Critics of strict "promotional gates" at the grade school level point

Question

Critics of strict "promotional gates" at the grade school level point to a recent study comparing students forced to repeat a grade with those promoted despite failing scores on an unscheduled, experimental competency test. Since there was no significant difference between the two groups' scores on a second test administered after completion of the next higher grade level, these critics argue that the retention policy has failed in its expressed purpose of improving students' basic skills.

Which of the following best expresses the argument made by critics of promotional gates?

A. Anxiety over performance on standardized tests often hinders a student s ability to master challenging new material.

B. A student's true intellectual development cannot be gauged by his score on a standardized competency test.

C. The psychological damage a child suffers by repeating a grade outweighs the potential intellectual benefits of a second chance at learning.

D. Strict requirements for promotion do not lead to harder work and greater mastery of fundamentals among students fearful of being held back.

E. Socioeconomic factors as well as test scores influenced whether a given student in the study was promoted or forced to repeat a grade.

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sayan640 · Answer

D should be the answer.
Strict requirements of promotion don't lead to hard work and greater mastery of skills as no significant difference has been found among the students even after retention.

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divyansh843 · Answer

is the answer D?

Here we are talking about the students who were not held back scoring the almost equivalent to those who had passed theprevious grade. This can only means that the strict promotion policy does not have an effect

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siddharth_ · Answer

Can someone please provide an explanation to this one? Can't wrap my head around the logic somehow.

Aashi108 · Answer

A. Anxiety over performance on standardized tests often hinders a student s ability to master challenging new material.
---Ruling out, since there has been no mention of anxiety

B. A student's true intellectual development cannot be gauged by his score on a standardized competency test.
---The promotion gates seemed to be directed at elevating the students' basic skills and not just intellectual development.

C. The psychological damage a child suffers by repeating a grade outweighs the potential intellectual benefits of a second chance at learning.
---No mention of any damage to the child's mentality from repeating a grade.

D. Strict requirements for promotion do not lead to harder work and greater mastery of fundamentals among students fearful of being held back.
 ---Since there was no significant difference in scores during the second test among the promoted and repeated test takers so this suggests that the "promotion gates" are not rewarding enough for students to try and get higher scores. ---So I feel this is the correct answer.

E. Socioeconomic factors as well as test scores influenced whether a given student in the study was promoted or forced to repeat a grade.
---Out of scope, no mention of any financial aid.

phamthao017 · Answer

Which of the following best expresses the argument made by critics of promotional gates?

A. Anxiety over performance on standardized tests often hinders a student's ability to master challenging new material. 
=> Irrelevant, no mention of anxiety at all

B. A student's true intellectual development cannot be gauged by his score on a standardized competency test. 
=> The test is testing basic skills, not the true intellectual.

C. The psychological damage a child suffers by repeating a grade outweighs the potential intellectual benefits of a second chance at learning. 
=> Irrelevant, no mention of psychological damage

D. Strict requirements for promotion do not lead to harder work and greater mastery of fundamentals among students fearful of being held back. 
=> CORRECT. "Since there was no significant difference between the two groups' scores on a second test administered after completion of the next higher grade level" => Current strict promotion does not help to improve score

E. Socioeconomic factors as well as test scores influenced whether a given student in the study was promoted or forced to repeat a grade. 
=> Irrelevant, no socioeconomic like culture or finance mention here.

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

D

Since the critics claim, based on the study's results, that the policy of leaving students back doesn't improve their skills, the best restatement of their view is (D). (A) fails for two reasons: one, the critics never hinted that test anxiety was the reason for poor performance, and two, (A) discusses "challenging new material," whereas the tests in question assessed students' basic skills. In (B), we're not interested in students' "true intellectual development"-again, it's their mastery of basic skills. Anyway, (B)'s criticism of standardized test scores tends to go against the critics' argument, which is based on those very scores. The psychological damage of being left back, raised in (C), is well beyond the scope; the critics never hinted at this. Finally, (E) fails because the critics never discussed socioeconomic factors at all-just test scores.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Critics of strict "promotional gates" at the grade school level point

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