Getting Beyond the Practice of Social Promotion: The Case of New York City
No Child Left Behind ushered in an era of test-based accountability for districts and schools, holding them accountable for student performance and progress toward proficiency. In response, a number of states and districts have implemented test-based requirements for promotion at key transitional points in students' schooling careers. In particular, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), which oversees the country's largest public school system, implemented a test-based promotion policy in 2003-2004 for 3rd-grade students (later extended to 5th-, 7th-, and 8th-graders). Under the policy, general-education students in these grades are required to score at or above performance Level 2 on both the state English language arts and mathematics assessments to be promoted to the next grade (performance at or above Level 3 is considered "proficient" under the No Child Left Behind Act). The policy also emphasizes early identification in the school year of children at risk of being retained in grade and providing them with instructional support services to help them meet promotion standards.
RAND conducted an independent longitudinal evaluation between March 2006 and August 2009 of NYCDOE's 5th-grade promotion policy. The study found that services such as summer school, Saturday school, and one-on-one tutoring positively affect outcomes for at-risk students. Under the promotion policy a significant number of students were identified as "at risk" of retention at the beginning of the school year. Upon receiving the interventions, few of those students were actually retained. The few students who were retained did not suffer negative social or emotional effects as a result of repeating the grade.
The students who needed additional support services were not evenly distributed across the city's schools. The researchers found that schools intervened to help as many students as the school was capable of serving. Although schools with high percentages of students needing additional services were significantly more likely to have resources—such as reading and math specialists—than schools with fewer "in-need" students, they were still less likely to report serving every student needing services.
Also, nearly all schools provided additional support to students both during school and after school through group tutoring. Fewer schools were able to offer one-on-one tutoring, which the study found was associated with improved mathematics achievement.
As for the effect of the promotion policy and support services on students' achievement, the study found that positive effects for students who needed services lasted into the 7th grade, the latest grade for which outcome information was available. More specifically:
- Students who needed services at the beginning of 5th grade scored higher on the 7th-grade assessments than they would have without the policy.
- Students required to attend summer school after 5th grade because of serious academic difficulties scored higher on English language arts and mathematics assessments in the 6th and 7th grades.
- The positive effects of retention on student performance continued into the 7th grade, and these effects were larger than those found for early support services alone.
- Effects were generally larger in English language arts than mathematics.
The findings suggest that NYCDOE should continue its policy of identifying early those students who are struggling academically, providing intervention services, expanding one-on-one tutoring opportunities, and strongly encouraging struggling students to attend summer school. Finally, NYCDOE should continue monitoring the effects of retention and support services on students as they progress into high school to understand whether the near-term benefits found by the study translate into longer-term benefits.
How Has Qatar's K-12 Education Reform Fared in Its Early Years?
Following a requested RAND evaluation of Qatar's K-12 educational system in 2001, Qatar chose to implement an education reform plan with Independent Schools as its defining feature. These new Independent schools would encourage qualified persons with innovative ideas to run these schools under government contracts. By fall 2006, 46 Independent schools were operating alongside the more traditional Ministry of Education schools and the private Arabic schools.
In 2005, RAND was asked to monitor, evaluate, and report on the implementation of this reform. Based on analysis of data from school-level observations, national surveys, and national student assessments, the study found that students in the new, Independent schools were performing better than those in Ministry and private Arabic schools in both Arabic and English and that student and parental satisfaction was greater. But the study noted that most students were still not meeting the reform's new, higher curriculum standards. Recommendations included increasing support for schools and teachers, reviewing and improving policies related to student assessment, adopting approaches to encourage parents to support high-quality education for their children, and limiting the frequency of policy changes.
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RESEARCHER PROFILE
Louis T. Mariano
Louis T. Mariano, Ph.D. is a Statistician whose research has focused on evaluations of the implementation and efficacy of school reform efforts; furthering the development of value-added models for estimating teacher effects; the expansion of item response theory models, with emphasis on the reduction of measurement error; and the application of quasi-experimental designs. He recently concluded co-directing a four-year longitudinal study of New York City's student promotion policy and is currently leading a project aimed at improving the statistical estimates of program treatment effects when program participation may be triggered by multiple performance thresholds.
Read more about Mr. Mariano »
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