From Kenneth Presley Loudon Coun

In January 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly passed the Tennessee Literacy Success Act and the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act. As part of the legislation, the state’s 3rd grade retention law was updated to ensure students would receive supports and interventions towards grade-level expectations before being promoted to 4th grade.

The intent of the law was to support those children that have fallen behind in skill level. Given everything that has happened over the past three years, at a first glance, this seems like a needed and supportive measure.

However, the determination as to whether a 3rd grader promotes to the 4th grade is solely determined on the score of one standardized test, the TCAP.

Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, a student in the third grade will not be promoted to the fourth grade unless the student is determined to be proficient in English language arts based solely on the child’s score on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test.

But there are three exemptions:

1. If the student is an English language learner (English is their second Language) and has received less than 2 years of ELA instruction, that student is exempt from this law.

2. If the student has an Individual Education Plan (IEP) in special education that outlines deficiencies in reading, and

3. If the student was previously retained in kindergarten through 3rd grade prior to this year.

At the end of this school year, children in Tennessee will take the statewide assessments called the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP. Other states have already modified their Laws to include additional measures for student promotion.

The General Assembly needs to take action during this upcoming session to amend this Law and/or defer the implementation of this law until the unexpected consequences can be explored with the Local Education Authority’s (LEA’s) across the State.

ACTION: Call our State Legislators to tell them:

Tennessee Literacy Success Act and the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act, as written is not good for third graders. Promotion based on one measure is problematic. The law needs to be amended during this next Legislative Session and/or deferred until additional study is made into the unexpected consequences on small and rural LEA's.

Below is a list of Tennessee Legislators suggested to contact.

Senator, Randy McNally