A Case Study on Academic Promotion, Poverty, and the Courage to Intervene
Part 15 | Educational Leadership Series – The Way Bahamas
When students are advanced from grade to grade despite chronic failure, everyone loses — the child, the parent, and the system. This case explores the cost of “failing to fail” through the lens of a struggling student, her mother, and a teacher determined to break the cycle.
Setting the Scene
It’s the fourth week of the school year, and Mrs. Gibson, a primary teacher, has noticed one student who simply isn’t keeping up. The child struggles with basic reading and math skills, and the data show she is years behind her peers.
When Mrs. Gibson calls the mother, Fern, for a conference, what she hears is heartbreaking:
“They let her went … they just let her went to third grade … the man that was supposed to be helping her say he don’t like keeping kids behind … every report card was all Fs … she still behind her grades and stuff … they pass her to fourth grade and why they do it, I don’t know.”
(Tutwiler, 2005, p.172)
Fern’s story exposes a painful reality that is not unique to this classroom: social promotion — the practice of advancing students regardless of readiness.
