Social promotion

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with North America and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (April 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Social promotion" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Social promotion is an educational practice in which a student is promoted to the next grade at the end of the school year, regardless of whether they have mastered the necessary material or attended school consistently. This practice typically applies to general education students, rather than those in special education. The main objective is to keep students with their peers by age, maintaining their intended social grouping. Social promotion is sometimes referred to as promotion based on seat time—the time the student spends in school. It is based on enrollment criteria for kindergarten, which often requires students to be 4 or 5 years old at the start of the school year (5 or 6 years old for first graders), with the goal of allowing them to graduate from high school before turning 19.

Advocates of social promotion argue that it is done to protect students' self-esteem, foster socialization with their age cohort, encourage participation in sports teams, or promote students who may be weaker in one subject but stronger in others.

In Canada and the United States, social promotion is generally limited to primary education. Secondary education is more flexible, as students can take different classes based on their academic level rather than strictly by grade. This flexibility reduces the significance of social promotion. For instance, a student might study social studies with their age group while taking math with younger students, depending on their assessed math level.

In some countries, grade retention is allowed for students who have not learned the required material or who have been frequently absent. The opposite of social promotion is merit-based promotion, where students advance only after demonstrating mastery of the necessary material. This could involve either moving to the next grade or advancing to a higher-level course in the same subject. In grade-based curricula, this is known as "mid-term promotion." In course-based curricula, promotion is open-ended and depends on fulfilling prerequisites for the next course.