Tennessee should stay the course on reading

Reading is one of the most important skills our students learn, a vital key to unlocking success in school and in life. Yet, there is a literacy crisis unfolding across America.

It began before the pandemic, when the National Assessment on Educational Progress reported a drop in student reading scores in 2019. The pandemic’s widespread school closures compounded those losses and, by 2022, scores declined even further.

Parents rightfully expect their school-aged children to be taught how to read, but in classrooms across America too many kids are coming up short in those early years. An estimated two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by fourth grade end up in the criminal justice system or on welfare. That’s just how closely reading skills are tied to a student’s future.

Thankfully, a number of states have been taking action. In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee, Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn and legislative leaders tackled the literacy crisis head on, establishing in 2021 the Tennessee Literacy Success Act and Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act. It’s bold and far-reaching legislation that, with strong and sustained implementation, can truly turn literacy rates around.

Students who are not at grade reading level face serious challenges

Tennessee law takes a comprehensive approach built around several critical components. These include training teachers in the science of reading, universal screening to identify reading problems as early as kindergarten, parent notification and evidencebased intervention. A fundamental ingredient is ending social promotion, meaning that students must have proficient reading skills before they’re promoted to fourth grade.

Students who advance to fourth grade without proficient reading ability face serious challenges in nearly every aspect of their education. Fourth grade is the transition year when students need those reading skills to continue to learn. To its credit, Tennessee is investing wisely in resources to identify and remediate struggling readers as early as kindergarten. But the fact remains: Some students need more time to become proficient readers before leaving third grade.

And while retention may seem undesirable in the short term, there’s evidence from my home state of Mississippi to prove retention comes with long-term benefits. A new report from the Wheelock Educational Policy Center at Boston University found that students who were held back in third grade under Mississippi’s literacy-based promotion law achieved higher sixth-grade English language arts scores than comparable students who were just barely promoted. Further, the report found no significant impact on student absences or special education identification in sixth grade.

In other words, learning gaps were closed for struggling readers and these students were better off.

Consequences for ill-prepared students are high

It’s encouraging that Tennessee’s Department of Education is implementing its comprehensive package of early literacy policies. But it’s concerning that some state leaders are seeking to reinstitute social promotion—an action that will only serve to weaken Tennessee’s law before it’s even had a chance to take effect. A comprehensive policy needs comprehensive and undiluted implementation. That’s what it takes to ensure every student— and especially struggling readers—receive the support they desperately need.

Now is not the time to get weak at the knees on retention. More than 73,000 students, each with individual dreams, will be entering fourth grade in Tennessee’s schools this fall. Their future is a blank page ready to be filled, powered by innate skills and abilities to have a rich and rewarding life.

But if lawmakers fail them — moving struggling readers along without ensuring the extra time and support they need — they’ll risk having a far bigger problem on their hands with dropout rates, under-employment, incarcerations and unrelenting poverty. Yes, reading skills are that important.

Dr. Kymyona Burk is senior policy fellow for early literacy at Excelined and the former state literacy director at the Mississippi Department of Education.