Getting Struggling Students Help Earlier

Published: Friday, May 9, 2008 2:24 PM PDT

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Parents don't like social promotion. They also don't like grade retention, which prevents kids from advancing a grade if they're failing academically. (If you don't believe that, check out this article about what happened when San Diego Unified let parents of failing students decide whether or not they would be retained.)

San Diego Unified has drafted a plan that aims to prevent both social promotion and holding kids back by directing help to struggling students earlier in the year. The new plan includes interventions at first, third and eighth grade, and will be up for approval by the school board on Tuesday.

Check out the plan here. The last page is a flow chart that shows the steps in the process, and what would happen to students who don't make the grade.

-- EMILY ALPERT