Mathematics Achievement for Middle School Students Who Were Socially Promoted

• Main Author: Fogle, Sharon D
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Gap; Data Analysis; Education Policy; Educational Change; Equal Education; Federal Programs; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5; Intermediate Grades; Learning Theories; Literature Reviews; Longitudinal Studies; Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics education; Mathematics Skills; Middle School education; Middle School Students; Outcomes of Education; Social Promotion; Strategic Planning; Student Motivation
• ISBN: 1392410231; 9781392410233

New Mexico’s K-12 education system historically ranks at the bottom of all national accountability measures. Even so, current education reform initiatives have not been successful in holding students accountable to demonstrate mastery of grade-level standards necessary to successfully move from grade to grade.The purpose of this longitudinal study was to determine the impact that social promotion has on the math achievement scores of students in New Mexico. The study examined 9 years of NMSBA math scores encompassing four cohorts of grade 3–8 students. The primary research question was “How do the math achievement levels of eighth grade students who were socially promoted after third grade differ from the math achievement levels of students who were meritoriously promoted after third grade?” Unlike most studies on the topic of social promotion, this study focused on the consequences associated with the practice of social promotion and did not address the disadvantages or benefits of retention or other intervention strategies.Results of this study showed that a large majority of students (76%) stayed in the same performance level from grade 3–8. Students who are below grade level at the end of third grade seldom become proficient by the end of eighth grade. Of the socially promoted students, 82% remained below grade level, while 32% of the meritoriously promoted students dropped to below grade level. Consequently, the overall trend in math achievement was downward. The study also revealed that girls slightly outperformed boys in math and that Hispanic and Native American students experienced a greater decline than other ethnicities. However, the study failed to show that social promotion had an adverse impact on student math achievement growth. Socially promoted students on average remained about 2 years behind their meritoriously promoted peers, neither improving nor regressing significantly.This study offered three recommendations to advance student-learning outcomes in New Mexico: early interventions with students entering school ready to learn, family engagement with an emphasis on parental advocacy, and the need to change the way summative assessments are used to monitor student progress.