10/98;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/current/22bush.h17

• Gov. George W. Bush of Texas has launched his 1998 re-election bid with a get-tough pledge to make it harder for public school students to advance to the next grade before mastering basic academic skills. In an effort to end so-called social promotions, Mr. Bush would require students in certain grades to pass statewide tests in order to move up a grade. Students who failed the exams would receive intensive remedial help. Governors in California, Delaware, Michigan, and Wisconsin have made similar pledges, and, in his State of the Union Address last month, President Clinton declared that "it is time to end social promotion in America's schools."

02/09/98; The Washington Post; Page D03
By Debbi Wilgoren, Staff Writer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-02/09/080l-020998-idx.html

• D.C. school officials plan to weigh class work and summer school performance, as well as scores on tough new math and reading tests, in deciding which students to promote to the next grade in the fall. Proposed new guidelines would bar promotion for elementary school students who score extremely low on achievement tests they must take in April, regardless of their work in class and over the summer -- a plan that drew sharp criticism from two education professors and mixed reviews from several D.C. principals.
  

02/04/98; Access Atlanta
By Rick Badie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

http://www.accessatlanta.com:80/news/1998/02/04/promote.html

• The days of Johnny and Susie being promoted to the next grade even though they aren't ready academically may end in Fulton County schools. School officials are hashing out a tougher proposal on social promotion and retention, trying to craft a balance between the two that will help students leave high school ready for college or entry-level jobs. The proposal is one of several under consideration before the district switches to a semester system this fall.

02/03/98; The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Richard Jones

http://www.phillynews.com:80/inquirer/98/Feb/03/front_page/SKUL03.htm

• In yet another attempt to hold Philadelphia public schools to a higher standard, Superintendent David Hornbeck yesterday unveiled plans that would reduce class size in the early grades, toughen graduation requirements, and dismantle the district's "social promotion" policy. The proposals, introduced yesterday at a meeting of the school board's education committee, are some of the most far-reaching of Hornbeck's three-year-old Children Achieving school-reform plan. If approved by the school board in a planned spring vote, they would affect every one of the city's 215,000 public-school children.
  

02/02/98; Business First

http://www.amcity.com:80/louisville/stories/020298/editorial1.html

• Daeschner's plan includes a program of continuous testing for low-performing students in an attempt to identify their problems early and to get them help. The plan also calls for three different ways of identifying students leaving Jefferson County high schools. Many states have adopted graduation tests that students must pass before they receive a high school diploma. The problem with these tests is that by the time they are administered, it's too late to save many of the students who don't measure up. If a student is having a problem in first grade, it should be identified then and a course of corrective action should be taken so he or she won't fall woefully behind.
  

01/30/98; The Sacramento Bee

http://www.sacbee.com/news/beetoday/newsroom/edit/013098/edit02.html

• In California gubernatorial politics, where the contest for status as the state's most education-minded politician gets more heated by the day, "social promotion" a term scarcely heard from the mouths of candidates a few months back has become topic A. Social promotion, for those unversed in edu-speak, is the unfortunate practice, widespread in some public school districts, of passing students on to the next level regardless of whether they've mastered the skills taught in their present grade. It's an undeniable problem: Too many school districts report more than half of their students reading below or well below grade level meaning they've been moved up regardless of ability. And when nearly half of all students admitted to the California State University system representing the top third of the state's high school graduates arrive in need of remedial English and/or math instruction, it's clear that the K-12 system isn't holding them to anywhere near a high enough standard.
  

01/21/98; The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/21/106l-012198-idx.html

• Board members said they also are reacting to new state guidelines that say students should repeat a grade if they fail state exams being given for the firs time this spring in third, fifth and eighth grades and in high school. The guidelines do not require school districts to hold back those students, although the high school tests eventually will be a graduation requirement.

01/19/98; Long Beach Press Telegram
By Mariko Thompson

http://www.middleweb.com/LB8thprep.html

• In 1994, the district made its reputation nationally as the first to require uniforms in its elementary and middle schools. Now the district is tackling automatic promotions: the widespread practice of allowing pupils to move to the next grade regardless of how poorly they perform. Rather than going on to high school, eighth-graders with two or more F's on their report cards last year were sent to the new school. District officials recognized that making students repeat the same classes with the same teachers wouldn't address the reasons they had failed in the first place. So they set up a special school for 323 pupils in Signal Hill, at a former GTE maintenance yard at 20th Street and Cherry Avenue, with support services and an average class size of 20 students per teacher.

10/06/97; The New York Times

• CHICAGO (AP) -- Parents who delay their child's entry into first grade to give the youngster more time to mature may be doing more harm than good, a study suggests. Children who started school when they were a year or more older than their classmates were 70 percent more likely to display extreme behavior problems, said the study, published in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics. The study did not explore why being older than classmates increased the risk of behavior problems. But an expert not involved with the work, University of Minnesota sociologist Michael Resnick, said any youngster who is ``out of sync'' with classmates -- even one who just looks older -- is more likely to be a troubled teen. The lead researcher on this study was Dr. Robert Byrd of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

08/29/97; The N&O

By Michele Kurtz, Staff Writer

http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1997/08/29/tri03.html

• DURHAM -- More than 200 students are repeating eighth-grade this year, nearly a threefold increase that officials attribute to the school system's new get-tough policy on promotion. Last year, the school system held back 72 students. This year, 209 students flunked, or one out of every 10 eighth-graders in the school system. "Clearly, we're sending fewer kids to high school unable to do the work," Assistant Superintendent David Holdzkom said this week. The increase in numbers is attributed in part to a new policy requiring eighth-graders who don't pass state end-of-grade reading and math tests to attend summer school or flunk.

08/17/97; Sun News

By Cindy Swirko, Sun staff writer

http://www.sunone.com/news/articles/08-1910.html

• Middle-school students used to slacking will no longer be sent packing to high school regardless of their grades under some radical new standards to be adopted by the Alachua County School Board. District officials estimate up to 900 students, or 13 percent of middle school enrollment, could be retained this year under the new standards. Criteria alien to middle schools, such as grade point averages and limits on absences, will invade the campuses this year. The goal is to make more students more serious about classes so they are better prepared for high school.

Websites Relevant to Student Retention

Federick D. Patterson Reaserch Institute of the College Fund /UNCF

The African American Education Data Book

http://www.patterson-uncf.org/dbook.html

• The information in the 1997 African American Education Databook were compiled from numerous databases and reveals the status, performance, progress, and financial support of African Americans in higher education. Altogether, the data and information presented in this volume represent the mostcomprehensive description ever compiled about African Americans in postsecondary education.

References to Retention

Alexander, K.L. and Entwisle, D.R. (1996). "Educational Tracking During the Early Years: First Grade Placements and Middle School Constraints." pp. 75-105 in A. C. Kerckhoff (Ed.), Generating Social Stratification: Toward a New Research Agenda, Boulder: Westview Press.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The Right to Learn: A Blueprint For Creating Schools That Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1992-1993). "Standards of Practice and Delivery for Learner-Centered Schools," Stanford Law and Policy Review, Winter: 37-52.

Dentzer, E. and Wheelock, A. (1990). Locked In/Locked Out: Tracking and Placement Practices in Boston Public Schools... Boston: Massachusetts Advocacy Center.

Feldman, S. (1997). "Passing On Failure." American Educator. 21(3), Fall:4-10.

Johnson, D. (1997). "Chicago Schools Are Setting A Standard," New York Times, 6 June:1.

Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality... New Haven: Yale University Press.

Oakes, J. (1990). Multiplying Inequalities: The Effects of Race, Social Class, and Tracking on Opportunities to Learn Mathematics and Science. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.

Resnick, M.D., Bearman, P.S., Blum, R.W., Bauman, K.E., Harris, K.M., Jones, J., Tabor, J., Beuhring, T., Sieving, R., Shew, M., Ireland, M., Bearinger, L.H., Udry, J.R.. (1997). "Protecting Adolescents from Harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health," Journal of the American Medical Association, 10 September; 278: 823-832.

Smith, M.L. and Shepard, L., Eds. (1989). Flunking Grades: Research and Policies on Retention... New York: Falmer Press.

Spurlock, H.L., Munford, R.L., and Madhere, S. (1995). "Effects of Gender, Race, and Grade Retention on the Developmental Progression of Self-Efficacy Perceptions." Paper presented at the American Psychological Society Conference, New York, July.

Texas Education Agency. (1996). Comprehensive Bienniel Report on Texas Public Schools: A Report to the 75th Texas Legislature. Austin: Texas Education Agency.

Weitzman, M. et al. (1985). "Demographic and Educational Characteristics of Inner City Middle School Problem Absence Students," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 55(3), July.

Wheelock, A. and Dorman, G. (1988). Before It's Too Late: Dropout Prevention in the Middle Grades... Boston: Massachusetts Advocacy Center and Chapel Hill: Center for Early Adolescence.

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