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Making grades meaningless so that everyone advances is doing a disservice to kids' education.
(media.piefed.world)
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Yes! MS went from 49th to 9th in like 10 years. Most people are crediting it to phonics and their willingness to hold students back if they don't learn the material.
Something about holding students back seems like it might artificially inflate numbers. Like, if they administer a test in 4th grade while keeping the kids who are struggling in 3rd grade, well only the kids who made it to 4th grade are taking the test.
I'm likely wrong.
I mean, thats the point. If the student is not smart enough for the 4th grade, they get held back to try again. They are not 4th graders even if their age suggests they are.
Right. But while 4th grade has great literacy results, 3rd grade has 38 students per class who are deficient in reading now. How long can that last?
I mean, in theory, they learn during the repeated year and become part of the great literacy results of the 4th grade.
I dont think you are. Having higher requirements for 4th grade definitely bumps the results up, question is by how much? Not that many students are held back, no idea how much they would contribute to the statistic
I thought about that too, but I would imagine a LOT of students would've had to be held back to make this kind of impact on the state average. I would bet that the pressure it applied to students, schools, and parents did most of the heavy lifting.
I used to be a teacher. In my state, before COVID, 3rd grade is the grade that you don't pass if you don't hit certain criteria for literacy. After COVID, they didn't hold anyone back due to an emergency executive order from the Guvnah. Pretty much all the teachers I worked with hated it and believed that holding kids back was beneficial to all.