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Early interventions and assistance
is imperative for schools who plan to end social promotion. The
strategies that can be adopted are reducing class size, funding
special education and identifying problem areas for special
children. Support systems should also help students to master
grade level material. Educational testing, modification of
curricula and switching students to a different teacher are
useful tools. Also it should be understood that students with
disabilities require special teaching approaches, equipment and
care within or outside the regular classroom.
What are the arguments in favor of
social promotion ?
Advocates of social promotion say that there are issues related
to retention. One of the problems they site is that a student
who repeats the class will most likely follow the same lessons
and materials used in the previous year. So also the |
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same teacher and the teaching
methodology. For a student who had not responded positively to
the class in the previous year. This may lead to a decline in
his performance and motivation. So they see social promotion as
a better alternative.
What are
the disadvantages of social promotion ?
Social promotion has its negative aspects too. Students who are
retained through social promotion is likely to show poor
performance and this often leads to higher drop out rate. Social
promotion is also creates a financial burden for the State
because of the longer time involved in educating the student. It
is also sent that despite social promotion, students continue to
perform badly in the exit tests which is meant to test students
only in certain skills. Therefore, it is imperative to change
the nature of these exit tests.
History of social promotion in the
United Studies
Although social promotions were stopped in New York City schools
in 1982, they were forced to start them all over again because
of the problems that arose with retention. They disbanded it
again in 1991 and introduced allied programs to help under
achievers. However they had to reinstate the policy of social
promotion as the large scale retention led to increase in costs
and cutting down programs. President Bill Clinton put an end to
social promotion in American schools during his tenure. By the
1990s it was ended in Chicago and in other cities like Baltimore
and Philadelphia.
Some facts and figures on social
promotion from the Unites States
• The most commonly repeated grades are kindergarten to grade
two.
• Retention is high among boys, the retention rate being 10%
points higher than for girls.
• In the early grades the retention rates are similar among
White Americans, African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
• In urban districts, about 50 % of students who enter school
are likely to be retained at least once.
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