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From his desk at Valencia Middle School, Bob Aguilar has had a front-row seat to social promotion.

He first became concerned about it six years ago, when, as teacher of the school's in-house suspension class, he saw a list of that year's pending graduates and realized many hadn't met state requirements to move on to high school.

"I said 'No way, this kid didn't meet it,' " he recalled. "'Man, there's something wrong here.' "

He has been raising his voice against social promotion ever since.

Although Aguilar has found sympathetic education officials, he remains frustrated by their lack of action.

In one e-mail response, Tom Horne, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, expressed doubt that legislation against social promotion was feasible. During the course of their correspondence, he consistently told Aguilar to pressure the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board to draft a policy restricting social promotion.

A 2005 e-mail to Aguilar from Linda Arzoumanian, Pima County's school superintendent, said she agreed social promotion undermines education and noted possible solutions but said: "I don't know what the whole answer is."

Why would a teacher pass along a failing student?

"There's a lot of pressure to do it," Aguilar said matter-of-factly. "We've had administrators who have told us we could not retain children."

TUSD's previous superintendent, Stan Paz, created a district action plan that included a goal of 0 percent retention, which equates to 100 percent promotion. Known as the BOLD! Game plan, it can still be found on TUSD's Web site.

Steve Holmes, TUSD's assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, recalled Paz's policy being in direct conflict with state competency requirements and said it confused teachers and educators.

Jan Vesely, Sunnyside's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, worked in TUSD under Paz and also recalled the policy.

"I looked at it as, of course, we want every child to succeed and our goal should be 100 percent," she said, but added students were retained when failing.

There are other reasons for social promotion, Aguilar said. Most schools and school districts don't have the money, resources or space to retain large groups of students.

Ultimately, it's easier to pass them along, he admitted.

"Once they're gone and out of our school, they're not our problem anymore," he said. "The high schools are suffering. The high schools are having to come up with ways to teach algebra to kids who don't know multiplication."

Aguilar has taught in TUSD for 21 years. The first six were in elementary school. Frustrated with the lack of basic math comprehension among his students, he left to teach middle-school physical education.

"I figured if a kid can walk, if a kid can move, I can be successful with that child."

At Valencia, 4400 W. Irvington Road, he created the in-house suspension class. When students are kicked out of class or are suspended for a few days, they end up with him.

"I like the fact they can come to my room, sit quietly and do their work, even though they got thrown out of another class for not being able to sit quietly and do their work," he said. "I'm able to give them more one-on-one attention than in a regular classroom."

Aguilar knows TUSD well.

He is the great-great-grandson of Augustus Brichta, the district's first teacher, and grew up in district schools.

He started working at Valencia when it opened in 1994.

Since 2002, Valencia's eighth-grade promotion rates have been 93 percent or higher. In 2003, all Valencia students were promoted, despite 95 eighth-graders — 35 percent of the class — failing one or more core classes. Last year, 98 percent of 315 eighth-graders were promoted, though 101 students — 32 percent of the class — failed one or more core classes.

Aguilar said Valencia needs to stop promoting failing students. The community, he added, has to start talking about the issue of social promotion.

"Why is it OK to have a 100 percent promotion rate? How is it even possible?" he asked. "I think the point we're missing is how cruel it is to put kids in situations where they can't be successful."

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