Letters to the Editor
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‘Hold Back This Plan’
In “Hold Back This Plan,” Norm Fruchter argues that the city should promote failing eighth-graders because there’s no evidence that holding them back will make them more likely to succeed [Oped, “Hold Back This Plan,” March 17, 2008].
His premise is unjustifiable. There is significant evidence that setting and enforcing promotion standards helps students succeed. We know that eighth-grade achievement translates to high school readiness and success. Students who score at the lowest level, Level 1, on the State exam in the eighth grade are nearly four times more likely to drop out of high school than students who score at higher levels. Students who fail one or more eighth-grade course are three times more likely to drop out of high school than students who pass all their courses.
We are not helpless here. It’s in our power to help these students succeed. Four years of solid evidence of promotion policies in New York City is behind us on this.
The students we retained based on the third–, fifth–, and seventh-grade promotion policies performed better than the students who moved to the next grade level without repeating a grade.
For example, in English Language Arts at the third grade, after repeating a grade, 80% of retained third-grade Level 1 students scored at Level 2 or higher in the fourth grade, while 39% of Level 1 third-graders who were promoted scored at Level 2 or above. The results are strong across the board. Our critics need not look only at the Department of Education’s data. Independent research confirms that sensible promotion policies — like ours — are what students need to succeed.
A study by the Manhattan Institute on Florida’s test-based promotion policy finds that holding back low-performing students helps improve their academic performance.
Today, almost all students scoring at the lowest level in the eighth grade are promoted into high school. Only 6% of failing eighth-graders were retained in 2007. (That means 98.1% of eighth-graders were promoted to the ninth grade.)
We know what happens when these students progress to high school. As a city, we cannot afford to perpetuate the cycle of failure — or the myth that we’re helpless to make it stop.
MARCIA LYLES
Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning
New York City Department of Education
New York, N.Y.
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