At the end of this school year, third graders who score less than proficient on the English language arts section of the TCAP exam could be held back.

Now a key legislative committee has given initial approval for how that will work in practice.

Only about a third of Tennessee students are reading on grade level. And last year, state lawmakers decided to hold off on sending third graders on to fourth grade if they don’t hit the benchmark.

In a meeting of the Joint Government Operations Committee, Republican Sen. Janice Bowling of Tullahoma said that she’s had concerns from the start about the prospect of holding back so many third graders.

“We’re totally throwing off the ratios of children and the classes they’re in … Plus the frustration and the stigma of being held back.”

Republican Sen. Page Walley of Bolivar said, “I’m not sure we were as thoughtful as we needed to be, legislatively, when we passed the law to begin with.” Walley voted in favor of the law at the time.

Across the political aisle, Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, also spoke out against the law during the meeting.

“Retention should always be decided at the local level with the people who know the child: the teacher, the principal and the parents,” Johnson said.

Other lawmakers acknowledged flaws in the law. Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, said he struggles with it because he doesn’t want to tell local school districts what to do. But he said he wants to see more improvement in literacy.

“It’s not like this big block of children are going to be held back. It just says they’ve got to go to a couple of extra classes to help get them caught up.”

Students who score “approaching” proficiency on the ELA section of TCAP will have some options to progress to the fourth grade. Under the law, they can attend a summer learning program or participate in special tutoring for the full next school year. Third graders who earn a score “below” proficient will have to do both to move to the next grade. Students could also go to fourth grade without these interventions if they retest and score proficient.

Rules about how to implement the law, including an appeals process, were approved in the meeting. If they receive final approval, parents can ask for their student to be promoted to fourth grade if, for example, there was a death in the family right before the TCAP exam that impacted the student’s performance.

The law contains exceptions for students with disabilities that affect their ability to read, English language learners with less than two years of ELA instruction, and kids who’ve already been held back once.

To see the rules associated with this law in more detail, click here and scroll down to Page 7.