They pass the class without making the grade and now Mayor Michael Bloomberg says enough is enough.
New York City’s old practice of sending students on to the next grade even if they are failing will now be abolished in grades 4 and 6.
Bloomberg threaded his way through boxes of school supplies and equipment at an East Harlem school on Monday intent on making a point — his taking control of the school system has made a difference.
“If you remember seven years ago those didn’t show up until a month after classes started and here they are a couple of months in advance,” Bloomberg said.
The mayor was at the school to announce yet another change to the school system. He wants to end the city’s old practice of sending students on to the next grade even if they are failing –something called social promotion for fourth and sixth grades. He’s already ended it in 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th grades during his tenure.
“Ending social promotion means setting higher standards and then helping students meet those standards and that insures that they have the skills for the next grade,” Bloomberg said.
In order to move up a grade students have to reach level 2 or above on state math and English tests. If they don’t, they have to go to summer school to increase their proficiency or be held back.
“You have to do the work to get promoted,” the mayor said.
Bloomberg’s re-election campaign used the announcement as an opportunity to knock Democratic challenger Bill Thompson, charging that during Thompson’s five-year term as president of the Board of Education less than half of the students read at grade level, yet over 90 percent were promoted.
Team Thompson shot back, claiming that all the mayor is doing is teaching kids to pass a single test and that “New York City public school students are graduating without basic remedial skills at an alarming rate.”
If the Panel for Educational Policy approves these promotional changes they would go into effect for the school year that begins in September.
Thompson isn’t the only one critical of the mayor. Martha Foote, of the parent group “Time Out From Testing” said making kids pass a single test puts undue pressure on teachers to instruct their students in how to pass the test, instead of learning the material.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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4 Responses
I do not believe that kids should be allowed to pass onto the next grade without basic proficiency. Why should there be students who cannot do basic arithmetic (fractions or X+9=10 type problems) or read pieces longer than a short story in English class when they are in high school? I know students, in yeshiva ketanos, who cannot do basic work and it needs to be corrected!
The whole issue is one big joke. Ask any teacher in the NYC public school system (from which I am recently retired).
Only level 3–defined as “meeting learning standards”–and level 4 are passing. Level 2 is defined euphemistically as “partially meeting learning standards.” In other words, these students are NOT performing at grade level and promoting them is still social promotion.
A student’s report card grades are irrelevant. In a worse case scenario I once had an 8th grader who was truant for most of the year. Right in front of me an assistant principal went to the computer and entered a 65 for each of his major subjects. He “passed” everything though barely showing up during the school year. These types of shenanigans are endemic system wide.
Why? Because the the truth is that social promotion is absolutely necessary. Without it, thousands upon thousands of kids would never make it out of the sixth grade.
#2–Social promotion is not necessary- we should have teachers that teach and students that need to learn. If kids realize that they will be held back in the 8th grade for the 3rd year, then they will start to listen in class. We need teachers that have credentials and can teach properly.
Comment no. 3: “We need teachers that have credentials and can teach properly.”
This is incredibly insulting.
As I mentioned in my previous comment, I am a retired NYC public school teacher and in my middle school the vast majority of the teaching staff is competent and hard working.
The problem is that we are dealing with a student population which, for the most part, belong to a culture that places little or no value on education. Their bookbags are filled with mp3 players, cell phones, bottles of soda and bags of chips. Nothing much of anything else.
These kids don’t care about graduating, so nothing will make them “listen in class.” They think that they’ll be rap stars and NBA superstars. Their idols are not Harvard professors but misogynist rappers. The language in the hallways and classrooms is from the filthiest gutters.
Are there exceptions? Of course. I’ve had many kids over the years who were great…and I did my best to encourage them; to not make them feel like they were freaks for actually wanting to learn and do well. But they were a small minority.
A few summers ago when Bill Cosby tried to tell it like it is, he was castigated as an Uncle Tom and shouted down. That’s the sad truth. The system of education in NYC has many problems. But it’s almost irrelevant given the student population that we have to work with.