Catalyst Chicago
Nestled among bungalows on the far outer reaches of the South Side, Shoop Elementary was once touted as an example of how the district’s promotion policy can work.
In the first year of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s policy banning social promotion, a third of Shoop students in the benchmark grades—3rd, 6th and 8th—were held back. Students weren’t coming to school, and then-Principal Lee Brown told Catalyst Chicago that too many students and their parents did not take classes and homework seriously...