NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — You probably remember the third grade retention debate here in Tennessee. But how about fourth grade retention?
“Reading proficiency is still important,” Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) said. “We have a lot of third graders who moved onto fourth grade with a lot of off-ramps.”
First reported by the Tennessee Lookout, White, who chairs the House Education Administration Committee, is exploring changes around fourth grade retention.
If you look at the third-grade law, there’s actually a small stipulation that a student must show ‘adequate growth’ on the fourth grade English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) before they can move on to fifth grade, if they didn’t score high enough in third grade.
White said that means they have to score at least 5% higher in fourth grade. So what happens if they don’t?
“Well, that’s the thing right now,” White said. “It says they shall be retained.”
So, he’s bouncing around ideas to potentially add summer school and tutoring, though Democrats wouldn’t mind seeing the entire clause about fourth grade removed.
“That’s just a bridge too far,” Rep. Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) said. “It makes absolutely no sense when we’ve not even gotten the data from the third grade retention.”
McKenzie was one of the few Democrats who supported third grade retention. But he’s not supportive of yet another benchmark for fourth.
“Third grade is a key, pivotal time, and that’s why I supported that bill, and we’re putting all kinds of resources in that student,” McKenzie said. “But there’s nothing that says holding a student back makes him or her better.”
White said at this point he’s just trying to raise awareness around the law and more changes could come later.
“I don’t want it to come up in the spring and then we have an issue with fourth grade retention the way we had a lot of issues around third grade retention,” he said.
