AUSTIN, TX. (AP) - A decade-old law to stop students from advancing in school if they haven't passed a skills test doesn't seem to be having an impact on a practice known as social promotion.

The Dallas Morning News reports that nearly 92 percent of the eighth-grade students who failed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in 2010 were given waivers to move forward. About 88 percent of fifth-graders who failed were still promoted.

State law passed in 1999 requires fifth- and eighth-graders to pass math and reading tests to move to the next grade. But schools can waive that requirement if the student's teacher, parents and principal agree a promotion is in the child's best interest.

Remedial programs for failing students had their funding slashed in the last state budget.

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