Study Looks at Retention Policy In Chicago

By Debra Viadero

The first evaluation of the much-publicized campaign to end social promotion in Chicago is serving up fodder for both critics and supporters of that effort, allowing neither side to claim total victory.

The city's 431,000-student district made headlines in 1996 with its "get tough'' policy requiring 3rd, 6th, and 8th graders to earn at least a minimum score on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills before they could move on to the next grade. Since then, the policy has been praised by President Clinton and emulated by other urban districts seeking to end the automatic promotion of low-performing students.

The findings released last month by the independent Chicago Consortium on School Research show that in some respects the praise was on target. In each of the first two years, more students passed the tests. The number of 6th graders scoring above the cutoff, for example, rose by 20 percent from 1995—the year before the policy went into effect—to 1997. The number of 8th graders passing the exam went up 21 percent over the same period. And the greatest gains were made by students considered to be at the...