As I'm sitting here while my kids take the Stanford Test, I'm reading some articles on education, and I've just come across one about test-based promotion in New York City which seems relevant to my school. The article explains the difference between social promotion, promoting a student to the next grade because he or she has finished the previous one, and test-based promotion, promoting a student to the next grade because he or she has passed a test based on the material from that year demonstrating comprehension. The idea behind test-based promotion is that it is better not to promote a student who has not mastered basic skills for his or her sake, and studies suggest that students improve when given more time to master the same skills rather than being thrown into the next grade.

I wonder if such a policy would be appropriate at a school like mine where the students enter the classroom with vastly diverse English language abilities and previous knowledge, given the range of schools they come from. Perhaps, instead of promoting students based on age and completion of previous grades we should test them on the basic skills we expect them to master in each grade and ensure that they have the foundation they need to continue on to the next grade.

Of course, you run into social and development problems as far as age goes, particularly in elementary school - the difference between my third graders and the one student in my class who should be in second grade is very clear. And there is certainly still a stigma attached to being "held back" that would have to be addressed somehow. And in the country where I am teaching, age is integral to the social hierarchy.