Why is there a policy of "social promotion" in schools?

Question

I mean, it happens that we send a lot of kids to the next grade without their having basic skills; this is seen often on the internet, including this very site. I think we should keep kids in a given grade until and unless they have the skills they need. It's for their own good.

Answer 1

When we decided whether to send a student on or not, there is a lot that goes into it. First of all we don't retain if the student has previously been retained because, apparently it didn't work. There have been times that I have retained a student and it helped, and there have been times when it didn't help. If you are looking to just punish the child for not doing their work, then retention will not work. I have known students who refuse to do work and so the teacher wants to retain them. well, guess what, they still will not do their work. I think that a teacher really has to look at the reasons why they want to retain and try to figure out if it will actually help. You have to get the parent and the child on board. If neither the parent or the child want it, then they will not work and will just be stuck in that class forever. The old joke is that an elementary teacher will soon be parking next to one of her students. We can't have 16 year old in a second grade class.

Answer 2

I think it's horrible.

First of all, we as taxpayers are paying these school employees salaries for a JOB taht they are NOT DOING!!

They DO NOT CARE that they are passing the kids on thru and not learning a thing. They want to 'spare' the kids feelings - '' oh, she'll feel so bad if she's left behind''

How do you think she's going to feel when she's an adult and can't read and write!!

And what gripes me most of all is school employees of ALL people KNOW this is wrong and they do it anyway!!

Answer 3

Trouble is, the state keeps track of how pupils are doing, and beyond a certain number of failures, the state penalizes the school by cutting funding or some other, equally unhelpful means.  Cutting funds usually means firing teachers and administrators.  Said administrators will naturally use a variety of means to cover their butts and save their jobs - unfortunately, they'll often do that at the expense of your kid's education!