Comedy in Action

Boasting that his threat to hold back failing third and fifth graders had spurred record increases in reading and mathematics scores, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said today that he would extend the policy to seventh graders.

The move is part of what the mayor called an intense new focus on middle schools, which have long been viewed as a Bermuda Triangle of American education...

But the threat of holding back failing seventh graders has serious implications that are not seen in the younger grades. Some studies have shown that while older students may be motivated to try harder to avoid being left behind, those who are left behind are at high risk of dropping out of school.

Moreover, keeping seventh graders back raises the eventual possibility of 15-year-olds in the same hallways, cafeterias and locker rooms as prepubescent 11- and 12-year-olds.

- nytimes.com