New York City public schools held back just 0.4% of students in grades 3 through 8 last year — even as over 40% flunked standardized reading and math tests.
Around 3% of students in those grades did not meet the requirements to advance, but most of them moved on anyway, according to the city Department of Education.
“This is educational malpractice,” Jean Hahn co-president of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum Education, a pro-merit advocacy organization, told The Post.
The number of students held back in city schools has fallen dramatically since Chancellor’s Regulation A-501 was implemented in 2014. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio allowed schools to use “holistic” criteria outside of standardized tests — including report card grades and other examples of academic mastery — to determine math and language proficiency.
“Course grades are designed to reflect students’ demonstrated mastery of those standards — not simply attendance, behavior, or time spent in class — and students must meet course expectations to earn credit,” a DOE spokesperson said.
In 2010, when 990,000 students were enrolled in city schools, 1.15% of students were left back.
From 2021-2025 city schools held back .3% of fifth-eighth graders, according to a DOE spokesperson.
Little over half of city students managed to pass standardized math and reading tests in 2025 — despite the city spending a whopping $36,293 per pupil.
The practice of passing along students to the following grade is referred to as “social promotion” and has been a thorn in the side of city education advocates for decades.
“I suspect the real picture is worse,” said Zilvenas Silenas, president of the Empire Center.
A stunning 43% of the city’s current 912,000 public school kids attend failing schools, according to a bombshell July report from the Success Academy Charter Schools network.
Fewer than half of students in 906 public schools across the city are passing standardized tests in reading or math, the report found.
A third of the schools have been listed as failures for decades and some have been on city “accountability” lists since 2012 — statewide registers track academically failing schools.
The dismal stat comes despite record spending on education.
The DOE’s budget has ballooned to a staggering $40 billion, despite the fact that city schools continue to hemorrhage students.
Enrollment in Big Apple public schools has precipitously dropped since COVID, with the DOE losing 12.2% of its student body in just four years.
City schools lost 22,000 students in 2025 — a 2.4% drop which was the steepest decline in four years.
“The DOE must do a better job communicating to families and students when they are not at grade level and stopping automatic promotion,” Manhattan Institute Fellow Danyela Egorov told The Post.
“This policy does not work and leads students to struggle with basic math and reading classes in college.”
