Kids work all year, get good grades and because they don't take a stupid test at the end of the year, they're held back?
That's like telling a PGA tour pro that because you didn't win the Tour Championship final tournament, you have to give the money you've won during the year, back.
“Kids work all year, get good grades and because they don’t take a stupid test at the end of the year, they’re held back?”
Not a new concept. Sounds a lot like the NY State Regents tests from the ‘60s. (I don’t know if they still have them.) You could be an A student all year, but if you flunked the Regents test for any subject the one-and-only day it was given statewide, you flunked that subject. That’s the reason I took Algebra I twice; I was sick the day of the exam.
Sounds like more ridiculous “no tolerance” rules. If the kids don’t take the test next year, are they held back a second time? What about the year after that and the year after that and the year after that? By that reasoning, they have reached the school’s cut off age of 21 and still be in 3rd grade. Let the administrators try to wiggle their way out of that.
When you fail to show up for the "Final Exam" chances are you are going to flunk the class.
That's called "reality."
I don't know why these parents refused to allow their children to take the examination, but actions have consequences.
I suspect the school is punishing the parents because these standardized tests are mainly for statistics to gauge how the school ranks with the other schools and the district and when the "honor" students refuse to take the test, that skews the results down.