What is Social Promotion?
Social promotion is the idea to allow students to continue to pass each grade level with their classmates, regardless if the individual fulfills their academic requirements and meets the standards and grades to be promoted onto the next grade level.
The government has been trying to stop this practice for many years.
The disadvantages of social promotion are to students learning; they never truly learn the concepts of the subject and are constantly struggling to keep up. Many times, the student may experience low self-esteem and never really catches up to their peer’s knowledge.
Another study found keeping a student back or retention is ineffective as well for their learning, so what can be done to help the students learn but shouldn’t be promoted socially?
If teachers or administration can help the students who are having difficulty learning the concepts of their grade level before it becomes a problem, then social promotion and retention wouldn’t be an issue.
Why not have one or two classes for each grade level taught by another teacher, teaching the same concepts, in a different classroom but at a slower pace? Within this classroom, have a few teacher assistants to help guide the students, and use different teaching methods which may allow the students to understand the subject matter.
From my experience, some districts have incorporated such a program and it has helped the slower learning students, who are not considered, learning disabled, proceed onto the next grade level with minimal troubles. Another word you may have heard relating to this concept is called tracking.