Passing rates under the Chicago promotional policy increased in all three grades from 1997 to 1999, mostly during the school year rather than Summer Bridge¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2000 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? By August 1999, 76 percent of third graders, 85 percent of sixth graders and 86 percent of eighth graders met the cutoffs in both reading and math for promotion, an 8-point gain for third graders and 6-point gain for sixth graders over 1997. → Roderick 2000

Evidence¶

Roderick 2000¶

Roderick, M., Nagaoka, J., Bacon, J., & Easton, J. Q. (2000). Update: Ending Social Promotion: Passing, Retention, and Achievement Trends Among Promoted and Retained Students 1995-1999. Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://www.consortium-chicago.org

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Cohort-comparison trend analysis of CPS students facing the promotional test cutoffs in 1997, 1998, and 1999, compared to a 1995 pre-policy reference group. The brief reports "an 8 percentage point increase for third graders from 1997 and a 6 percentage point increase for sixth graders."

"By August 1999, 76 percent of third grad- ers, 85 percent of sixth graders and 86 percent of eighth graders met the cutoffs in both reading and math for promotion."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Summer Bridge produced short-term test-score gains and allowed more students to meet promotion cutoffs, particularly among sixth and eighth graders — reports the opposite
• Summer Bridge's second chance substantially raised promotion rates: by August 1997, 68% of included third graders, 79% of sixth graders, and 83% of eighth graders had met the cutoff — related
• Fewer than 60 percent of retained third and sixth graders in 1998 and 1999 raised their test scores to the promotional cutoff even with an extra January chance to pass — related
• Students who failed both reading and math made up the majority of retained students, and fewer than 20% of them passed both subjects in Summer Bridge — related
• Despite higher passing rates, retention rates did not fall because fewer students who failed the cutoff were promoted with waivers — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Passing rates improved from 1997 to 1998 in third and sixth grades, but retention rates did not decline because fewer students received waivers — related
• Sixth graders promoted in 1997 without meeting the test cutoff fared poorly at the eighth-grade gate, while Summer Bridge passers did relatively well — related
• In 1997, 31% of third graders and about 20% of sixth and eighth graders were excluded from Chicago's promotional test-score policy, with bilingual education the main exclusion reason in third grade and special education in sixth and eighth — related
• Delayed posttest performance under the best instructional conditions would mostly correspond to a failing or barely passing grade — related