Arguments in favor of giving kids passing grades even when they don't know the material?

[Anonymous]

I feel like these days so few kids know the material that it wouldn't even be shameful to have to repeat a grade. What good does it do to send kids up to the next grade when they are far, far behind grade level? Isn't it discouraging to them to be in classes where they can't do any of the work?

[Anonymous]

Nobody wants to pay the taxes it costs to retain kids.

[Anonymous]

A lifelong close friend of mine (who is a special education teacher herself) had her daughter repeat first grade in a public school (didn’t switch schools) around 2009/2010. I recall that my friend said her DD’s teacher was the one who broached it, and my friend concurred. Her DD is halfway through college at a state flagship now and it doesn’t appear to have negatively affected her.

My friend, however, had the skills, time, awareness & knowledge to advocate for her DD in a way that a lot of parents of academically struggling students do not.

[Anonymous]

One of the arguments against it is that kids will be bullied & socially excluded by their classmates if they repeat a grade.

[Anonymous]

If you have a kid repeat a grade, they are more likely to drop out before graduation time. Legally, you certainly can’t force an 18+ year old to attend high school. I have an October birthday, and if I was someone who hated school and was made to repeat a grade, I might drop out at the beginning of my junior year.

[Anonymous]

Nowadays with statewide virtual/cyber schools, and in states with lax homeschooling laws, parents will just turn to those options.

[Anonymous]

There is a worry that having kids repeat a grade increases the chance they will drop out before they graduate

[Anonymous]

Viewed through the lens of racial and socioeconomic justice, it would be immensely harmful to hold a student back, simply for an academic deficiency.

[Anonymous]

If we retained all the kids who needed to, we’d dramatically increase costs. Those kids would take fourteen years to go through the system, instead of thirteen. We don’t have the money or space for that, but I wish we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a worry that having kids repeat a grade increases the chance they will drop out before they graduate

And people who ask this question and who advocate for eliminating the 50% rule and the like forget that HS graduation is good for all of us. Kids who could be held back and who rely on the 50% rule aren’t going to be competing for coveted college spots and financial aid. But without a HS diploma, it’s almost impossible to get a job that pays a living wage and has health insurance and paid time off - all of which are good for the rest of us who don’t want to support them and don’t want to see them get into lifestyles that harm us - like being homeless or engaging in drug related activities. Also many of these kids will become the people who are fixing your cars, cleaning your railway system, repairing your HVAC system and doing other jobs many don’t want to do and don’t want their kids doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a worry that having kids repeat a grade increases the chance they will drop out before they graduate

I think this argument makes sense if there is then a concentrated effort to get the child up to grade standard in the following year. But just passing them along is tragic. I recall when I was in college in the 90s and taking a class on education policy reading a piece in which a mother who was SO PROUD her child was graduating HS—first in the family to do so—only to feel utterly betrayed when she realized he still could not read. She had no idea he had just been passed along. That’s the sort of policy that does lead to intergenerational poverty. But sadly we don’t put the resources into schools to fix this. There should be basically a whole shadow program specifically devoted to coaching kids who failed to meet grade standards the previous year.

But it should also be noted that sometimes it is the assessments that are lousy. For the past several years, Maryland has used an assessment that is poorly written and not well tailored to the curriculum. My kids who are extremely advanced and know the material beyond well, meet the standards, but typically don’t show as exceeds standards. I know the kids at bend school pretty well and the rate at which kids are failing to meet standards under this test does not reflect the reality of where those kids are. So the awful tests make the situation look even worse than it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these days so few kids know the material that it wouldn't even be shameful to have to repeat a grade. What good does it do to send kids up to the next grade when they are far, far behind grade level? Isn't it discouraging to them to be in classes where they can't do any of the work?

So many kids can’t meet grade level proficiencies and schools don’t have the staff or infrastructure to have large percentages of students repeating. It just isn’t possible. School can’t parent your kids, feed them, provide emotional/psychological therapy AND teach them. Parents can’t put in zero work at home and expect school to take care of everything...and that is where we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we retained all the kids who needed to, we’d dramatically increase costs. Those kids would take fourteen years to go through the system, instead of thirteen. We don’t have the money or space for that, but I wish we did.

More than that. There are many kids that don’t come, don’t care, won’t do the work, parents don’t help them at home. An extra year isn’t going to make a difference. They will still be far behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Viewed through the lens of racial and socioeconomic justice, it would be immensely harmful to hold a student back, simply for an academic deficiency.

BS!

It's terrible for the kid to be uneducated for the rest of their lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a worry that having kids repeat a grade increases the chance they will drop out before they graduate

I think this argument makes sense if there is then a concentrated effort to get the child up to grade standard in the following year. But just passing them along is tragic. I recall when I was in college in the 90s and taking a class on education policy reading a piece in which a mother who was SO PROUD her child was graduating HS—first in the family to do so—only to feel utterly betrayed when she realized he still could not read. She had no idea he had just been passed along. That’s the sort of policy that does lead to intergenerational poverty. But sadly we don’t put the resources into schools to fix this. There should be basically a whole shadow program specifically devoted to coaching kids who failed to meet grade standards the previous year.

But it should also be noted that sometimes it is the assessments that are lousy. For the past several years, Maryland has used an assessment that is poorly written and not well tailored to the curriculum. My kids who are extremely advanced and know the material beyond well, meet the standards, but typically don’t show as exceeds standards. I know the kids at bend school pretty well and the rate at which kids are failing to meet standards under this test does not reflect the reality of where those kids are. So the awful tests make the situation look even worse than it is.

That is parent failure as well. More so, because it is HER kid. She never read a book to her child in 18 yrs? Never had him read to her?