Parents Examine Schools In Light of DOE Plan to Hold Back Students

Thousands of New York City eighth graders gear up for high school each summer, but some may face difficulties later this year given Chancellor of Education Joel Klein’s plans to allow only well-prepared students to make the transition.

In response to the proposed policy, parents at Upper West Side schools are working to examine and resolve the issues that have provoked what they call “a punitive plan.”
The new Department of Education proposal mandates that in order to graduate, eighth graders must score a Level 2 or higher on math and English language arts assessment tests as well pass all core academic classes. On the scoring scale from 1 to 4, a Level 2 mark indicates a “basic” understanding of the test material.

“It’s an issue of great interest to the parents and it is of concern to them,” said Parent Coordinator Tracy McClaire of West Side Collaborative Middle School. She and other West Side Collaborative parents have been looking into the proposed policies and plan to discuss them at an upcoming Parent Teacher Association meeting.

According to the DOE, nearly 25 percent of students entering the ninth grade are inadequately prepared for high school. Through its new plan, the DOE hopes to increase graduation rates by ending, in the department’s words, the “social promotion” of students not truly qualified to move ahead during the early years of schooling.

Philissa Cramer of Insideschools, a program of the nonprofit Advocates for Children, said that many parents wonder what the need for stricter promotion rules implies about the programs already in place in city schools.

“It’s been demoralizing to lots of parents and students that the DOE has said that we’ve made these many attempts to improve and apparently it hasn’t worked,” Cramer said. “It causes them to question many of the other initiatives.”

A number of parents say that the policy punishes students without providing them with necessary support. With recent departmentwide budget cuts in tutoring programs and programming to help students meet the graduation requirements, some raise concerns about how the students can be expected to improve.

The DOE will work to identify and provide support for sixth graders who may be at risk for being held back in eighth grade beginning next school year. Parents are worried about the current seventh and eighth grade students, who will not be able to benefit from such support but will still be subject to the stricter promotion guidelines.

Other retention plans, including the third, fifth, and seventh grade retention policies already in place in New York City schools, met with similar resistance in the past.

Class Size Matters, led by local activist Leonie Haimson, denounced the retention plans in 2004, contending that holding back students during the early years only hurt graduation rates in the long run. The number of students retained each year, however, actually dropped after the retention policies were put into place, perhaps due to increased opportunities to appeal retention decisions or retake tests.

Cramer doubted the effects of the retention. “Are there really going to be however many thousands of students retained? Probably not.”

The chancellor’s proposal has been discussed in meetings in Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn so far, with meetings in Queens and the Bronx scheduled during the next two weeks. The city’s Panel for Education Policy will vote on the proposal in the spring.

alicia.outing@columbiaspectator.com