From: Cayata Dixon -------------------- City set to promote kids who failed test -------------------- New schools boss cites U.S. mandate By Michael Martinez Tribune education reporter August 16, 2001 For the first time in five years, Chicago Public Schools could allow thousands of summer-school pupils to advance to the next grade based on teachers' evaluations instead of their scores on a standardized test. The possibility has raised concerns that the practice of "social promotion"--in which even failing pupils automatically pass to the next grade--is creeping back into the school system. Shortly after Mayor Richard Daley took over the city's schools, he attracted national attention in 1996 when he banned social promotion and instead required students to earn their way to the next grade by achieving a minimum score on a standardized test. This past school year, more than 21,000 pupils in 3rd, 6th and 8th grades did not get the minimum score on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Under the former policy, none of these pupils would have advanced, unless an exemption was granted. Under a new policy that the Chicago Board of Education adopted in August 2000, as many as 14,400 of them may be allowed to advance if they earn at least a "C" grade from their summer-school teachers. Schools chief Arne Duncan said the new policy was a direct result of a federal civil rights investigation last year into whether the board was discriminating against minorities by relying solely on test scores for pupil promotions. It was the first time a Chicago school official had acknowledged that concerns about discrimination drove the change in policy. Said Duncan: "That's mandated by the Office of Civil Rights. It was a consent decree." Critics have maintained that Chicago's promotion policy would buckle under the pressure of flunking thousands of poorly performing students. "You have the possibility of social promotion [of 14,400 students] because it's all left up to the teachers' judgment," said Mary Ann Rafoth, professor of educational and school psychology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. "If most are promoted, their policy of not promoting kids who failed the test is a sham, because all those kids did not correct skill deficits in a seven-week course." School officials already have decided that 7,387 pupils in those grades must repeat the same grade this fall after they failed summer school testing or didn't bother to show up, officials said Wednesday. This is fewer than the 8,530 such pupils held back last year. The large increase in the number of pupils who did not achieve the minimum score on the Iowa Tests can be attributed to a higher standard being applied this year, school officials said. The higher standard was part of an effort to bolster academics. School officials were unable to provide a figure on how many of the 14,400 students secured a passing grade, because individual schools were still entering grades on the system's computer. Bill McGowan, deputy chief of schools and regions, said of the 14,400 students: "I'm not anticipating that many of those kids will fail. Because why would they? All they need to do is do their best and pass the class. If they don't, they will be retained. I'm assuming that the vast majority of them will [pass]." But Duncan said he wasn't so sure. "They may or may not be promoted," Duncan said. "We'll see how they do. I can't speculate." Duncan said he plans to recommend raising promotion standards at the Board of Education's monthly meeting Wednesday. With summer school ending in late July or early August, preliminary figures show that at least 12.5 percent of all 3rd graders tested will be forced to repeat the same grade, compared with 12.2 percent last year. At least 7.1 percent of all 6th graders tested will be retained, compared with 10.6 percent last year. And at least 9.8 percent of all 8th graders tested will be held back, compared with 13.8 percent last year. Copyright (c) 2001, Chicago Tribune -------------------- Subscribe to the Chicago Tribune Today! Good Eating, Your Place, and TV Week -- just a few reasons to get the Chicago Tribune at home every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Subscribe by calling 1-800-TRIBUNE (1-800-874-2863) or online at chicagotribune.com/subscribe -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
