New State Law Affects Third Graders
Lexington Board of Education Chairman Rob Helms was recently selected to the Tennessee School Board Association’s All-Tennessee School Board.
Photo Submitted / Lexington Progress
Article by Steve Corlew-
Lexington and Henderson County educators are trying to prepare parents for a new state law that can affect third graders.
The Tennessee Literacy Success Act (LSA) which was approved in a 2021 special session by the General Assembly, is designed to ensure that students in early grades are on tract to become proficient readers by the end of the 3rd grade.
However, what it also does is take the ability to promote or retain the students out of the local school system’s hands. Prior to the new law, that decision was made by local school officials and school boards. For third and fourth graders, that decision will now be made by the state, which will only use the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test as the standard.
“Starting this year, with this third and fourth grade retention, we have to sit down and devise a plan for intervention,” Lexington School District Director Cindy Olive told the board.
Part of that intervention would include a “high dosage, low ratio tutoring,” Olive said. “Which is one (teacher) to three (students) max, all year in fourth grade. Who is going to do it?”
Henderson County School System Director, Steve Wilkinson, noted that half the third graders in the state of Tennessee would…
For complete coverage, see the November 23rd edition of The Lexington Progress.
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