School is different for everyone. Some people coast through without having to open a book, some don't. But either way, everyone will graduate. At least, that's how it is in fiction. In reality some people just don't graduate.
This is probably used for good reason, as it's no fun to watch someone drop out, or not earn the credits they need to graduate. But it can also be a glaring error when someone who made straight Fs or Ds graduates with their class. Sometimes this is Hand Waved as the character doing enough extra credit work to make up for what they missed. But even then, this is hard to believe. Most teachers will only assign extra credit work to those who are already passing. This trope will often go hand-in-hand with Ivy League for Everyone.
In the case of an overly dramatic series, this can be used to create a happy ending. This is exceedingly common in American works.
When it happens in Real Life, this is called social promotion.
As a general rule in America, this is standard in elementary education, possible in middle school and not supposed to happen in high school, but this varies between schools, districts, and teachers.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Azumanga Daioh ends with all six of the main girls graduating high school and heading for college, even the "Knuckleheads", who consistently get the lowest grades. The story does go out of its way to justify it when they take their entrance exams: Tomo genuinely worked for it (mostly to spite Yomi), Kagura got in with her athletic skill, and Osaka... well, she got rejected a few times, but made it eventually. Chiyo got a secured spot at an American university, and Sakaki passed her exams without issue. Ironically, Yomi had the most trouble and was the last to succeed, despite being a Brainy Brunette.
Comic Books
- Robin (1993): Amusingly, every named character, including Stephanie Brown, who spent over a year legally dead and not attending school, and Ives, who missed at least a semester due to illness, who survived high school, graduated, except the title character, who dropped out in his final semester. Tim Drake never really liked school anyway.
Fan Works
- In Family Guy Fanon's "Full Metal Jackass" from Season 4, Chris graduates from middle school, despite the fact he was a Book Dumb teenager that was shown to be a C- to D student in all his classes (aside from Art and Science).
- In Spectacular Seven, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle graduate from high school as salutatorian and valedictorian, having little difficulty passing as both are portrayed as Teen Geniuses. However, the rest of the Spectacular Seven, despite constantly complaining about lower grades and difficulty with projects and tests, all pass their finals as well. Even Rainbow Dash, who had been the most vocal about her academic troubles, graduates and gets into college on an athletic scholarship. Moondancer doesn't graduate, but that's because she's been placed under house arrest by the Big Bad after failing to bring back the Spectacular Seven's souls. As such, Moondancer fails all of her finals by default.
Films — Animated
- Subverted in Monsters University. Mike and Sulley are expelled from the titular university at the end of the film, so they work their way up at Monsters Inc. until they reach where they are by the events of the first film.
Films — Live-Action
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) is going to fail his History class, which means he wouldn't graduate. However, on the evening of the graduation dance, Mr. Hand shows up at Spicoli's house and informs him that since he has wasted eight hours of class time over the past year, Mr. Hand intends to make up for that time now. They proceed to have a one-on-one tutoring session that lasts until Mr. Hand is satisfied that Spicoli has understood the lesson and finally tells him he will pass him with a D (the lowest possible passing grade).
Literature
- Played painfully straight in Eclipse. Bella and all the Cullens in her grade graduate with everyone else, despite the Cullen family skipping school every time its sunny and flat-out leaving without explanation for most of the second book, while Bella's own attendance record is only slightly less sketchy (she disappears for a brief period in the first book, when she runs away to Phoenix, and mentally checks out for most of the second book before running off to Italy). They also somehow are all accepted to incredibly prestigious colleges.
- Averted in Super Powereds by design. Each year, nearly a hundred students are accepted as freshmen to one of the five US colleges with a Hero Certification Program. Every year after that, the classes are whittled down (either leaving on their own or being cut from the program) until only 10 graduate after 4 years per school. Those who are cut in their last year are typically allowed to try again until they graduate. The reason for this is simple - only the best are allowed to be fully-licensed Heroes, since they have to be strong enough to stop criminal Supers and protect civilians, as well as smart enough to know what to do in most situations (dumb Heroes either don't last long, or their careless actions result in civilian casualties).
- In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the fictional author bio of Newt Scamander states that he graduated Hogwarts. However, in the film series of the same name, it is revealed that Newt was expelled from Hogwarts after taking the blame for Leta's antics. Considering that he apparently graduated anyway, this means everyone who attends Hogwarts graduates.
Live-Action TV
- Averted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Oz had to repeat the 12th grade, despite being established as rather intelligent. Of course, the Out-of-Universe purpose for this was to keep him at Sunnydale High with the other characters despite being a year older than them.
Oz: Well, it's sort of a funny story. You remember when I didn't graduate?Willow: Well, I know you had a lot of incompletes, but that's what summer school was for.Oz: Yeah, well, you remember when I didn't go?
- Buffy, who barely had time to study and missed class most of the time due to having to fight monsters all the time, was able to graduate in Season 3 after getting help from Willow. She also got very good SAT scores. In later seasons, due to having to take on even more responsibilities after her mother's death, she was forced to drop out of university.
- In Saved by the Bell, Zack is almost never shown studying, and a few times it is shown that he is close to failing out of at least one class, yet he graduates with everyone and (in The Movie) gets into Yale. He was always portrayed as Brilliant, but Lazy rather than Book Dumb, but still.
- On The George Lopez Show, a running plot point is the question of whether Max, George's dyslexic and generally Book Dumb son, would have to repeat the fifth grade. To the show's credit, it even notes that it might be better for him if he does repeat—however, he squeaks by enough to pass. George himself never went to college, and his difficulty with school is partially attributed to also struggling with dyslexia. As an adult, he takes a community college course because he wanted to be a good role model for Max.
- On Happy Days, Fonzie spent the first four seasons as a high school dropout. There was even one early episode where he returns only to quickly drop out again. When it came time for Richie, Potsie, and Ralph to graduate, Fonzie started attending night school and graduated alongside them. They did note that it was unusual for a night school student to attend graduation, but the fact that he caught up is still amazing.
- Averted on Glee, where Puck's struggling in history class leading to pending graduation became a substantial plot line. However, everyone was shocked when they found out that Brittany didn't graduate and would be spending another year in high school, but she's quick to point out that she maintained a 0.0 grade-point average.
- On Drake & Josh, Drake had to retake algebra at least once and almost didn't graduate only because he never went to gym class. He had to win a dance contest for extra credit.
- The Suite Life on Deck: London graduated with Zack and Cody, though had some difficulty near the end. In the first series, she's stated as being at least three years older than the twins, so it's safe to assume that she probably got Held Back in School a few times.
- On One Tree Hill, in spite of class valedictorian Haley being pregnant, her husband, star basketball player Nathan, both getting her pregnant and engaging in point shaving, and Brooke and Rachel having failing grades and stealing a key from Haley that allowed them to hack the school computers to change their grades, everyone is allowed to graduate.
- Subverted in Riverdale, where in the fifth season, everyone except Archie graduates from school. Archie spent the previous year doing all sorts of shenanigans, which didn't reflect well on his academic performance, so it makes sense. That said, he is allowed to walk with his classmates to spare him from the embarrassment of being a drop out.
- Young Sheldon: In "A Philosophy Class and Worms That Can Chase You", Billy starts middle school (after graduating from elementary school earlier in the series). Even Billy's mom seems to think the kid's not ready for middle school. "Those middle schoolers are going to eat him alive," she says. Billy's graduation from elementary school was apparently "social promotion".
Video Games
- The good ending for BioShock has this, along with Weddings for Everyone.
- Though only one is shown each time, the others are only implied.
- In Ensemble Stars!, despite the fact that several characters took months-long breaks from school, some of which are threatened in-universe with not completing enough schoolwork to graduate, all are eventually able to do just enough to graduate alongside their classmates. The only exceptions are Rei and Ritsu, who were both held back a year before the current year started.
Visual Novels
- Spectacularly subverted in Double Homework. Everyone in the summer school class (minus Amy, who has her own school system) graduates on time, but Henry has to stay back a year, because he mistook his report card for a musical piece with an unusual number of "F's," and thus, he skipped out on summer school by accident.
Western Animation
- Averted in Arthur:
- It was mentioned once that Binky Barnes is repeating fourth grade. Then the series gets firmly frozen in time, so who's to say if he'll ever graduate or not.
- It was also revealed that Brain had to repeat kindergarten, which is why he's larger & more athletic than the other kids in his class. It's a big secret though, so don't tell anybody!
- Averted in Kim Possible: In the Series Finale (which is called "Graduation"), all the seniors at Middleton High manage to graduate... except for Bonnie Rockwaller, whose belief that "nothing important ever happens during the last week of school" ends up biting her in the ass — because of what she did, Bonnie's just one credit short of being able to graduate and, as a result, has to go to summer school in order to get her high school diploma. And to really add insult to injury (at least for Bonnie), Mr. Barkin is the one teaching her at summer school.
- Averted in Daria. Dumb jock Kevin actually doesn't graduate with the others because his grades were so bad. You'd think he would have been cut from the football team first until his grades improved, but there you go.
- In the last episode of Hercules: The Animated Series, everyone in Herc's grade manages to graduate — except for Herc's rival, Adonis, who has to go to summer school in order to graduate.
- Averted in Hey Arnold!. Both Harold and minor character Torvald are thirteen years old, but still in fourth grade due to repeated flunking.
- The Simpsons: When Homer and Marge Simpson attend their high school reunion, it's revealed that Homer failed one of his classes and thus never (technically) graduated. This was actually foreshadowed in an earlier episode (one that shows how Homer and Marge met and started dating) where he avoids Marge before their high school prom by not going to school for two weeks (and missing the relevant classes).
- Averted in TaleSpin. It's revealed that Baloo never graduated from grade school, and thus may be barred from attending his class reunion.
