Tennessee fourth graders will have a new way to move onto fifth grade if they performed poorly on the English Language Arts section of last year’s state test. But it requires a sprint from some schools and administrators.
Tennessee’s literacy law requires third graders to participate in summer learning camp and/or tutoring for a full school year if they don’t score proficient on the TCAP. There are some exceptions, and an option to retake the test or appeal. But otherwise, without the learning interventions, they risk being held back.
Then, in fourth grade, students who participated in required tutoring need to hit an individualized growth target. Originally, state law held that students who fell short would have no choice but to repeat fourth grade. But at the end of the legislative session, lawmakers created a new path: A fourth grader’s parent, English teacher and principal can meet and vote on whether a student moves on or stays behind. Gov. Bill Lee has indicated he intends to sign the bill.
Courtesy Tennessee Department of Education This graphic shows the pathways to fourth and fifth grade for Tennessee students.
However, schools aren’t expected to find out if fourth graders hit their growth target until July, said Mason Bellamy, chief of academics and schools at Metro Nashville Public Schools.
“You could wait for the data in July and then hold the meetings,” Bellamy told WPLN News. “But that’s not the approach we’re taking.”
Instead, he said Metro is encouraging schools to hold meetings now with all the fourth grade families who could be affected by this law — approximately 1,000 students.
“If we go ahead and have these meetings, we can go ahead and make a decision so that… the student and the family aren’t spending the next month and a half under this looming burden of potential retention.”
And holding the meetings now prevents schools from having to track down families when they may be out of town and teachers when they’re off work for the summer.
That leaves little time to hold these meetings, just this week and next, Bellamy said.
“So right now, we are pounding the pavement every way we can to make sure that our families are not negatively impacted by this,” he said.
Bellamy said the changes to the law do offer more flexibility, which the district had been asking for. Under the original version, schools would have been in a difficult position, with uncertainty about how many fourth and fifth graders they would serve and how to staff classrooms. Still, he disagrees with the state’s approach.
“If a child is not testing proficiently, you provide them supports,” Bellamy said. “You don’t use a frankly antiquated approach of holding them back, assuming that another year in the same content is going to fix that.”
Students who do move to the fifth grade under the new law will once again be required to do a full year of high-dosage tutoring. MNPS is also encouraging all students to participate in its summer learning camp, which starts May 30.
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