Bipartisan vote leads to passage of legislation to reduce the number of fourth-graders held back under new reading requirements

In an rare move of bipartisanship, the State Senate sent legislation to Governor Lee’s desk Wednesday that should ease some of the concerns parents have about their children repeating the fourth-grade.The state estimates roughly 6 to 10 thousand fourth-graders are at risk for retention under a provision of the state’s Third-Grade Retention law.Under that law, third-graders who fail to show reading proficiency on state tests can only advance to the fourth-grade through summer school and/or tutoring during their fourth-grade year. Children that receive tutoring in the fourth-grade still need to show adequate growth on state testing to be promoted to fifth-grade and the Tennessee Department of Education estimates as many as 66 percent won’t meet that threshold this year.The “Alternative Pathways to Fifth-Grade” bill passed by Senators Wednesday would add additional tests that could qualify fourth-graders to advance to the fifth-grade. The legislation will also allow fourth-graders who fail to show proficiency to advance if there’s agreement from all parties in a conference with parents, teachers, and the school principal. Those children would be required to receive 180 days of tutoring in the fifth-grade.Senators passed the bill on a 26 to 4 vote, with both Democrats and Republicans like Senator Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City, supporting it. Crowe said he’s received calls from parents who were not only concerned but also confused why their kids are facing the possibility of retention in the fourth-grade.“I think the concern was that many of these kids were the same ones we dealt with in the third-grade and the pressure we were putting on them was immense – the families and the kids. But that the best way to do this would be to pull them all together in a unit, in a conference to try to decide, together, with those people that are most familiar with that child, what’s the best thing to do,” said Crowe.The legislation passed the House unanimously on Tuesday.Representative Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville, was among those speaking in favor of it.“This makes sense. This is a great bill and it gives the people who are informed, who care, the access and really the strength and the power they need to manage their kids,” said McKenzie.House members have additionally advanced a competing proposal that would remove the fourth-grade retention section of the new law altogether. That plan is attached to the House version of the Education Freedom Scholarship act that appears to face an uphill battle for passage.