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Grim Reality of Standardista Mantra
Shielded by the focus on high school dropouts, the number of Boston middle schoolers dropping out has skyrocketed during the last five years, sparking fears the city's tough promotion policy is pushing students out of the system.

In 1995, just 37 students in the middle school grades dropped out, according to data from the state Department of Education. By 2000, that number had jumped to 156 students--an increase of more than 300 percent.
Education researcher Anne Wheelock, who has analyzed the numbers, said the increase corresponds to the sharp hike in the number of students retained in grade because of the district's tougher stances on promotion and truancy. Older students stuck in middle school just don't stay long.
"These numbers are as bad as I've seen in a very long time," said Wheelock. "There is no excuse for having any 16-year-olds in middle school at all, but this is a crisis Boston creates through a combination of high stakes testing policies, rigid responses to kids at risk and indifference to the most vulnerable kids."

— Ed Hayward
Middle School Dropout Rate Up
Boston Herald
June 19, 2002
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news.local_regional/drop06192002

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