Too often, educators find themselves choosing between social promotion and retention, when neither benefits children. Some districts have found that intensive intervention in the early grades can eliminate the choice between two unappealing options. Included: Ways to keep struggling students from falling too far behind.

Vying for least appealing education strategy of all time are social promotion and pupil retention. The trouble is, traditionally, one has been seen as the antidote for the other.

Retaining students while their peers are promoted is bad for a child's self-esteem and may not help them academically, according to the argument. But promoting children without the skills for the next grade can be just as demoralizing.

The solution, according to some researchers, is to avoid both unsavory choices, and intervene early and often so children never get to the point of facing retention.

SAFETY NETS FOR ALL KIDS

By changing the focus to try to get all students help when they need it, some school districts have seen their retention numbers plummet.


"Our retention policy is that we don't retain anyone unless absolutely necessary," said Dr. Linda Sheppard, director of elementary education for the Coatesville (Pennsylvania) Area School District. "We retain fewer than one percent on the elementary level. It's not really beneficial to the student, unless you change the whole program. And we try to avoid passing [an unprepared] student from one teacher to another."

In New York city, Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg feel differently, and that is they both believe that a test in April of all 3rd graders should be enough to see who can be promoted to 4th grade or not. Indeed, this policy was never discussed by the parents and teachers of NYC schools, because the policy was never announced until it was almost too late. Councilwoman Margarita López criticized the Department of Education for failing to engage parents in discussions about the plan and for neglecting to translate into other languages a document filled with details and statistics that was distributed at the March 3, 2003 City Council hearing on grade retention.

Mr. Klein said that the document would be translated and that he had attended meetings throughout the city to publicize the plan. He also said parents were notified by parent coordinators in the city's schools.

Mr. Klein also described a plan for students who fail third grade twice, saying they would be placed in special small classes and, if their skills improved enough, would be able to move on to the fifth grade, which would leave them only one year behind their classmates.