Why Did Michigan Repeal Their 3rd Grade Retention Law?
And what can Tennessee learn from this?
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Tennessee has a new third grade retention law going into effect this year. As many as 2/3 of Tennessee third graders could be impacted.
The policy promises to create challenges for both families and schools - all during a time of a worsening teacher shortage.
While state policymakers have so far only indicated changes at the margins - perhaps adjusting cut scores for retention, for example - it seems likely that school systems will have to adjust to a new reality come summer.
That’s when the law mandates a summer reading program for certain students. There’s also a requirement for tutoring during the school year.
Oh, and those students who don’t meet the demands of the bill will end up being retained.
It’s possible 1 out of 3 third grade students in the state will be required to repeat the grade as a direct result of this law.
If third grade retention is such a great idea, why are other states moving to repeal their law?
Michigan’s legislature recently sent third grade retention repeal to the Governor.
Here’s how lawmakers explained that decision:
"Michigan isn't the first state to try this," Koleszar said. "We've seen it in other states and there's zero data from any other states that suggests retention is the way to go. We've got enough data to know it's not working."
Here’s what else is interesting about the Michigan repeal:
"Let's use that money for reading intervention specialists, for literacy coaches, after school programs, summer school programs, to tackle the issue that way, instead of being reactive and just holding them back in a punitive and punishing way," said Rep. Nate Shannon, D-Sterling Heights.
The bill passed Tuesday repeals the retention aspect of the law, but retains other elements such as staffing recommendations, reading intervention services, and the use of evidence-based curricula and instructional material.
So, in Michigan, the legislature repealed the bad parts of a well-intentioned law, kept the positive elements, and is planning to use the saved money to provide additional supports for early grades literacy.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the legislature is stubbornly moving forward with a law educators and parents call “devastating” - and one which provides no additional funding in order to meet the demands of early reading.
Oh, and the single test that determines whether or not a child is subject to potential retention? TNReady - yes, that’s right, that test that was anything BUT ready for the first five years of its existence.
The good news from this story: Other states have already tried this idea - we can see what works and what doesn’t.
The bad news: Our lawmakers seem hellbent on conducting an experiment on Tennessee kids just to see how it works out.
And they are doing it all without offering any new investment in early reading.
