State proposes flunking third-graders who fall far behind on reading

There is an easy way to get instant improvement on fourth-grade average reading scores on standardized tests—start flunking third-graders who are not reading well.

You wouldn’t have learned this at the state publicity event Wednesday—or from the news coverage of that gathering—but it’s one of the major elements in a new bill about teaching reading that everyone is supposed to like.

The initiative was launched Wednesday at a press conference that featured everything except the text of the bill or details about what it contains.

Here is a recording of the event, in which Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Education Commissioner Michael Johnson and Sen. Tom Begich talked about a forthcoming bill in the vaguest possible manner.

Perhaps there was an agreement to stick to saying that everybody likes reading. Perhaps there is some disagreement on the details.

Johnson said there would be more Pre-K opportunities statewide, more screening and reading assistance for kids and a plan to improve reading instruction in the lowest performing schools.

The three participants showed extreme reluctance to provide the specifics that will show whether the bill is a good idea or an attempt by Dunleavy to keep the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum happy.

I think that flunking more third-graders who haven’t learned how to read will make the forum happy. But this element of the plan and the proposal for “individual reading plans developed with the parent” deserve a great deal more examination. How are these reading plans going to work exactly and what is it going to take to get cooperation from the parents?

Flunking is one of the techniques that automatically leads to higher fourth-grade reading scores because if the worst readers aren’t in fourth grade, they won’t be counted on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tests a sample of fourth-graders.

While this bill is alleged to have bipartisan support, there is reason to be suspicious about how long that will last. The governor’s press release mentioned “focusing existing state and federal funds,” which may mean that he expects the schools to stop doing something else to pay for this, though he didn’t say what.

The news stories in the Anchorage Daily News, on Alaska News Nightly, on KTVA, in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and on the Associated Press all stressed the bipartisan backing for the unseen bill and didn’t mention anything about flunking.

That’s because it was only after the press event that some details about the emerged when this document was posted on the governor’s website, along with his press release.

As part of the proposed 11 fundamental principles, the Dunleavy administration wants to flunk third-graders if they are “severely below grade level” in reading. We won’t know what “severely below” means until the bill is produced.

This would be a new top-down requirement for local schools that will lead to rules, regulations and a bureaucratic process to determine whether substandard readers deserve an exemption.

The state doesn’t use the word flunk or even the term “hold back,” probably because it would be easier for Alaskans to understand what is being proposed.

The state education department cloaks the plan with these three examples of educational jargon:

“Appropriate grade-level progression for students severely below grade level who are unable to demonstrate sufficient reading skills for progression to fourth grade. More intensive interventions with a highly effective teacher are provided.

“Multiple pathways are provided to third grade students to demonstrate reading skills required for progression to fourth grade, so one test on one day is not the determining factor.

“Good cause exemptions for appropriate grade-level progression are provided that recognize the special needs of some students with disabilities, English language learners, and students who have previously experienced delayed grade-level progression.”

A proposed change of this sort—which will spark a major public policy debate in Alaska—deserves to be discussed in the open. To that extent, the press conference was a bipartisan disservice.

A small number of children do flunk the third grade in Alaska now, but it is a local decision.

There are 16 states that require schools to flunk early-elementary kids who don’t read well, with 14 of them allowing for conditional promotion, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos plugged the idea of flunking as an educational tool last year.

She said Mississippi students are among the most improved in the nation not because the state is spending more money, but because of a “singular focus on student achievement, especially when it comes to literacy.”

“The idea was simple: students who can't read, can't learn. And if a student can't read by third grade, a student won't learn. So now, all Mississippi's third graders must demonstrate that they can at least read at grade level before advancing to fourth grade. This year, we're beginning to see the results of that policy. Students in Mississippi are better readers than they were on the last Report Card, and on the one before that,” she said.

Mississippi leads the nation in flunking third-graders, about 10 percent of the students last year are repeating third grade.

Before copying that example, there should be consideration of the impact on kids and their future educational prospects as well as an admission that keeping kids in school an extra year—assuming the dropout rate doesn’t change—is going to cost more money.

The scores of Alaska fourth-graders on the NAEP test have been mentioned many times by Dunleavy as a reason to overhaul the teaching of reading in Alaska schools. (The NAEP scores don’t measure grade-level reading, as Washington Post reporter Valerie Strauss writes.)

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