Fifteen states plus Washington, D.C, require third graders who are not reading at a “proficient” level by the end of the school year to repeat third grade. Those states include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington. Three more states are about to join the list: South Carolina at the end of the 2017-2018 school year; Nevada on July 1, 2019; and Michigan at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.*
Eight other states allow third grade retention but do not mandate it: Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
States offer exemptions to some students, such as ESL students, special ed students, students who have recommendations from parents and teachers, and students who have been retained once already.
Even so, almost half of all states require or allow a student who is not reading well at the end of third grade to repeat it.
- Educators consider fourth grade a transition year. In kindergarten to third grade, students learn to read. In fourth grade and beyond, students read to learn. Starting in fourth grade, students can’t learn well unless they can read.
- Research in 2015 showed that about two out of three American fourth graders could not read proficiently, that is, at a basic level. Almost 4/5 of African American, Native American and Latino students could not read at a proficient level.
- Down the road, about ¼ of those below basic level readers won’t graduate from high school.
In the next blog we’ll look at some of the pros and cons concerning third grade retention.