Social Promotion: Mayor Bloomberg says it’s over! By Jeff Bruzzo On a rotating header banner on the New York City Department of Education website, the following statement was found: http://schools.nyc.gov/default.htm “Under Mayor Bloomberg, the NYC Department of Education has ended "social promotion" in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.” If Mayor Bloomberg is correct, and if this is the case, then why do students leave school unable to write a simple sentence? Why are there 7th and 8th graders reading and writing at a 3rd grade level? Every teacher you speak with, candidly, will tell you the entire system depends on social promotion and that all of the school ratings and test scores are designed to be weighted with variables which have no bearing on actual degrees of learning. A detailed overview of how the system attempts to gloss over social failure can be found at: http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/SchoolReports/ProgressReports/default.htm Enter the battle ground… the urban crown jewel of progressivism. I am going to be one of the first to break the code of silence and tell you first hand what I have seen and experienced. We have torn down the iron curtain, now we shall see what’s behind the academic curtain. I will leave names and the schools anonymous for good reason… the Mayor hates to be told he’s wrong (this must be a progressive disorder or something). Instance one: 2008 Student “A” is 16 years old and wandering the halls of his junior high school, spending at best about 30 minutes per day in a seat. Yet, miraculously, he finds himself the benefactor of a ninth grade seat in high school after taking the NY State exams for ELA (English Language Arts) and Math. Either the test has been “dumbed” down to a 4th grade level or he was “smarted” up to an 8th grade level… I’ve seen his reading and writing skills and he could barely construct a simple sentence. So Mayor Bloomberg, we’ll just leave off the “social” in his promotion if that’s fine with you, sir. Instance two: 2009 Administrators have quietly acknowledged the fact that in scoring those New York state tests, scorers have been given the nod to “go lenient” on students, whether they are from their school or not… it’s a professional courtesy. More over, it’s an acknowledgment of the punitive nature of education departments which blame school faculty for the woes of an urban ghetto… your job is at stake for failing to leave student “A” behind or jeopardizing that “race to the top”, flush with big bucks hot off the Obama printing press. Once again, it’s an easy way out to blame the schools and faculty, tenure, and salaries, but the real neglect is in the neighborhoods which produce these unfortunate students. “A school is only as good as the neighborhood it serves.” If Mayor Bloomberg is really intent on ending social promotion in the schools of NYC, then he should reflect on ending social promotion in society in general. Under the progressive guise of “helping” the poor and underprivileged, through Welfare, Food Stamps, free medical, free college (more social promotion in NYC), free rent, free mortgages, and free baby sitting, the progressives of New York (and other urban cities as well) have created an enslavement program bent on entitlement. “People no longer have to work hard (or even at all)… they’ll be provided for by the system.” Bottom line: 2010 The NYC schools have fallen nicely into play with this social “Nightmare on Elm Street”. Students come to school knowing quite well they can “game” the system and just show up… the end justifies the means! Besides, NYPD will quietly admit it’s better to keep them in the halls than on the street. NYC Dept. of Health will acknowledge they’re being fed three squares a day. NYC Dept. of Social Services will look after them with myriads of before, after, and summer school programs. WHY should education (or the perception of) be any different than anything else in their lives? “Education: It’s free and you don’t have to work for it.” End game: Beyond End social promotion in society and you will end social promotion in our schools. They go hand in hand. Continue, and you will reap the unjust rewards of a socialist society… FAILURE. Note: Not all students will succumb to this end game. I have seen many bright students whose family is behind them, who work hard to provide the American dream, who sit and talk with their kids, who refuse to live the life of free hand-outs. These students come to school wanting to learn, because their parents taught them so. They will go on to be the best and brightest by far… for they bare witness to the socialist destruction around them; it is their driving force to break free from. Next: Test scores & tenure