y will become frustrated and therefore drop out later in their school careers. The second case is five percent more likely to occur than the first. It is not good enough to just end Social Promotion by retaining students in their failing grades. Creating "a new set of rules about how students progress from grade to grade will not address the underlying problem, nor stop the policy seesaw between retention and promotion"(GII). Students must be made to attend remedial training, summer school, pass exit exams and maintain a 2.0 GPA or above. "Advancing students from grade to grade almost regardless of their level of learning" (Toch 52) must be ended. Remedial training is the process of extending learning hours for students who need the extra help. This is often called Remedial Purgatory; students in Chicago are often placed in this kind of learning environment when their scores on exit exams are low (Berg A1). Summer school as it is now, is not going to help failing students. Some feel that "summer school, a misguided effort to rescue socially promoted students, has also provided an incredible disincentive to work" (General Internet Inc.). Teachers need to spend time with their summer school students not just make them repeat the material that hey have already failed to learn, this must be an opportunity to teach these students in a different way. Finally there must be defined "grade level performance" therefore students should be tested upon exiting a grade, even in elementary school. "Students must be rewarded for their work Social promotion breaks down the school atmosphere. However, simply sending students to summer school and/or holding them back a grade may not be the answer either. Standards and policies must be set to intensive with failing students learning problems (American Federation of Teachers)." It is clear that Social Promotion is unjust to both successful and failing students. These alternatives to Social promotion ...
