According to the U.S. Department of Education, social promotion sends a bad message to students, both to those who are socially promoted and to those who are promoted because they have mastered the material of the school year. As the Westchester Institute For Human Services Research explains it, students "receive the message that effort and achievement do not count." Those that are socially promoted learn they don't really have to work for promotion. Students that are promoted by merit and hard work see others getting the same reward -- promotion -- without working to master the material.
A student that moves forward due to social promotion may feel frustrated by the struggle to complete work at a level that she does not have the foundation for. She may even come to think she is incapable as she watches other students outperform her. The experience may cause a dislike of school and learning altogether.
Students that are socially promoted are, in a sense, set up for failure. It is unlikely that they will be able to perform at grade level, as they did not master the material of the previous year. The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory points out that these students may come to believe that "they have little worth, and they do not warrant the time and effort it would take to help them be successful in school." The social promotion aimed at protecting self-esteem may come to be perceived by the student as an acknowledgement by the teacher that they are unable to learn. They may also feel they are not worth the time to teach, a belief sure to harm over-all self-esteem, according to the website Sharing Success.
Social promotion of students may add to the number of students that drop out of school instead of graduating due to dislike of school fostered by academic frustration. Academic struggle and failure may wear away at the self-esteem, until students come to believe that they are incapable of doing better. A student that dislikes school, is not successful academically, and has lower self-esteem is more likely to quit school rather than continue on in a situation that is becoming increasingly more unpleasant.