The Free Ride Is Ending

Consider this letter written by an eighth-grader at Nightingale Middle School when asked by the principal what the youngster would do to avoid flunking the grade: “What I’am planing to do for I can go to Hischool is my homeworck and my class worck o and I am goin to improve on my reating and raightin skills. Does are my plans”

That student certainly does not seem ready for the ninth grade. Yet such students for years have been moved to the next grade in Los Angeles public schools. This “social promotion” of the academically unprepared is finally coming to an end--though not all at once.

If the Los Angeles Unified School District held back every student who failed to read or do math at grade level, at least half of its 711,000 students would repeat a grade. The classroom crunch and shortage of strong teachers that would result prohibit that drastic step, so the district is starting with the weakest students in two grades, second and eighth, in line with a statewide mandate.

Each school district is allowed to set its own criteria by which a student will be promoted or fail. Most are appropriately choosing multiple yardsticks. In Los Angeles, the primary targets are second-graders who do poorly in reading, the key skill for other learning. So far, only 3,800 eighth-grade students are in jeopardy. They have already attended remedial classes after school and on Saturdays. They are now required to attend--and pass--a special summer program. There, teachers will make the final determination regarding promotion.

Teacher evaluations are essential but can be arbitrary; the district should also include test scores, a more objective standard.

Children who are held back will attend intensive classes limited to 10 students per teacher. The key to getting the most out of the small classes will be teacher skills: In the case of the second-graders, that means expertise in teaching reading to those who are struggling.

The most effective instructors should be encouraged to take on not just the retention classes but the intervention classes for those at risk. At all costs, the district must not sentence children to repeat grades with weak or poorly prepared teachers.

Another nagging worry is the parents. School officials have been disappointed at the poor response to the multiple notices sent to families saying their children are failing. The district must figure out how to attract those parents who haven’t shown up at the schools to discuss the problem. None of these tasks are simple, but the route to collapse of the Los Angeles school district is through business as usual. The new superintendent, Roy Romer, has the support of a school board majority. He must forcefully carry through the reforms now underway, including the end of social promotion.