He would not say whether teachers had complained to his office, but vowed to investigate if they do and to discipline anyone who pressures teachers to pass students.

A University City teacher provided The Inquirer with a March 27 memo from principal Anthony Irvin that decried the 46 percent of students who were failing one or more classes.

"This statistic is unacceptable, particularly since this is a reflection of the delivery and quality of our core or elective subject offerings," Irvin wrote of the 1,350-student school. "It is essential that every staff member immediately address this issue."

He and other principals were all contacted for this article but declined to comment.

Two teachers at Gratz High School in North Philadelphia said principal Vera White required teachers to submit lists of students in danger of failing, then told some teachers their "numbers are too high."

A teacher quoted White as saying, "This is not from me. This is from the superintendent's office." The teacher ultimately passed seven students who earned F's, the teacher said.

Michael Lerner, head of the district's principals' union, said his members had not told him of any directives that they pass students.

But "many principals today feel terribly micromanaged," he said. "Principals are walking a tightrope right now. They feel like any mistake they make is going to be held against them."

Several teachers said pressure to pass was particularly acute in the neighborhood high schools, which often lag state standards and have higher-than-average dropout rates.

"The thing is, we're not asked to educate our kids. We're asked to pass them," the Gratz teacher said.

At Olney West, a teacher said she had received warning calls after failing students.

"I'll get a phone call saying, 'Are you sure he earned a 58? Are you sure it wasn't a 65?' " the teacher said. "To me, if a student has 80 absences, the question should be, 'Why did they pass?' and not, 'What are you doing so they don't fail?' "

Olney West's principal, Barbara Wells, "let us know our failure rate was too high," the teacher said. "She said, 'We need to do something about that.' "

The teacher, who failed every student who earned an F, said preventing failures at any cost was a way of life at 930-student Olney West.

"When I entered the building, there was an understanding that this is the way things work," the teacher said. "We talk about it, but there's this sense of inevitability."

No lasting remedies

The roots of the practice go deep.

When Constance E. Clayton became superintendent in 1982, she vowed to end a 37-year-old unwritten policy of social promotion.

But despite the district's many attempts to tackle the problem, teachers say, there were no lasting changes.

"Every time a new superintendent comes in, they say, 'We are not going to have social promotion,' " said Lorna Bearn, a veteran reading specialist who retired in 2004 after 30 years with the district. "That lasts about a year."

Clayton, superintendent for 11 years, said she was incredulous when she read in The Inquirer that some teachers were contending that social promotion had been the norm in city schools for 40 years.