Hand-wringing continues across the state as school administrators, teachers and parents consider what will happen if the state's new third-grade reading retention law prevents thousands of students from moving on to fourth grade this year.
The law, passed in 2021, states that third-grade students who don't score "on track" or "mastered" on standardized tests -- and who don't get help from summer "bridge" camps, tutors or re-testing -- will repeat the third grade. Since 66% of the state's students on last year's test did not score "on track" or "mastered," the number of grade repeaters stands to be substantial.
State Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, is among many legislators who have proposed a combined 18 changes in the law. But the change he is proposing is not because he thinks the current law isn't needed or won't work.
Indeed, in a letter to a teacher who wrote to him and other legislators, he said this: "Reasonably considered, a proposal to neuter a newly enacted law prior to being able to observe its impacts is poor data-based decision-making. This is especially true since data exists on the situation without the law, i.e., a 66% grade-level literacy failure rate among Tennessee third-graders."
The amendment to the reading law Ragan is proposing says that a third-grade student who is not proficient in English language arts (ELA) can be promoted to fourth grade if at least 66% of third-grade students in the student's school district or public charter school test proficient on the ELA portion of the most recently administered Tennessee comprehensive assessment program test and if the student's parent or guardian, teacher, and school principal mutually agree and recommend in writing that the student should be promoted to fourth grade.
The thinking, perhaps, is that the student is in a school with higher performers, and being around a group of higher performers will influence the student to improve on their reading skills.
In Hamilton County during the 2021-2022 school year, 36.4% of third-graders were "on track" or "mastered" in their ELA scores, meaning 63.6% weren't. However, in December, district officials -- who adopted the reading law as county policy -- speculated that only 30% of third-graders would not be promoted at the end of this year if the law was not amended.
Ragan, in replying to the teacher who wrote him (and others who were sent the letter), made clear his case that continuing to allow two-thirds of the state's students to be promoted without reading proficiency was a non-starter.
"[A]ccording to a number of published, peer-reviewed, academic studies," he wrote, "there is a 'devasting' impact on a third-grader not reading on grade level. This impact is statistically tied to life-long poverty as well as our state's long-term economy.
"Moreover, these studies correlate third-graders not reading on grade level with future drop-out rates, justice system involvement, teen pregnancy, welfare rates, etc. There is also a correlation with over 20% of Tennessee K-12 graduates going to college that must take remedial courses for no credit before beginning their collegiate studies."
Ragan, in his letter, noted that while legislators passed the new law in wake of COVID-19 learning losses, reading scores weren't that much better before the pandemic and that all the remediation methods available before the law passed hadn't moved the needle on proficiency.
"[Q]uite obviously," he wrote, "these existing methods and interventions were not used, or if used, were not effective."
The Oak Ridge legislator emphasized that retaining students in the third grade is only a last resort and would be done only if all the remediation measures offered with the state law -- and at state expense -- are unsuccessful.
"[A]s a point of absolute clarity," Ragan wrote, "with retesting, it is not a 'single' test result that must drive the retention decision. Such a single test driver becomes the case only if it is chosen to be so."
The House will first consider all 18 bills that would change the reading law on Feb. 14, but no vote on any proposed change is expected for several weeks. Literacy experts are expected to add their two-cents worth during a full House Education Administration Committee hearing on Feb. 22.
Clearly, efforts to improve reading skills in the past have not had the success they should have. Equally clearly, retaining students who have not reached proficiency is a drastic measure. But what we won't know until the end of the year is how much improvement during this school year has been effected, and we won't be able to know for several years how holding back a student to improve their reading skills helps down the line. But we hope legislators will carefully consider all the amendments to the 2021 law to see if a tweak or two might improve it.
However, as Ragan points out in his letter, "leaving the system unchanged is cruelly condemning many, if not most, of these Tennessee students who are not reading on grade level to lower academic achievement [and] lower lifetime fulfillment ... [and] is unacceptable."