The impact of social promotion on the academic success of high school students

This study reviews the practice of social promotion from the eighth to the ninth grade compared to non-socially promoted students in a large public school district. The purpose of this study is to determine how social promotion impacts academic outcomes. Participants included students who were socially promoted into the ninth grade and their non-socially promoted peers within the school district. Additionally, a group of students who participated in a summer intervention program were included in order to determine whether they academically out-perform the other socially promoted students who did not participate in the program. In order to make this determination, the summer intervention participants' cohort graduation rate is compared to the cohort graduation rate of the entire population of socially promoted students from the school district. This study also takes into account student and teacher perceptions about the process of social promotion. Student perceptions were collected through a brief survey administered to socially promoted ninth graders, while teacher perceptions were collected through one-on-one interviews. The results of this study suggest that there is a disparity between the cohort graduation rates of students who are socially promoted into the high school in comparison to their non-socially promoted peers. In terms of the cohort graduation rate, the summer intervention program made no statistical difference for the participants. The results additionally suggest that there is a disconnect between socially promoted student perceptions and teacher perceptions for the specified student population. Teacher recommendations are presented which will help the school district improve educational practices for socially promoted students.;Keywords: social promotion, student retention, cohort graduation rate.