A bill in the Kansas Legislature would block third-graders from advancing
to fourth-grade, if they lack sufficient reading skills. The Governor cited statistics dealing with national rankings of reading skills based on 4th
grade performance. Kansas fourth-graders over-all did not rank well. Our brilliant Governor reasoned that if only children who pass the
reading test at the required skill level are promoted to 4th grade
the Kansas ranking vis-à-vis fourth-graders of other states would improve.
Indeed, by holding back the poor readers, Kansas might lead the nation unless other states adopt the same policy.
The outcome of this proposed law that is not being considered is the larger class sizes of third graders. Also, the possibility exists that, by the time
these passed-over third-graders reach high school, they will be more prone to
drop out of school, especially if held back for more than one year. Obviously,
an experienced educator could predict other unforeseen adverse consequences of
this policy, but I doubt that they were consulted.
The Governor and Legislature
need to back off and stop trying to micro-manage the school system. The educational system has reading specialists who could succeed more easily with all students if the resources were made available to them. Having taught adult literacy classes, I know that one of the reasons many adults failed at reading skills was the fact that as children they moved from school to school, often between states, which caused their education to be disrupted. Will holding back third graders fix this problem?
