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Third grade parents express continued frustration with Tennessee's new retention law

Many parents have not been able to understand how one test determines the fate of their child's future.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Monday was the first day of school for students of Memphis Shelby County Schools, but last year’s third graders who did not score proficient on the TCAP will not be moving on to the next grade.

Many parents whom we have spoken with since the beginning of the process have not been able to wrap their heads around how one test can determine whether or not their child can move to the next grade level.

“They singled out the kids that got ‘approaching expectations’ or ‘below expectations’ …they singled them out on the second to the last day of school when everyone was doing field day and had them retake a retest. It was very stressful; he was sick to his stomach in bed the night before because it is all about one test,” parent Lauren Giovannetti said.

She said she was shocked after finding out her son, Anders, who reads at a 5th grade level, did not score well on the TCAP exam.

“He had scored as exceeding expectations in second grade and got all A’s and B‘s on his report card. He even got tested for Clue, which is the gifted program, so to find out that he was retained was really a shock to me,” Giovannetti explained.

Anders is now a fourth grader, but that is after he retook the test and failed it again by two points; however, Giovannetti filed an appeal since he never failed any of the quarterly tests leading up to the TCAP. Giovannetti said she believes the test is inaccurate, and state leaders need to re-examine the law.

“They need to take into consideration how they’ve done on their quarterly tests leading up to this. They need to take into consideration what their teacher thinks. I understand we need to do something about public education, but putting all of their future on one academic test does not make sense to me,” Giovannetti said.

According to the Tennessee Department of Education, 95.6% of students did not meet proficient on the English Language Arts portion the first time and had to retake it.

8.1% improved their scores and were eligible to move on to the fourth grade, and 11.7% of MSCS students improved to "Approaching" from "Below" in their proficiency.

Damon Curry Morris, who also filed an appeal after his grandson failed the test and spent his break in the summer learning academy, said there needs to be more clarity about the law.

“The law is still not streamlined, and I found out from a couple of principals as well that a lot of parents don’t know that there is a fourth-grade clause in that law. So, we don’t know what it is. They’re still filtering it out,” Morris stated.

District 8 School Board Member Amber Huett-Garcia said school leaders will engage in more intervention with students.

“I think maybe what they might be referring to in the fourth grade is the additional support that they will need,” Garcia said. “There is a group of students that either went through the summer learning academy or had high-dosage tutoring that have to participate or is mandatory according to the law, so we’re going to provide the support.”

Garcia added that during the day, they will also focus on high-dosage tutoring since data showed that 76% of students who attended tutoring showed improvement.

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