Few educational issues have generated more disagreement this year than Tennessee’s Third-Grade Retention Law.
The legislation was designed in 2021 to ensure that students who a need additional help in reading would receive it before being promoted to the fourth grade. Still, some critics feel the law may do more harm than good holding students back a grade based on their test scores.
Roughly a dozen bills have been filed in the new legislative session to change the law.
Wednesday afternoon Reginald Nash with advocate organization the Education Trust told members of the State House Education Instruction Subcommittee that any tweaks need to include an emphasis on building the literacy foundations both at the start of third grade and much earlier.
Nash is a former kindergarten teacher in the Achievement School District in Memphis. He called on his experience with students struggling with literacy during his presentation and highlighted the need for more robust resources so that retention would be an outlier rather than the norm.
“As a former kindergarten teacher in the ASD, which as many of you know those are the most grave of our priority schools. I would see students, I would even have situations where parents would come to me. I really specifically remember my third week of teaching and a parent came to me and shared that they couldn’t support the student with their homework because they too were illiterate,” said Nash.
Due to the effects of the pandemic, which heavily limited both the resources and access those students had, especially for low-income families, the current batch of third grade students face a heightened risk of retention based on the 2021-22 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) English Language Arts scores (ELA).
“Only English Language learners who have less than two years of instruction are exempt from the risks of retention. But the law does not account for significant concerns around English proficiency. If students are not yet proficient in English, they are highly unlikely to earn a proficient score on the ELA TCAP and should therefore not be punished for their lack of language proficiency,” said Nash.
Because language proficiency is what determines their instructional needs, Nash also proposed that the General Assembly revise the law to exclude active English learning students and instead focus on the incoming ones so that they can build those solid foundations.
Nash additionally proposed that any revision to the law include a robust data collection and annual evaluation provision, stating the importance of collecting transparent data to know if this intervention works.
Nash’s comments sparked questions from several members of the subcommittee including Oak Ridge Representative John Ragan who pressed Nash on his views of the negative impact of holding children back.
“You implied that retention is punishment. Is that what you meant?” asked Rep. Ragan.
“The research around retention is mixed. I definitely think there are probably situations where retention may be explored, but we just want to make sure that students are actually being set up for success and that actually retaining them is the best way to go,” said Nash.
Knoxville Representative Gloria Johnson has said she wants the Third-Grade Retention Law to be repealed and questioned Nash whether the law should be changed to give more authority to local school districts.
“So you’re saying that retention should be considered student by student, but we shouldn’t make some sweeping legislation based on a test score? Maybe locally that decision needs to be made about retention and not for a huge swath of students due to the research that retention can be incredibly damaging if it’s not undertaken with a whole lot of thought,” said Rep. Johnson.
“I think that if retention is used, it definitely needs to be accompanied with a suite of other interventions as well,” said Nash in response. “Ultimately if that decision is made, we just have to make sure we’re deploying those resources to support those students and make sure they get what they actually need.”
