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Chicago Schools Ease 'Left Back' Rules

By TARA BURGHART, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - The city's school board voted unanimously to reduce the number of elementary students forced to repeat a grade, eight years after officials vowed not to advance failing students.

Among the changes, students will no longer be held back based solely on math scores, and students won't repeat a grade more than once.

School system chief Arne Duncan said the changes will put a "laser-light focus" on reading skills and offer more and earlier help to children in danger of failing.
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At schools where many children are held back, the policy calls for programs including full-day kindergarten, summer programs, literacy assessments and smaller class sizes, and children who are retained will be given personalized learning plans.

As in the past, children will still be forced to repeat a grade if their scores on standardized reading tests fall below a certain level or they have a failing grade in reading — unless they successfully complete summer school and meet other requirements.
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The change came the week after nation's largest school district — New York, with 1.1 million students — approved a plan to hold back as many as 15,000 third-graders who fail standardized English and math tests.

One education advocate — Johnny Holmes, a member of Parents United for Responsible Education — said he wasn't impressed with the changes, saying too many children go to schools without the proper facilities, classes or equipment.

Research on the merits of social promotion is conflicting. Some studies show that students who are held back are more likely to drop out. But Duncan credited the end of social promotion as an important factor in the Chicago school system's improvement in test scores, attendance and graduation rates. really? u idiot....now can u tell us did their LEARNING actually improve?

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These ignoramouses and their obsession with playing a numbers game is driving me crazy yea, spend another year trying to beat the same sh!t into kids in the same exact way that they didn't get the 1st time and woo-hoo! lookie here the percentage of students who passed tests in the grade they would've been in increases! no f@ckin sh!t.

now do u mind doing something to try help the kids who having trouble?

well its a start.. at least one official although not in ny is learning that using the same method is going to produce the same results.

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