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¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 1999 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Retesting at the end of Summer Bridge 1997 raised the proportion of included students meeting the promotional cutoff from 51% to 68% in third grade, 65% to 79% in sixth, and 72% to 83% in eighth. → Melissa Roderick 1999

Evidence¶

Melissa Roderick 1999¶

Melissa Roderick, Anthony S. Bryk, Brian A. Jacob, John Q. Easton, Elaine Allensworth. (1999). Ending Social Promotion: Results from the First Two Years. Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/ending-social-promotion-results-first-two-years

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive analysis of 1997 testing and Summer Bridge records for roughly 27,000 included students who failed the cutoff; "More than one-third of third graders and approximately 40 percent of sixth and eighth graders who failed the promotional criteria in May passed in August 1997."

"More than one-third of third graders and approximately 40 percent of sixth and eighth graders who failed the promotional criteria in May passed in August 1997. Thus, by the end of August, 68 percent of third graders, 79 percent of sixth grades and fully 83 percent of eighth graders had met the minimum cutoff and were promoted to the next grade."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• 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 — 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
• Summer Bridge produced short-term test-score gains and allowed more students to meet promotion cutoffs, particularly among sixth and eighth graders — a broader claim this one bears on
• Only 43% of retained third graders and 47% of retained sixth graders met the test criteria by summer 1998 despite four chances, yet over two-thirds were promoted the next year largely due to 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