State Board of Education unanimously approves resolution asking lawmakers to change Third-Grade Retention Law

The Tennessee State Board of Education is joining the list of government entities that have expressed an interest in changing the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law.

The board unanimously approved a resolution from board member Ryan Holt on Monday asking state lawmakers to reconsider the law and move back the grades where interventions take place to as early as kindergarten. Under the retention law that went into effect last year, third-graders who fail to score “proficient” on the English language arts portion of state testing have to attend summer school and possibly have tutoring to advance to the fourth-grade. 

Additionally, students who receive tutoring must also show “adequate growth” on testing to advance to the fifth grade.It’s believed as many as 10 thousand students statewide could be retained in the fourth grade from this requirement.Holt says he proposed the resolution asking lawmakers to alter the law after hearing from teachers who believe interventions like those provided in the third-grade should start as early as possible.

“There is a lot of good in the law involving third-grade and fourth-grade reading and promotion. We are identifying the students who need the most supports and we are giving them those supports,” said Holt. “I’m bringing this resolution not because I think I have all the answers on the details of this law – I certainly don’t – I’m bringing it to express my general belief that these provisions would do more if they are brought earlier, in grades where so much of the focus is on learning to read.”

When lawmakers passed the new law, the earliest the state could assess reading was following Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) testing in the third-grade. This changed with the introduction of reading screeners.Students must take three reading screeners a year starting in kindergarten.Holt believes these screeners can be utilized to determine support, intervention, and retention decisions sooner than the third-grade. Though his resolution found support from every board member, some did express a desire to alter it.

The language encourages lawmakers to move retention provisions of the law to “grades kindergarten through three rather than the third and fourth grade.”  Multiple board members unsuccessfully pushed to change the resolution to grades kindergarten through first or second.

“Everything that we hear from teachers and parents, I think the longer we go before we recognize the importance of having some intervention, the more difficult it is for that child,” said board member Bob Eby. “If there is a way that we could somehow emphasize the importance of having it earlier in K-1 or two, I know from personal experience it’s much easier to retain a student in kindergarten or first-grade than it is in second-grade and it is in third-grade.”