User:Ashleyweiz/Grade Promotion and Retention in New York City

Grade Promotion and Retention in NYC

Definition New York City has a distinctive procedure for promotion and retention in the elementary school system. Promotion is the act of permitting a child to continue to the next grade level after meeting or exceeding the required set of standards in place for a particular grade. Not all children meet state requirements in literacy and math in one year; for these children, there is an event called retention. Retention is the act of leaving a child behind in the same grade level for a subsequent year to rectify low achievement. An alternative to retention is social promotion. Social Promotion is the act of promoting a child to the next level grade despite their inability to meet or exceed academic standards for a grade level. Social promotion is designed to maintain the social and psychological well being of the child by continuing their education with their same age level peers.

Standards and regulations on promotion and retention vary between cities, states, and countries. Procedures and requirements are created and enforced by the Board of Education Chancellor, School districts, School Support Organizations, and schools along with their principals and teachers.

Explanation The New York City Board of Education has its own distinctive requirements and standards that determine if a child’s academic proficiency is where it should be according to age and grade. For a child who does not seem to be up to par there are measures to be taken before retention is set in stone. If a child does not reach standards, he or she will be left back. NYC schools have a comprehensive student assessment system which is a system of monitoring student development on an ongoing basis to measure academic progress.

The New York City Chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, has many responsibilities concerning promotion and retention procedures and decisions. •	It is the chancellor’s duty to create the criterion for promotion. Performance standards must be system-wide and clearly defined. •	The Chancellor must establish assessment procedures to measure student’s academic proficiency and advancement in coursework. •	For students who are to be provided with additional help, the chancellor is responsible for establishing and organizing resources to aid the student. These resources include balanced literacy instruction, early morning and extended day learning programs and interventions, as well as summer school. •	Supervision and evaluation of promotional procedures and protocol in school system.

While the Chancellor deals with the defining of standards, School Districts, School Support Organizations, and Schools have other responsibilities to uphold. •	School Districts are required to attend to the implementation of standards that allow promotion. •	Parental notification of child’s overall progress is essential. Schools are responsible for making parents aware of students’ progress and their possible promotion or promotion in doubt status. •	Districts, SSO’s and school are required to maintain and advance the instructional procedures and professional development for teachers. •	To ensure that students are meeting standards, establishment of Comprehensive Education Plans (CEPs) must be created. •	The teachers provide instruction.

Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd Grade – Promotional procedure

To obtain acceptance into the next grade level, students must meet specific requirements. They must meet or exceed the guidelines that are provided by the Primary Literacy Standards and NYS Learning Standards for Math. If a child does not make appropriate progress, teachers and principals must provide appropriate instructional and interventional strategies. The student’s parent must be notified early in the year. The purpose of notifying the parent is not state retention but to advise working as a team to help the child reach goals. Although there are no strict requirements for attendance, a 90% attendance goal is advised. Attendance rates do factor into a child’s promotion if they have not met standards. To be promoted schools are required to demonstrate a range of instructions and intervention for children struggling.

If a child has not met standards by the end of Pre-Kindergarten, the Principal and teacher make the final decision on whether or not the child should be retained. If a child has not met standards by the end of Kindergarten, 1st Grade, or 2nd Grade, the Principal alone makes the final decision on whether or not the child should be retained.

Third Grade through Eighth Grade – Promotional procedure

State testing begins in the third grade in the New York City school system. By third grade, students should have a greater understanding in areas concerning reading, writing, and mathematics. The ELAs, which are the State Standardized Tests, are scored on a 1 to 4 grading scale with a level 1 being lowest and level 4 being highest. Students who score a 1 on their ELA exams will have a promotion portfolio created for them by their teacher. This portfolio includes samples of writing, reading comprehensive, math sheets, test scores, and a variety of other samples that allow the child’s progress to be assessed. It is the teacher’s responsible to determine if the child’s score on their ELA examination are aligned accurately with child’s general proficiency. The portfolio is handed off the principal to make an assessment. The student must perform a at high level 2 to be promoted to the next grade level. If promotion is questionable based on an ELA score of less than 2, the Community Superintendent must make a final review on their child’s promotion portfolio.

If a student is deemed not ready to continue onto the next grade level, it is highly advised that the student attends summer school. The student is then given the opportunity to retake the exams. If by August the student scores above a level 2, he or she will be promoted to the following grade. However, even if a child does score a level 2, retention may still be necessary. This decision is at the discretion of the principal.

There has been much controversy over promotional procedures throughout history. Questions arise as to whether a student should be promoted to the next grade even if he or she is not academically prepared, or if the student shall be required to repeat a grade. Both issues raise concern for child’s academic well being, social and pyschological well being. Currently, New York City does not allow social promotion (see definition above) for grades 3, 5, 7, and 8. Bloomberg is currently fighting to end social promotion for grades 4 and 6 as well. According Bloomberg and his researchers, students who are retained and not socially promoted are better prepared for their academic future. His researchers also found that students tend to meet proficiency requirements when they move to next grade after being retained.

Through an economic standpoint, the costs of retaining a student are high. It is definitely cheaper to socially promote. It was estimated that in 1996 and 1997, the cost of retention was 19 billion dollars in the United States school system. This comes to approximately $6000 per student.

Background/History

Throughout history and even in the modern day schooling system, promotion and retention have changed. Before schools separated children according to age and grade, the students all participated in the same classroom. At this time retention did not exist as all the students were grouped together anyway. This is an old method and has thus died over a century ago. Throughout the century retention programs and plans have been created to determine ways to effectively bring a child’s proficiency up to par. New York City instituted the Promotional Gates Program in 1981.

The Promotional Gates Program was created and put forth into action in 1981 in New York City. The program was created for 4th and 7th grade students in order to “establish required performance standards and new city-wide curriculum standards.” Students were not to be permitted to move to the next grade until they reach specific academic goals. This was not intended to be a set back or punishment, but to be a constructive program. The benefits of this program included smaller classes of 15 to 20 students, experienced teachers, new instructional strategies created by NYC Board of Education, staff development seminars, and increased “time on task” in areas of reading and mathematics.

The program of course had its flaws. It was difficult to identify which students were eligible for this new program. With finding eligibility, came issues with parental participation. It was also essential that the program found highly expert reading and mathematics teachers. The program was also highly expensive.

Promotional Gates initially had positive impacts on students’ growth. Teachers and parents both reported substantial improvement. It was concluded that the program was more beneficial for the 4th grade students. Approximately 70% of the students in this program were better prepared in the next grade level after completion of the program. However, there was little difference in progress between students who were socially promoted and students who took part in the program. The program did not have positive influences on every student. Approximately 5000 students still failed their state exams after repeating their grade. Some students were recommended for special ed and some had to repeat a third year in the same grade. Chancellor Fernandez ended the program in 1990. A follow up study on the original cohort of student indicated a higher high school drop out rate compared with a similar cohort or socially promoted students. The Board of education saw there were too many 2nd time repeaters in the program. Research had showed that 40% of these students dropped out of high school compared with 25% who were not retained.

Controversy

There is no doubt about it that grade promotion and grade retention is a controversial subject. Those in favor of grade retention argue that a student should not be carried over to the next grade if they can not reach standards. An unprepared student will create a difficult teaching environment for the instructor and promotion will not benefit the student. If a child is not academically up to par the child should be re-instructed on the same material to benefit the child.

However, those who are not in favor of retention argue that students are subject to more problems in their future if they are retained. They are subject to severe social and psychological harm. It is inappropriate to separate these students from their peers. Historically, research has noted, that retention efforts are often inadequate in the long run. The Promotional Gates Program proved to be unsuccessful due to high school drop out rates and 2nd term repeats.

Pro-Retention •	Students pushed to the next level are not well prepared and will continue to fall behind. •	The coursework will be too difficult. •	It is argued that if a student gets promoted when they have not met standards, it gives out the message to other students that they do not have to work as hard. •	It creates a difficult teaching environment for the instructor. •	Student’s academic proficiency is not entirely accurate and gives wrong information to the parent if the student is promoted. •	If a student is retained, that student is given another opportunity to meet academic goals that were troublesome for the student.

Anti-Retention •	Grade retention has proven to lead to higher dropout rates in high school. •	Students who are retained generally have other behavioral problems on top of their academic failures. Many of these children come from low SES homes, homes where parental influence is limited, parental IQ is low, and self-esteem of the child is low as well. •	Students who are retained are subject to bullying and ridicule from former and current classmates. •	Retention has not proven to be beneficial to the student in their long-term academic careers.