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student promotion

April 29, 2011

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.

April 29, 2011

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

April 29, 2011

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.

April 29, 2011

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.

April 29, 2011

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.

April 29, 2011

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. 

April 29, 2011

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.

October 02, 2006

More students passed the end-of-summer school tests this year, after the district adopted a new standardized test used to determine whether students are promoted, according to an analysis of preliminary figures released in early September.

The slight increase in pass rates came even though Chicago Public Schools reinstated math performance as a factor for retention. Last year, 31 percent of students who had to retake the reading test after summer school passed. This year, 35 percent of students who had to retake reading, math or both tests passed.

February 21, 2006

Saleemah Muñoz arrives for the first day of school last September looking polished and prepared, dressed in a blue jumper and white blouse, a new backpack slung over her shoulder and her hair neatly braided with rows of white beads. She looks a bit scared, though, and a little glum as she takes her seat in Judy Owens' 3rd-grade class at Jordan Community School in East Rogers Park.

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