The Department of Education plans to change the policy requiring students who fail state tests to pass summer school or repeat a grade level.

Officials expect a lot more students will fail the state standardized tests this year, and so to keep the summer school numbers and retention numbers from skyrocketing, they are changing the rules.

The city will only require elementary and middle school students whose scores are in the bottom 10 percent go to summer school and pass, meaning some students may fail the high stakes exams and get to move on anyway.

The state tests, which are brand-new this year, are supposed to be a better measure of what students should actually know at each grade level in order to be ready for college-level work when they graduate from high school.. and officials say they will be much more difficult to pass.

Starting in 2004, Mayor Michael Bloomberg instituted a strict policy that all students who fail must attend summer school and pass in order to be promoted, calling anything else "social promotion."

Though this latest change may mean students who fail are promoted anyway, the city says it expects the actual number of students attending summer school to be similar to the number last year.