Should Students Get Promoted If They Skip Most of the School Year?

Should you get to go on to the next grade if you don't come to school for a good chunk of the school year?

I said in my last video that I am pro-social promotion.

I don't think we should hold kids back except under very specific circumstances and maybe in the very earliest grades because it just does so much harm to have a kid held back, lose their connection with all their peers, and like they don't necessarily benefit from a repeat of the same grade.

They may need some additional instruction, some intervention, something.

But in general, I don't think there's a big benefit to retention.

However, I saw this come up in the comments.

If a kid has been absent 30, 40, 50, 80 times in a school year, should they get to go on to the next grade?

Now, that's one that makes me pause and say, I think maybe that's worth thinking about.

I think maybe we should say, hey, if you want to go on to the next grade, got to finish this one you don't have to you know learn everything that the a students learned you know we're not going to attempt to uh make you close every academic gap that you may have that you know that may not be realistic but you at least have to show up and there's been this move away from rewarding seat time in education like seat time is now kind of a bad word but i think there's actually something to seat time like it's a thing we can hold kids accountable for because You know, learning is going to vary.

Kids are going to vary in how much they learn.

But we can insist that everybody show up.

And I think since the pandemic in particular, we've had a huge problem.

I don't even know if we know how widespread and to what extent this problem exists.

It seems to be huge that kids are missing, like a significant number of kids are missing a significant amount of the school year, like 30, 50, 100 days.

And I don't know how you go into the next grade after missing 100 days of school.

I mean, this is largely an issue of parenting.

This is an issue for the courts to intervene and compel parents to get their kids to school.

I mean, I don't think you can just treat this entirely as a school problem.

I do think adults and courts need to be involved to make this happen.

But I also think we could say, hey, look, you're not going to start next grade with your peers unless you come in and do some makeup summer school, unless you start attending.

Like, I think when there is a significant motivational component, when kids just don't feel like coming and they don't, maybe that is something to hold over their heads, that advancement to the next grade.

And again, I'm a big fan of social promotion.

I am opposed to retention in almost all cases.

But maybe this is one.

Let me know what you think.

Should we hold kids back until they attend school enough to move on to the next grade?

And of course, you should get, you know, 10, 20 absences.

Excused absences are fine if somebody's sick.

But if kids are just skipping huge amounts of school for no reason, should we promote them on to the next grade or should we hold them back until they finish those days?

Let me know what you think.