Senator says 2 in 3 TN students not reading at grade level is “inexcusable” as Senate advances bill to alter retention policy

There was plenty of confusion for the Senate version of the Third-Grade Retention compromise bill during the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee meeting Tuesday morning.More than a dozen bills were proposed by legislators to repeal or tweak the law before Memphis Representative Mark White, and Bristol Senator Jon Lundberg, brought forth a compromise bill that incorporated some of the suggestions.“I think we mislabeled that in marketing when people say it’s third-grade retention. It should have been ‘third-grade strengthening’. I think it’s inexcusable that we have 67 percent of our kids who cannot read at grade level at third grade,” said Senator Lundberg.One of the key additions would expand the scoring requirements for students to advance to fourth grade. For the House version of this bill, this includes a state-approved benchmark test that tracks the reading development. Third graders who score in the 50^th percentile of these tests will have the opportunity to advance. For the Senate version, it includes incentivizing the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) aligned, state-provided benchmark test.Nashville Senator Jeff Yarbro expressed confusion over this difference in the versions of the bill.“I know we’re trying not to call it retention, this is still a pretty significant thing. And if we’re assessing whether someone is reading at grade level according to genuine things that have been approved by the department as fair and effective measures of reading skill development, why would we not want to utilize that as an alternative?” asked Senator Yarbro.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) spoke on the bill, saying that the state-provided benchmark test aligns with state standards and is administered the same way the TCAP is.“What we’re trying to do is provide information and intervene more quickly for students who are having issues with reading. This benchmark assessment, for this purpose, is a single assessment to Chairman Lundberg’s point that is one assessment administered across the state so that there is consistency with this additional pathway to promotion to fourth grade around the 50^th percentile and the tutoring,” said TDOE Deputy Commissioner Eve Carney.Senator Yarbro expressed additional concerns over tying the assessment of developing reading skills to one high stakes assessment, saying that he doesn’t feel it’s fully measuring the number that are reading at grade level nor providing the flexibility that parents and teachers have been requesting.“I am a firm believer and always been about the critical importance of third grade reading, like you are learning to read till third grade and after that, you’re reading to learn other subjects and I fully buy into that. But I think sort of creating this series of three high stakes tests just does not strike me as like only way to understand whether or not someone is reading at grade level,” said Senator Yarbro.The committee expressed confusion of the timeline for these tests as well.“I think we’re struggling with the operational timing on this,” said Hixson Senator Bo Watson. “They take a screener when they do the summer bridge program, but by the fact that they’re going to matriculate to the fourth grade anyway, assuming they do 90 percent attendance and all that stuff, so I think we’re struggling to understand how the timeline works for the student who we won’t know that they’re approaching their grade level until they’ve taken the TCAP.”The benchmark tests are readily available on the school portals and can be used in preparation for TCAP or can be administered after. Third graders are not required to take the benchmark tests.Despite the initial confusion over the bill, it will be advancing to the Senate Calendar Committee and is likely to be voted on by the full Senate in the coming weeks.