If the classes are taught properly than the tests wouldn't be needed, if the kid fails their classes, hold them back. No matter how you do it, parents will complain. If I got a bad grade, I studied harder at my parents behest....
It's a traumatic decision for everyone involved: Should a student who fails the state test required for promotion to the next grade be held back or promoted anyway?
If you bump the kid up a grade level without the necessary skills, it may set him up for failure. But if you hold him back because he's weak in one subject area, you stigmatize him, perhaps stunt him, and may end up boring him to tears exposing him to another year of the same material -- in every subject.
On balance, though, widespread social promotion of students seems the wrong thing to do.
The problem is an annual one, but may be more pronounced this year because even state officials acknowledge that their test -- the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests -- was problematic this year, and perhaps an inaccurate reflection of student achievement.
The state's third-graders must pass the reading test, while fifth- and eighth-graders must pass both reading and math.
The math tests were based on a new, harder curriculum this past year, perhaps accounting for a good portion of the initial failure rate of about 38 percent of the students.
Under the law, teams of parents, teachers and principals can decide to promote students who fail the tests.
In Richmond County, the promotion rate of those failing the CRCT was 86 percent this year -- essentially rendering the test meaningless.
Again, we realize that holding kids back is traumatic. Still, social promotion isn't such a great idea, either.
Former Washington Post columnist William Raspberry compared social promotion of underperforming students to learning skills at your place of work. If you were given a new skill to learn, and didn't learn it, your boss wouldn't just give up and let you go on. You would have to keep at it until you mastered it.
So why allow students to skate, especially on basic skills? How is that helping them?
And what does it say about the value of the skills in question?
This question is particularly vexing in a state with some of the lowest SAT scores in the nation -- and in a school district where the graduation rate hovers around 60 percent.
At some point, we need to stop treating the "three Rs" as cafeteria food -- to be picked up or left behind.
And maybe the mantra shouldn't be "No Child Left Behind." Maybe it should be "No Basic Skill Left Behind."
Comments
If the classes are taught properly than the tests wouldn't be needed, if the kid fails their classes, hold them back. No matter how you do it, parents will complain. If I got a bad grade, I studied harder at my parents behest....
As a veteran teacher with over 18 years, I am totally against social promotion. However, since Richmond County basically does not have Special Education anymore, students and teachers are being forced to comply. Right now in my fourth grade class I have a student who should be in the 6th grade. He is reading and doing math on a second grade level. He is a major behavior problem...stealing things from me, cussing, physically abusive to my other students etc. Since he has already been retained 2 times, he will continue to be promoted and will end up uneducated. Every teacher in Richmond County has students just like this one.
I can't believe that 86% of the parents would ask for their child to be socially promoted. Not a very good parent to encourage your child to be ignorant. How will they succeed in life without an education? Must be a case of ignorance promotes ignorance.
bebbe, that goes on at almost EVERY grade level. There are students who are allowed to bully, use abusive language and physically hit teachers and other students. No one can touch them so they continue to do these things with small slaps on the wrist and back in the classroom they go. Being below grade level qualifies them for extra help in ways that are unimaginable, yet they still fail to learn the basics because of their behavior. Teachers are asked to do everything but turn cartwheels to try to get these students to behave long enough to pick up a skill here or there. At the end of the day everyone is exhausted. At the end of the year, the student moved on to the next grade level.
The social promotion teaches the non-achiever that he doesn't need to achieve to reap rewards and it teaches the achiever the same thing when he sees the failed student still passing. There is no up side to the social promotion unless you're trying to weaken the country.
A serious case of Dumbing down the school systems in order that many may pass when they are not either capable of learning the material or are uninterested in learning it. At this grade level parents are the major cause of blame. Good study habits must be taught from day one.
Anytime you reward someone for not doing what's required you create problems. Most of the time the symptom will be behavior problems. A free education, even in government schools, is a wonderful thing. But it should not be denied to the majority, because some do not wish to go by the rules. Expulsion for misbehavior is a powerful tool. It should wake up the parent. It should make the parent aware that their child's behavior is socially unacceptable. It should make the parent aware that the schools are not there to raise their problem children and that they, the parents are.
That is easier said than done, unfortunately.
It is too bad that the state and county officials eliminated the tutors for kids who only need it for one or two subjects. Now I know why I started to home school my kids after they get out of school.
We should promptly expell all who misbehave, disrupt and make teaching those who wish to learn more difficult. Say most clearly to our young people that our schools welcome all who want to learn and thus become part of this our most productive society on earth. Others can find jobs as best they can. If truants misbehave, disrupt and break laws outside of school, build larger jails as needed. Harsh but better than the present system, for all concerned.
biz, re your 0630 post, you don't have to succeed in life if you are on the welfare dole. What % of these kids' parents would you say are on the "welfare" dole?
My older sister (by 2 years) was never interested in school and received social promotions until she dropped out at 16. She has since passed away from cancer but I saw her cry a lot of tears because she was embarrassed by her lack of knowledge. Social promotions are not a good thing for our kids.
Well, we have dumbed down the presidency and we are getting ready to dumb down the vice-presidency. So what do you expect from the schools?
And rozzie is leading the dumbdown pack by a nose, no, it's now by anass!
I agree Rozzie, Biden is a dumb moron. A long proven record of being an idiot. Good call. Biden has made two bids for president and nobody wanted him so why would we want him as viceprez. He encouraged McCain to select John Kerry as his VP to heal the wounds of the party divide. What an unbelievable moron. The thought of him being in line for the prez should scare people.
What a stupid article ! I suspect the editorial staff was socially promoted a few times.
Bebbe, the kid is uneducable and should not be in classes wth other students. I have always opposed "mainstreaming".
Our public school system produced some of the greatest men and women in our history. In 1954, the SCOTUS decision in Brown V Board of Ed. was the first step in dumbing down of our schools by the government. When I went to school, I either passed based on my grades or I was hel back. I passed, some times with a C, but that has always been at least a passing grade.
Rozzie, you are right, Biden is indeed dumbing down with a serial plagerist.
The public schools are a mess and colleges having gone to the old semester system which is just a waste of time and money. No student can graduate in 4 years like you could with the quarter system. Semesters teach less over a longer period of time-it teaches students to work and think like sloths. Students should read at least a book a week and be expected to know more-since there is more to know now more than ever. Teachers and professors who use to be treated with respect are now constantly challenged and their authority questioned. Youth filled with ego and angst tend to believe "they know and are smarter" but reality rarely proves that to be the case.
It makes absoulutely no sense to hold kids back for several reasons. First, it gives them a stigma that follows them for the rest of their lives, Second, another year in the same grade is no guarantee that they will improve the skills needed to be successful in academics. It's better to offer tutoring in the next grade and hope they have the motivation to catch up rather than be LEFT BEHIND! Third, the CRCT tests are meaningless because in the end, the teacher, parents, and principal make the final decision with failing students to place them into the next grade - something that's been going on in education long before these high stakes, expensive tests came on the scene. Fourth, a student who is held back a grade is 50% more likely to drop out and a student held back two grades is 75% more likely to drop out. Fifth, students who are held back usually become bahavior problems in class. Sixth, all of their friends move up and they are left behind as bigger girls or boys to try and fit in with the kids coming up. Not good! And finally, moving kids up the ladder saves taxpayer money by moving them through the system on time. Then, if they can't pass the muster as seniors in high school including passing the high stakes senior exams, they drop out thus saving the tax payer. Instead of keeping a kid in school 13 or 14 years, they finish one way or the other in 12.
greenjacket, what say we just knock them in the head then?
greenjacket, so if you're going to pass them anyway, what motivates the kids who work hard to pass the grade legitimately to continue to do so ? I am not an educator, but I suspect the kids who can't pass the grade are the minority bunch from the sorry parents who don't monitor their children's work. (ibewalk, maybe we SHOULD just knock them in the head)
Cut back considerably on the future entitlement crowd. I would guess this is where 99% of these kids come from. Grandma, ma, and now them, all in the gimme, handout line!
ibewalk, I would think that you are 99% correct.
i hope green jacket was just kidding
Most of you probably don't know who robin harris is. he was a comedian before his untimely passing. he summarized this problem very succintly. if i may paraphrase, he said something like "...if you find a dumb kid, follow him home and knock on the door, and i bet you somebody dumb answers it...." it is the parents man!
Don't know about greenjacket, but I was serious, knock them in the head, along with their welfare mom! We know the crack head dad is not around so we could knock him in the head too!
so greenjacket your saying what most of us really think ..these kids are not educatable.......
No one should be given anything that they don't deserve. Alot of kids are being raised to think that they deserve whatever they want when they want it. When everything is handed to you on a silver platter you have nothing to look forward to or strive for. They are LOST. Don't blame these brats on welfare, i have a friend who recently had his home robbed by 2 boys who live in a $400,000 home. Im pretty sure these kids have never had to want for anything. My exhusband left me when i was 5 months pregnant with my second child & I am thankful there was public assistance to help me get back on my feet. The problem is, these kids arent taught from birth to behave & do what they are told or suffer the consequences. I am a single parent & i work a full time job but my kids obey thier elders,they have always gotten A-B honor roll & they both passed thier CRCT. Quit making excuses for bad parenting. It really doesnt matter if you are single, on welfare, rich or poor if you are too LAZY to properly raise your children then you don't deserve to have them. They should make them all wards of the state, put them in a reform school & teach them a skill so they can be productive members of society.
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