Administrators with Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) say parents should learn today if their third-graders need to attend summer school and/or tutoring in the fall.
The district announced that it plans to send an email to parents of children who took the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) English language arts retest last week that explains whether the child scored proficient and what options are available if they didn’t meet that threshold.
“You’re getting a very clear explicit email with whatever your child is and what the choice is,” said MSCS Chef of Academic Operations Shawn Page.
Students who scored below proficient on the April TCAP test were offered the retest as one option to advance to the fourth-grade under the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law.
Students who failed to score proficient on the retake have several options to avoid retention depending on whether they scored “approaching” or “below” proficient on the TCAP retest.
Those options include any of the following.
Approaching Proficient
- Student maintains a 90% attendance at Summer Camp and demonstrates improvement.
- Student receives free TN ALL Corps tutoring during fourth grade.
- Parent successfully appeals the retention.
Below Proficient
- Student maintains a 90% attendance at Summer Camp and receives free TN ALL Corps tutoring during fourth grade.
The district is additionally planning to inform parents of their options a second time with report cards that are mailing out Friday.
MSCS Executive Director of Accountability Bill White said the district is working to provide this information to parents as soon as possible.
“There’s a lot to this so we wanted to make sure that we took a comprehensive look at that student and that we were able to provide some official information from the district level. We know people are really anxious to get it, I totally understand that, but we want to make sure that it’s comprehensive. That it’s accurate” said White.
District administrators also provided some new information about summer camp and fall tutoring for students who don’t score proficient on the TCAP retake.
Under the law, students who scored “below” proficient have to attend summer camp and attend TN All Corps tutoring in the Fall to advance to the fourth-grade. Students who scored “approaching” proficiency can advance by completing either option but if they choose summer camp, they must demonstrate improvement.
MSCS Chief Academic Officer Jaron Carson said the state provided districts with new guidance last week for how that improvement must be shown on the post test at the end of summer camp.
“Adequate growth is 5 percent increase. So from what they performed on the April regular TCAP test they must increase by five percentage points at the post test at the summer academy,” said Carson.
Students who fail to meet that improvement would have to attend tutoring in the fall.
Local school districts will be providing that tutoring following specific state guidelines, including one tutor for every three students.
“It’s not where you can take your child to tutoring. It is where we are providing the tutoring,” said Page. “It could be before school. It could be during school. It could be after school, but this is not where you can pick your tutoring and say I did it.”
Parents of students who tested “approaching” proficiency must decide which pathway their third-grader is choosing by June 9th.
