Apparently, all the hullaballoo over ending social promotion for third-graders wasn't too much for NYC Mayor Bloomberg - he's aiming at fifth-graders as well:
Following up on his plan to end social promotion for third graders, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that he will seek to extend the policy to all fifth graders beginning this school year. The plan could affect as many as 12,500 fifth graders each year who have marginal standardized test scores but are promoted to sixth grade anyway.
"This can't continue. I won't let it," Bloomberg told a group of parents, teachers and principals at Brooklyn Technology High School. "We can't solve every problem that the middle grades pose. But we can, and we will, begin to take aggressive steps to ensure that students come into the middle grades academically prepared."
The mayor repeated that a decent education was a civil right for students, and said, "shame on us if we don't have the courage to stand up for them."
Courage is what it will take, as his opponents will most likely redouble their efforts and drag out the same arguments about the "unfairness" of all this.
Posted by kswygert at September 9, 2004 11:37 AM