Social Promotion VS. Retention
Abstract
Social promotion and retention are used for various reasons. Retention is implemented when students have not met the general requirements to begin the next grade. The question that will be addressed is how do social promotion and retention differ? The overall meaning of both will be addressed to give the reader a better understanding of the two. Social promotion is the practice of promoting a student to the next grade level even if the minimum academic factors have not been satisfied. Retention is the approach that is most widely practiced. This is the retention of a grade to reinforce academics. The pros and cons, static’s, and drop out rates will be discussed. All of these factors will be addressed so that the reader can be aware of the opinions on the issues.
This critical issue of Social Promotion and retention is a hard one to figure out. Exactly what is social promotion? Social Promotion is the practice of promoting students to the next grade level regardless of their academic progress. How serious id this issue? It is so serious that California, Delaware, South Carolina and Wisconsin have all passed laws forbidding the practice and in effect requiring schools to reinstate retention. What exactly is retention? It is the practice of holding back students to repeat a grade if they have not successfully met the requirements to go to the next grade level. This has been the practice of school systems for many years and The National Center for Education Static’s show that 16.8% of seniors have repeated at least one grade. The most frequently repeated grades were kindergarten through second.
Does retention work? In the majority of studies done they...
... middle of paper ...
...es to Help Students Succeed, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
Kelly, Karen (1)
Kelly, K. (1999). Retention vs. Social Promotion: Schools Search for Alternatives <http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/1999-jf/retention.shtml>. Harvard Education Letter. Albany, NY.
Ruldolph, Angela (1)
Johnson, D. and A. Ruldolph (2001). Beyond Social Promotion and Retention-Five Startegies to Help Students Succeed, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
Teachers, American Federation of (1)
Teachers, A. F. o. (1997). Taking Responsibility for Ending Social Promotion: A Guide for Educators and State and Local Leaders. U.S. Department of Education.
Thompson, Charles L. - Cunningham, Elizabeth K. (1)
Thompson, C. L.-C., Elizabeth K. (200-12-00). Retention and Social Promotion: Research and Implications for Policy. ERIC Digest. New York. 161.
Social promotion has become a controversial topic, however, what is the definition of social promotion? Les Potter (1996) defines social promotion as “the advancement of a student to a higher grade level before the student has mastered the skills of the current grade level” (p. 268). It is similar to giving one an award simply for just participating. It also can be viewed as one teacher handing off their problems to another teacher. In addition, Potter (1996) points out that “social promotion was a failure because students arrived in higher grades under prepared for the instructional level and educators that received them were under prepared to teach them” (p. 268). The issue with social promotion is that it is not helpful for teachers because they are handed students that they may not understand how they can help, which hurts the promoted student since they cannot understand the new
Thomas S. Stone social factors reflect the educational deficit occurring in our nation now. “Excuses a...
For some students it is difficult to get a good education. These students live in a poor community and are required to go to schools that have a low graduation rate. These schools have a certain reputation such that other students refer to it as the “ghetto school”, “where the pregnant girls go”, and the “dropout factory”. This
Tinto’s original theory involved five specific factors that contributed to student retention: (1) a student’s pre-entry attributes (prior schooling and family background); (2) goals and commitment (the student’s individual aspirations in the institution); (3) experience at the institution (academics and faculty and peer interactions); (4) external commitments while at the institution; (5) integration both academically and socially (Metz 4).
Shoup, Rick. Kinzie, Julian. “Unmasking the Effects of Student Engagement on First-Year College Grades and Persistence.” Journal of Higher Education. Sep/Oct2008, Vol. 79 Issue 5, p540-563. Web. 29 April 2014.
You can dry vanilla beans simply by leaving them in a location with moving air for a few weeks. To dry them faster than that, you can place them in an oven set to a low temperature. Vanilla beans can be dried in an hour by heating them in an oven set to 150 degrees. The beans can then be placed in a spice or coffee grinder and ground to powder.
One way I hope to achieve this is by creating programs and support groups that foster the idea of student success. In college, I was fortunate enough to be involved in the First Generation Scholar Program, which allowed me to be surrounded by a supportive group students and advisors that helped facilitate my transition into college. In the program, we had weekly meetings to ensure that we were on track with our academic goals. In addition, we were in constant contact with other students in the program, creating a sense of community among students of our same background. All of this care and assistance created a nurturing environment that cultivated a sense value, acceptance, and encouragement.
Students in elementary are advancing to the next highest grade level with little to no comprehension of taught material. 'Social promotion' believes that retaining a student hinders the child’s self-esteem. Retaining a child in the same grade for longer than year is beneficial to the child’s education, self-esteem, and allows the child an opportunity to maturely develop learning and social skills.
These small interventions have large impacts by removing significant social barriers to education, such as a feeling of exclusion. In order to be effective, however, a few conditions need to be met. An effective intervention must begin with a precise and accurate understanding of students’ individual experiences in school. Then, the intervention must be specifically targeted to directly address a specific problem with students’ experiences. The interventions must include students actively participating and processing their emotions and knowledge. Additionally, they must be “stealthy.” Direct persuasive appeals or telling students that they are receiving an “intervention” makes students feel controlled, stigmatized, and looked down upon. Finally, interventions must be brief; long interventions can feel controlling or create repetitiveness, preventing information from being internalized (Source
Since it is not an easy decision to make the child’s parents, school instructors and counselors are all involved in the process. Conversely, there is also social promotion. Social promotion is the practice of moving a child ahead a grade even if they aren’t necessarily ready to be advanced to the next grade, the thought process their being that they will have time to catch up with the other students. Both of these practices are flawed in different ways, but what seems to be more detrimental to the student is grade retention. Jimerson (2001b) is quoted as saying that “grade retention suggests that it is not likely to be effective in remediating academic failure and/or behavioral
The graduation rate for high school in the United States of America was 75 percent in 2009, meaning that 1 in 4 students fail to earn a diploma in four years, researchers found (nydailynews, np). Numerous students across the United States are striving to complete high school within 3 years or less. Some students are academically gifted or excited to graduate high school (Chen, np.) The student’s are more prepared mentally, have greater opportunities with scholarships and college applications and obtain a head start in their college careers, but only if more high schools adopted the early graduation format.
Sadker, D.M., Sadker, M.P., and Zittleman, K.R.,(2008) Teachers, Students, and Society (8th ed.).New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Cook, Bryan G., and Melvyn I. Semmel. American Educational Research Association. Chicago: ERIC, 1997. 3. Web.
Teachers routinely teach you the standardized things you need to know to get promoted to the next grade. In my experience, throughout high school, once you acquire the knowledge to pass the test, high school teachers believe you have reached your potential and no longer push you to accomplish more. Unlike, high school teachers, professors are willing to provide an abundance of support to any student sincerely trying to improve. Not only do college professors help students recognize their potential, but become the driving force behind them exceeding their personal expectations. Professors continuously clarify what matters and why it matters; therefore, instilling a sense of pride in their work, as well as in themselves.
Teachers can help motivate students by making school fun along with the teaching of the regular lessons. Teachers could also invite various people that graduated from high-school and some that were drop-outs to tell their own personal story. This may help students see the reality of being a high-school graduate or that being a high school drop-out can seriously affect that persons' life.