NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The new third grade retention law in Tennessee has many parents angry and upset.
There's been multiple meetings about it, one of which was at the NAACP. A speaker said they looked at last year’s TCAP scores for third graders and thousands of students were at risk for retention.
If they fail the reading portion of the standardized test, there are ways to still go to the fourth grade. Students will need to go to summer school and get after-school tutoring.
Lindsey Schreiber is worried about her second grader who goes to school in Lebanon.
"My son has ADHD and part of his ADHD is he gets testing anxiety pretty severely," Schreiber said, "I don’t understand how it’s going to work. You’re talking about a massive amount of kids across the state of Tennessee, and I don’t know how that’s going to work fiscally when we’re already told that budgets are so strained."
At Metro Nashville Public Schools, they're encouraging all third grade parents to enroll their students in summer school, what they call Promising Scholars, because they don't expect most kids to pass the test.
In Wilson County, they’re trying to recruit more teachers for the summer. As of now, they will have to limit the number of students they can serve in other grades to focus on third graders.
Lindsey said if her son fails, she will appeal it, have him take the test again, and do everything in her power to keep him out of summer school.
"It would be insurmountable for us, for me. One of my issues is how it would emotionally affect him to not have that break from school," Schreiber said.
It's current understanding that English language learners are exempt. And there's a provision for disabilities. There are also several bills that could change the current law, but it's unclear if any will pass this session.
