Intervention without Retention

Tennessee’s new third grade retention law is adding undue stress on parents and grade school children. The new retention law hinges on the English Language Arts section of TCAP / TNReady testing. Third graders who score below or approaching proficiency face possible retention. Students who do not meet the required score on the state test must go to summer school and have a tutor for the entirety of fourth grade. Those students must then hit a specific growth goal the next year to move on to the fifth grade. If a parent believes their child does not need to be held back they can attempt to get an appeal.

The reasoning for this law is due to the loss of reading skills from the pandemic. The third graders lost a portion of their kindergarten and first grade years due to COVID-19 canceling portions of those school years. According to State officials, many students were unable to learn certain fundamentals and are now struggling to stay on track with their grade level. Sixty percent of third graders failed the proficiency test. This led some parents to ask, was the test was too hard, were the kids were not prepared, and is there too much stress put on one test?

State officials have forced school administrators and teachers across Tennessee to emphasize the importance of the TNReady testing which in turn has created a sense of fear towards it. One student got so anxious about the test it made them physically ill weeks leading up to the test. Another parent could not figure out why her child was so worked up about one test before realizing the test could decide whether or not to hold the student back. A student could have straight A’s but suffer severe testing anxiety that could lead to a below proficiency score on the TCAP exam. So, despite knowing all the information, the student could be held back.

Even though some students have scored below proficiency, there are other means possible to help in the maturation of learning besides grade retention. There should be procedures in place to bring those students up to grade level but it has to be done through early intervention. Lawmakers across the state have filed nearly two dozen amendments to the law in order to get it moved to a lower grade. If a student is behind then it started in the years leading up to third grade. Many parents say the education system is broken and needs to be fixed. In order to bring about change, government officials need to hear from their constituency. Below are the contact numbers for this area: Governor Bill Lee (615) 741-2001, State Senator John Stevens (615) 253-0161, State Representative Tandy Dardy (615) 253-0293, U.S. Congressman David Kustoff (202) 225-4714, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (202) 225-4714 and U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (202) 224-4944.