Studies indicate that retention negatively impacts students' behavior, attitude, and attendance, but it is still practiced in schools around the country. Social promotion undermines students' futures when they fail to develop critical study and job-related skills; however, it too is still practiced in many schools throughout the United States. These practices are ruining public education as we know it, and unless we innovate and find alternative strategies to replace them, the US. K-12 education system will continue to underperform. This article posits that retention and social promotion are equally undesirable choices, and that schools can reduce the need for these either-or options by using alternative approaches. A review of the current literature and practice suggests promising alternatives to social promotion and retention. These alternatives focus on preventing the failure cycle that results in poor performance so that social promotion and retention can segue into an effective, high-performance methods of intervention.