Home › Previous Issues › Social Promotion

Social Promotion

Download This Issue (PDF)
Spring 2011

Mayor Richard M. Daley got tough on students with a strict promotion policy, making them pass a standardized test before moving to the next grade. Today, the test is less of an obstacle and few students fail, prompting some to ask whether social promotion has returned.

Table of Contents

Hoping to move up

Sarah Karp

As Mayor Richard M. Daley leaves office, the latest statistics on student retention serve as a legacy of one of his most sweeping and controversial education reforms: the ban on social promotion.

Only 4 percent of students in the benchmark grades were held back this year—a sharp drop from the first years of Daley’s policy, when nearly 15 percent of students had to repeat a grade. Daley’s get-tough policy dealt only with 3rd, 6th and 8th grades, but retention has fallen even in the non-benchmark years, to less than 1 percent from about 4 percent.

Daley made national news, most...

student promotion
> Read More

The good and bad of retention

Sarah Karp

Nestled among bungalows on the far outer reaches of the South Side, Shoop Elementary was once touted as an example of how the district’s promotion policy can work.

In the first year of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s policy banning social promotion, a third of Shoop students in the benchmark grades—3rd, 6th and 8th—were held back. Students weren’t coming to school, and then-Principal Lee Brown told Catalyst Chicago that too many students and their parents did not take classes and homework seriously.

But with the threat of being held back a year, students started to get their act...

student promotion
> Read More

Getting up to speed

Sarah Karp

It’s mid-August, two weeks into Robeson High School’s launch as a year-round school, and Principal Gerald Morrow gathers his staff in the dimly lit auditorium to ask their opinions on several logistical matters. 

The mood is hopeful. Robeson, one of just two regular (non-turnaround, non-charter, non-selective) high schools in Englewood, has been a catch-all for struggling students who don’t get in anywhere else. But this year, the school is set for a fresh start: Under the Culture of Calm initiative to enhance school safety, Robeson is getting $1 million to pay for social and...

student promotion
> Read More
Sidebar

Promotion policy losing its teeth

By: Sarah Karp

Since approving a tough student promotion policy in 1996, the School Board has constantly adjusted it, allowing more students to be promoted from one grade to the next.

1996

Since approving a tough student promotion policy in 1996, the School Board has constantly adjusted it, allowing more students to be promoted from one grade to the next. 1996 The School Board approves...
Read More
Sidebar

National debate re-emerges

By: Sam Barnett

Chicago’s debate over social promotion has faded for the most part. In Illinois, few followed the city’s lead in making standardized test scores a primary factor in retaining children.  Many large districts and charter schools say they look at multiple factors before holding children back and don’t pass students along for social reasons—but don’t fail large numbers of students either.

Chicago’s debate over social promotion has faded for the most part. In Illinois, few followed the city’s lead in making standardized test scores a primary factor in retaining children.  Many large...
Read More
Sidebar

Suspensions, failures and a fresh start

By: Sarah Karp

Jermaine Kelly’s elementary school experience was chaotic. Every time he turned around, a fight was “jumping off,” he says, smiling sheepishly and adding, “We had wars inside that school, and I was in the middle of it.”

The response of the principal was swift and always the same. Jermaine says he was suspended so many times, it felt like going through a revolving door. “I would get there, and two days later I would be back home,” Jermaine recalls.  In 7th grade, he was suspended multiple times for eight to 10 days.

Jermaine Kelly’s elementary school experience was chaotic. Every time he turned around, a fight was “jumping off,” he says, smiling sheepishly and adding, “We had wars inside that school, and I was...
Read More
Letter From the Editor

Kill student retention and get real about learning

By: Lorraine Forte

It’s a practice that just won’t die.

Study after study, researcher after researcher, has made the same point: Holding students back when they are not achieving at grade level does not help them academically.

Still, the idea resonates with the public. And outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley garnered praise for instituting a ban on social promotion in 1996.

Now, like an aging, punch-drunk prizefighter who just won’t give up and leave the ring, the district’s promotion policy remains alive, if not well.

It’s a practice that just won’t die. Study after study, researcher after researcher, has made the same point: Holding students back when they are not achieving at grade level does not help them...
Read More

Become a Catalyst member

go here for more