Only about one-third of Tennessee’s third-grade students are reading on grade level.
Students are able to understand what they hear, and are performing well when it comes to vocabulary and language, but they still struggle with reading comprehension, fluency and writing, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Tennessee Department of Education.
But that isn’t news.
Tennessee students’ dismal performance when it comes to reading and language skills was the very reason the First Steps report was conducted. The report looks at the work done in the two years since the department set the ambitious goal of at least 75 percent of third-graders in the state reading on grade level by 2025.
Progress is being made across the state, the report finds, but several recommendations outline the next steps the state needs to take to ensure it meets that goal. Though students are doing better in reading than those in 2016, they still fall short of national averages. Hamilton County Schools students perform even worse, with only 31.5 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 reading on grade level, compared to the state’s average of 33.8 percent.