Show 59: Excerpt - Social Promotion vs. Being Held Back a Grade

ALL THROUGH OUR school years, there’s big potential “failure” lurking, like flunking a test or even failing a whole grade and being held back. 

It turns out there’s a reason for the term “flunking out”; plenty of studies show kids who are held back a grade are less likely to do well in school later on and are less likely to graduate. But moving students forward when they’re not ready to advance isn’t so great either. That’s called “social promotion” and several states have now passed laws prohibiting social promotion of third graders.

Kids These Days regular contributor Jessica Cochran found out that like most things, the issue of social promotion versus grade retention isn’t so black and white.