Pushing Kids Along Is Prudent but Problematic

In the past several decades, the federal and state governments have enacted policies to increase “accountability” in schools. States now have clear guidelines in place about what students should learn and when. Tests measure whether schools are producing the outcomes citizens want, and class requirements ensure that high-school diplomas signify a certain course of study. However, with many schools closed for the rest of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic, a policy environment built on tough accountability is colliding with conditions that make it unrealistic to expect the planned academic results.

In most places, policy makers and school administrators will concede that, because of these extraordinary circumstances, they lack the time, money, resources, and more to have students arrive in the fall (or whenever schools can return to normal) as prepared as they would’ve been had this pestilence never occurred. So administrators may feel that they have no other choice but to temporarily suspend accountability-related policies and advance students to the next grade level knowing they weren’t taught everything that was expected. Social promotion on this scale would be extraordinary, but it might well be prudent. However, education leaders, teachers, and parents