Fix the Blame or Fix the Problem?

Elissa Gootmany in her NY Times article Passing Eighth Grade Gets a Little Harder describes how the Bloomberg administration won approval for a new policy that will not permit eighth graders to move to the next grade if they don’t have minimum basic skills in math and English. Parents were opposed to this new policy.

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein defended the policy – “In the end, passing kids through the system without making sure they’re ready for the next grade level is not a formula for success,” he said. “Our job is not to move a kid out of middle school; our job is to move a kid from middle school to high school, prepared for high school.”

Four years ago the Mayor announced tougher new promotion criteria for the third grade to end social promotion (moving a child from grade to grade with his or her peers regardless of their mastery of the current grade’s material or readiness for the next). That and subsequent policies for fifth and seventh graders resulted in fewer students being held back than before. Some students took and passed summer school.

Opponents of tougher policies claim that tougher hold-back policies is can frustrate and embarrass students so they more likely to drop out. Some parents believe this might be especially true for eighth graders who are not allowed to advance to high school. Others suggest that some students need the extra year to master the appropriate material.

We’re all into blame these days, aren’t we? The kids don’t know their stuff so who should we blame…the teachers? The administrators? How about we fix the problem and not the blame. Educators believe all kids can learn. What this policy rightfully proposes is that it can take some students longer to learn things than other students and they should be given that chance before moving on to the next grade where they are unprepared and start off the year behind and frustrated.

Dr. John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com