Marcus A. Winters Senior Research Associate, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
This study evaluates Florida's state-wide test-based promotion policy on student achievement two years after initial retention. The authors find that retained Florida students made significant reading gains relative to the control group of socially promoted students. Students who are socially promoted, without having mastered basic skills for the grade they completed, fall farther behind over time. Conversely, retained students are able to catch up on skills they are lacking.
The authors also address discrepancies in research findings on test-based promotion policies in Florida and Chicago. They conclude that differences between Chicago and Florida evaluations are caused by differences in details of the programs, not by differences in how programs were evaluated.
