Missouri Educator Attitudes and Perceptions of Promotion Structures for Kindergarten Through Second Grade

Daniels, Tracy Lynn

Missouri Educator Attitudes and Perceptions of Promotion Structures for Kindergarten Through Second Grade

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Public education is a common thread in the communities of each town and city across America. The local control and civic duty to uphold free and appropriate education rests in the hands of local stakeholders, teachers, administrators, and parents alike. One would be hard pressed to find a local mission statement that did not include the goal of preparing students for an ever-changing world. As the world has continued to change in every aspect imaginable, the time structures of public education have not. In Missouri, students enter kindergarten at the age of five and progress through one grade level each year until completion of twelfth grade when the public education journey is concluded upon graduation. This time-based and fixed mindset has been in place since 1893 and has only been manipulated within the confines of the actual structure itself. This study has been created to explore the attitudes and perceptions of Missouri public educators on promotion structures and the effectiveness they have for grades kindergarten through second grade. A critical component of this study was the creation of a valid and reliable survey instrument. The survey measured the current pulse of Missouri educators with regard to promotion structures and Missouri’s youngest students. Construction of the survey, including an extensive pilot, has proven to be a valid and reliable tool to gage the current feelings of Missouri educators with regard to promotion structures and the effectiveness they have for kindergarten through second grade students. This tool can serve as a dependable launching device when embarking on the potential change process for promotion structures. Knowing where educators stand on the issue is a critical formative assessment to help guide and set action steps. Upon completion of analyzing data gathered from Missouri public educators, it was found that educators support nongraded structures, do not support social promotion, and have feelings both for and against retention. Principals and classroom teachers seem to view social promotion and retention with different degrees of support. This indicates that educators do not have a shared understanding of practice and implications of practice, both in short and long terms. The researcher recommends keeping current research in the hands of Missouri educators as well as looking for ways to find the pulse of the community regarding promotion structures and the effectiveness they have. It will be imperative to know the attitudes and perceptions of parents before an action plan can be made for moving forward with nongraded learning structures in kindergarten through second grade. Missouri educators and parents currently have two promotion options at the end of each school year. This creates a dire dichotomy for the public education system as both choices have many negative outcomes. It is recommended that Missouri public education move forward in finding ways to incorporate nongraded learning as it was the only structure that showed positive support from Missouri educators as a whole, within each sub group and within each demographic area explored. Given that nongraded learning was the most supported structure and the only structure not being implemented, it would be of great value for Missouri educators and policy makers to move down this path. Finding ways for individualized learning could be key in the success of students.

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