Holding back to move forward?

Imagine a 9-year-old, third-grade girl who is great in school. She performs well in all subjects, but doesn’t do well on standardized tests, such as ISTEP.

So, she misses the benchmark to pass the reading portion of the test.

The Indiana Senate is considering a bill that would have students held back a year in third grade if they are not showing reading proficiency.

Glenn Riggs, principal at Henryville Elementary School, said that’s a very real possibility if SB 258 is passed. The bill has passed from its committee, allowing it to come before the full Senate for consideration.

“Looking at the third grade, I think it’s too little too late,” Riggs said. “It probably could create some real fragile relations with the community and parents to use one test as the sole indicator.

“In real life, sometimes you only get one chance at something. But that’s adults. You shouldn’t do that when you’re working with children.”

Riggs said research says holding a student back can do a lot of long-term harm and cause them to lose their intrinsic want to learn.

Terri Boutin, principal at Children’s Academy of New Albany, agreed that retention isn’t necessarily the answer.

“I am not for retention nor am I for social promotion. I am for utilizing multiple measures of student achievement data to identify gaps in student learning, determining the specific point of need for each child and finding ways to provide more time and support to accelerate their learning,” Boutin said. “The point is that we need to ‘accelerate’ the learning of those who are academically behind in order to advance more than one school year’s worth of learning during one school year.

“Simply retaining a student and giving them another year without providing student-specific interventions would do little to accelerate their learning. Retention is more of a remediation approach and remediation itself has been proven to do little to advance student achievement.”

But not all are against the proposed law. Teresa Perkins, assistant to the superintendent for curriculum and instruction for New Albany-Floyd County School Corp., agrees with Riggs that it shouldn’t come down to just one test, but said the idea behind the bill is good.

“It’s an attempt, I think, to get folks to realize the importance of students being able to read on grade level by the end of third grade,” she said, adding that studies show that students held back have difficulties, but those who can’t read on their grade level by the end of third grade also face problems.

“I hope we never hold a third-grader back. I hope we get smart from preschool on,” Perkins said. “Shame on us if we don’t know the kids who are struggling with their ability [to read].

“It shouldn’t be a surprise in the third grade. We should be doing everything we can do prior to the third grade.”

Riggs agrees, saying that instead of putting the focus on third-grade reading levels, attention should be moved to reading interventions in the younger levels.

“I don’t think we have a system that’s broken, I think we have a system that can be better,” he said. “There’s so much more to a child than this one thing. Yes, reading is pivotal, so I think it’s a valid area of interest, but there are other areas as well.

“To focus on this one thing, this one grade level and say this is a terminal point in time is very curious to me. Why choose that? Why not choose early intervention?”

If the change is approved, it could have financial implications for schools as well, such as requiring schools provide intensive remediation to students who are not meeting standards.

“Basically, this is going to be an unfunded mandate, much like the No Child Left Behind Act,” Riggs said.

In a time of budget cuts coming down from the state, Riggs said he hopes that the legislators will realize that schools can’t afford more mandates.

Boutin said she wants more things considered before holding a child back, such as the student’s age, physical size, maturity, behaviors, mobility, attendance, motivation and more.

To follow the status of this bill, go to www.in.gov/legislative.

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Educators hold mixed views on bill to hold back third-graders who are behind in reading

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