5/3/2026
Should Teachers Be Allowed to Fail Students or Has Social Promotion Become the Default?
At some point in the last thirty years, failing a student became complicated in a way it wasn't before. Not impossible, not prohibited in most places, but complicated enough that many teachers feel the path of least resistance is to pass a student along and let the next grade level deal with the gap. The result is a system where grade retention has declined significantly even as academic performance has stagnated or declined, and where both the teachers and administrators involved generally know the promoted student isn't ready but promote them anyway...
Mary Johnson