Can we socially promote AND hold students back at the same time?

A dropout prevention program at Louisiana's Thibodaux High will be expanded into other schools.

The test group of 11 students in the Middle to High School Transition Program includes students who would have otherwise been held back for failing part of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program test, given to all Louisiana eighth-graders in the spring. Under the transition program, they'll still be classified as eighth-graders, but they'll be promoted with their peers so that they can benefit from high school courses in the subjects at which they are proficient, while taking remedial classes in the subjects at which they need to improve.

“It’s good to be in high school,” 15-year-old Ashley Pitre told Houma Today. “You can be with your friends and the people the same age as you.”

Pitre is now taking classes at Thibodaux High rather than repeating the eighth grade at West Thibodaux Middle School.

Editor's notes: At first blush, this program looks like a good step toward keeping vulnerable students in school and helping them get back on track. We'd like to learn more — and share it with others who might like to initiate a similar program.

One other thing to keep in mind: "Transition classes," which attempt to fuse the benefits of social promotion the benefits of holding students back also often carry the negative consequences of both strategies. In initiating efforts like the Middle to High School Transition Program, we recommend keeping close tabs on the potentially stigmatizing effects of participation in such programs. For more information on the benefits and drawbacks of transition classes, read this piece from The New York Times.