Every June, I and other teachers in my South Bronx elementary school, would go to great lengths to assemble portfolios of written work for students who were in danger of being held over. The point, as far as there was one, was to demonstrate that students who tested below grade level were in fact, making good progress, and that their test scores were not a reflection of their actual ability. It was an annual exercise in frustration and irrelevance. Say what you will about standardized tests, but rarely was a failing grade a poor indicator of a student’s ability. But more to the point, none of my students were in danger of being held over. Even those who scored a “1″ on their ELA exams (the lowest possible score) were shipped off to summer school and miraculously got up to speed in six weeks (I must have been some kind of lousy teacher not to have pulled that off myself) and “earned” promotion. In five years, the only time one of my students was held over was one whose mother insisted to the principal that he repeat the grade.
Social promotion, in short, is alive and well. Was my experience an anomaly? I’m curious as to the state of play elsewhere. Is social promotion happening in your school?
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Yes. My first year I failed 8 students. Only 2 had to go to summer school. One was held back — because they failed to show up.
Of course we have social promotion all of the way through graduation. Now we barely keep a fig leaf. Now for middle school, it takes four weeks of summer school not six to make up a year’s work. Then there is the online credit recovery programs. When kids get good at memorizing and playing the game, they can get as many credits as they want through the tutorials. But here’s the problem. The “successful” few tell all of their friends about the “right click finger” school (their term) encouraging their friends to follow in their paths.
Our social promtion creates a pervasive attitude. Hall walkers will drop in on class during June, often accompanied by a counsoler or principal, to see what it takes to get credit. Worst, every June dozens of A’ for Unexcused absenses are replaced with Ws which means ??? In other words, now all of the responsibility for a student who may have cut 20, 30, 40, or more times is placed on the teacher. Some are required do a “fig leaf” assignment, while other teachers just give them a D-. My guestimate is that those chronic truants, year end and year out, get half of their credits. Some play the game until they walk across the stage, while others misjudge and drop out in their junior or senior year as opposed to the freshman or sophomore year, which used to be the norm.
Before NCLB we had a quota of 20% Fs or 25% Fs and No Credits. Now the only difference is that the system is more convoluted and hypocritical. For instance, we were pressured to pass everyone unless we had a personal conference each Quarter with a parent. In the past, a record of attempted phone calls, combined with the other methods of notifying parents, was enough. Now, you must document an actual conversation, but it can’t be too early or too late in the grading period. Most teachers get the message and pass any student who the administration wants you to pass.
I could handle the old quota. I learned how to grade according to those constraints, and if I misjudged I would just change enough grades to avoid “the Memo.” I’ve even given in to pressure and passed a student because she had been erasing the telephone messages and intercepting the letters that warned her mom, and her mom had already spent so much on the graduation party! My approach was to laugh it off, and concentrate on problems that I can help address.
The more argumentative veteran across the hall refused to compromise. He would tell the story of a teacher who listened to the horrible stories of a student, refused to lower her standards, went back in her room, closed the door and cried. I guess it was an inspiring story, from the good old days, but my fellow teacher would refuse to give second chances and refuse to fill out the paperwork that the office used to pressure us to pass kids. So, the administration would change all of his grades and the “old school” teacher was able to remain pure.
Here’s my rule of thumb. With seniors, I bend as far as I need to stay on good terms with the administrators, and I don’t worry about it. With freshmen and sophomores, I hold as firm as I can without angering the bosses. If called to the office, though, I won’t work a deal. I just change the grade.
Social promotion is a much bigger and much more complex issue with elementary and middle school. I don’t envy your dilemma’s. But then again, we get the kids who we graduate with an average of 5th and 6th grade reading skills.
Regardless, I’m less uncomfortable with the devil I know than I would be with the devil you guys wrestle with.
Three problems with the portfolios:
1. The excellent portfolios get ignored. I set up my lessons this year so that kids who did their work could easily complete their portfolios by December or January. Many of them did, and some wrote additional essays just because they wanted the extra challenge. Sadly, no one but the teacher reads those pieces or portfolios. The focus is on the kids whose promotion is “in doubt.” Why is it in doubt? Well, for one thing, they haven’t been doing their work.
2. The portfolio is much more work for the teacher than for the students who haven’t been working. The teacher has to complete entry slips, tasks, and rubrics for each writing sample; write out biweekly reading and writing conference logs; administer WRAP reading assessments one-on-one to each student at least three times a year; and ensure that all the portfolio pieces are in place.
3. For those students who don’t know how to put together a good sentence, the writing samples are heavily “scaffolded” (read: written by the teacher or someone on the internet). The portfolio should reflect what the student can actually do; instead, it often reflects a lot of hand-holding, ghostwriting, cloze activities, and plagiarism.
But enough complaining! Here are my proposals:
1. Students should be responsible for their portfolios (as of middle school, at least), and all portfolios should be reviewed.
2. Portfolios should consist of student work, not teacher paperwork. Paperwork should be limited to the essential.
3. Portfolios should reflect what the students actually have done and can do, not what they have copied from somewhere else.
Let me put you on the spot, Diana: As a teacher how would you feel about a pure assessment by portfolio standard to determine progress and promotion–instead of standardized testing? And I mean for every student, not just your own.
John:
A fine and eloquent post, and I thank you for it. Let me share with you what social promotion looks like in elementary school. You can file this under good intentions gone awry. It’s a thick file.
Chris was one of the brightest students I’ve ever encountered. He also had singularly bad work habits. It’s often said of reluctant students that he or she didn’t do a lick of work all year. In Chris’s case, it was literally true. Nothing. Nada. This boy would stroll in at 10am, and spend the rest of the morning asleep at his desk. Classroom discipline? This boy didn’t see recess from November on; he was with me EVERY lunch hour. Parental intervention? Worse than useless, up to and including a call to ACS to report suspected educational neglect. When I told Chris that he would be held over, he was truly, legitimately incredulous. “I can’t get held back,” he said earnestly. “I do well on the test!” Chris was smart enough to game the system perfectly. He realized that you literally didn’t have to do a thing all year. If you passed the test, you could not be held over for any reason. (I had a kid who missed 80 out of 180 days and “earned” promotion for getting a 2 on the state reading test; 3 is grade level. He didn’t even have to go to summer school)
Then came the day of the test. Chris strolled in late. And fell asleep on the test. Seven times–seven–he was rousted from his sleep. The hall monitor took him to the bathroom and threw cold water in his face. In the end he finished 9 questions and scored a “1″ — the lowest possible grade.
I’ll confess: I was secretly thrilled he failed the test. If there was ever a kid who needed tough love, and to learn that actions have consequences, it was Chris. If there was ever a kid who had the raw brainpower to overcome adversity it was Chris. If ever a kid needed a wake-up call, he was the one. But come June, my wonderful, well-intentioned principal, fresh from from the bosom of Teacher’s College and NYC’s vaunted leadership academy told me she was really opposed to holding kids over because “research shows that if a child is held over, he’s 50% less likely to graduate from high school.”
So this magical belief in the power of a high school diploma — the fact that it would be backed up by a lifetime of gaming the system and zero real attainment be damned — trumps common sense and what any child’s parent(including Chris if he had a parent that cared about him in the least)could have told you. Here was a child that needed a simple kick in the ass to straighten up and fly right.
But no, he’s in sixth grade, doubtless asleep at his desk and playing the same old game. Well on his way to a wasted life.
Per my post earlier this week, if you want to know who will fail to graduate high school, ask an elementary school teacher. If Chris graduates with the class of 2014, I hereby solemly swear to leave my home naked and attend his graduation with a sign saying “I was wrong.”
If I’m cynical about “teaching for high expectations” I come by it honestly. The highest expectations come to nothing when you lay the bar on the ground, tell the kid to jump, and pass him anyway if he trips on it.
Chris was the smartest kid in the room. He figured out exactly what he needed to do (nothing) and did it. Don’t think other kids didn’t notice and learn from his example.
I enjoy being put on the spot!
A pure assessment by portfolio standard? Nope. Wouldn’t like it. Why not? It would be far too subjective, and there would be far too much variation from school to school.
If we’re going to use portfolios, they should be part of everyone’s promotional criteria. It could go like this:
a. Fail test, fail portfolio: no promotion.
b. Fail test, pass portfolio: committee decision.
c. Pass test, fail portfolio: committee decision.
d. Pass portfolio, pass test: promotion and recognition.
But for this to make sense, the curricula and tests would have to be excellent, and the criteria for passing under (b) or (c) stringent. Short of that, it would be no better than what we’ve got now.
In short, I agree with you that we need to be stricter about promotion. It’s the structure of the strictness that we need to figure out, but no structure will work without the strictness.