UFT, CSA Back Plan To Curtail Social Promotion

MICHAEL MULGREW: 'Must provide resources.'

Mayor Bloomberg's plan to end social promotion in fourth and sixth grades Aug 10, in his first major education announcement since the renewal of mayoral control of schools, drew a conditional endorsement from the United Federation of Teachers.

"We need to continue to give every student the best possible chance to succeed," the Mayor said in a statement. "When we promote a child to the next grade who can't handle the work, we're setting that child up to fail in later grades. That's a failure of the school system, and by asking the Panel for Educational Policy to pass this reform, we can eliminate this harmful practice."

No Battle Expected This Time

While the PEP has not yet been reconstituted since Governor Paterson's signing of mayoral control into law last week, Mr. Bloomberg said he was confident that its members would approve his actions. His original effort to end social promotion for third-graders five years ago met with resistance from some panel members and led to the dismissal of three of them by the Mayor. Since then, social promotion has ended for fifth, seventh and eighth graders.

"Our promotion policy has helped thousands of struggling students to gain the skills they need to succeed in the next grade," said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. "No child should fall behind and struggle because we promoted them without the necessary skills."

UFT President Michael Mulgrew praised the move as "a step in the right direction," saying the union shared the goal of ending social promotion. "But we also need to ensure that effective support and intervention services are in place and available for under-achieving students," he added. "It is critical that we provide adequate resources so that these students have every opportunity to keep up with their peers."

CSA: Work With Kids Early

Council of School Supervisors and Administrators spokeswoman Chiara Coletti said the union "strongly believes that children should not be pushed ahead to the next grade if they're unprepared. We think the underlying solution to this is to greatly strengthen early childhood education," but added, "that is not an objection to the city's social promotion policy, and we did expect these added grades to kick in at this time."

Mr. Bloomberg touted figures showing that 3,012 students needed to repeat the third grade in 2004, compared to only 864 in 2008. Eighty-six percent of third-grade students who repeated the year scored a Level 2 or higher, a passing grade, in their exams last year.

His mayoral campaign also took the opportunity to drag likely opponent William C. Thompson Jr. over the coals for his record as Board of Education president from 1996 to 2001. Spokesman Howard Wolfson accused Mr. Thompson, the current City Comptroller, of failing to act while BOE President, despite his stating more than a decade ago, "I believe we need to end social promotion, and I think my colleagues would agree with that."

Mr. Wolfson also cited Mr. Thompson's calling the dismissal of PEP members in 2004 an "act of desperation by the Mayor in order to win passage of his flawed promotion policy."

Mr. Thompson riposted that he was "at the forefront" of the campaign to end social promotion as BOE President, saying that Mr. Bloomberg had taken up the issue much later on. During his tenure, he and the BOE voted for a measure requiring failing students to re-take the school year, but it was not heavily enforced.