Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee failing our kids
Ohio has been grasping for solutions on helping all students to become competent readers.
Unfortunately, the policy of holding struggling readers back in third grade shows that an aggressive tactic can create unintended consequences. It also shows the dangers of leaving local school decisions up to politicians.
Some 39,000 children have failed the statewide reading test since 2014, with most being forced to repeat third grade, according to a USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau report.
The reasoning behind this is a 2010 report suggesting that children who can’t read well by the fourth grade may never catch up. Concerned, former Gov. John Kasich pushed for and eventually signed the Third Grade Reading Guarantee into law in 2012.
The Republican chairman of the Ohio House Education Committee, Rep. Gerald Stebelton, said as the bill advanced in 2012 that Ohio had been failing its children. But a Beacon Journal editorial at the time skeptically described the education legislation as “yet another reading guarantee.”
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More recently, Ohio State University researchers published a report finding the law failed to lead to reading improvements.
With that in mind, House Bill 497 has been introduced. State tests would remain, but the requirement to flunk third graders would be dropped.
Politicians 10 years ago clearly overstepped in setting up this requirement. They apparently didn't listen closely to educators who know that children feel stigmatized by being held back and, as Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro told a reporter, can come to hate reading.
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One cannot fault politicians for calling attention to a serious problem. Not all of the original measure is flawed. The OSU report notes the 2012 law also called for better monitoring of children’s progress and an emphasis on teacher qualifications.
In his March testimony supporting HB 497, one school administrator from Franklin County, Scott Emery, noted that many education-related laws are just and appropriate because they create consistent systems and hold teachers accountable. For example, teachers will be required next year to undergo more training to support students with dyslexia.
Retaining third graders based on test scores, however, may not be an appropriate accountability measure, Emery wrote.
Our Ohio bureau report shows that in the pre-pandemic school year of 2018-2019, 5% of third graders were held back. But in Aurora and other wealthy districts, no children were retained.
In Aurora, teachers who specialize in English language arts instruct children in reading. Youngsters who need additional help get one-on-one instruction from reading specialists.
And importantly, the low poverty rate of the area means most of the district’s children aren’t coming to school hungry. Contrast that to Canton city schools, where 17% of third graders did not meet the state-imposed threshold. Might the city’s higher poverty rate — 30.6%, compared to Aurora’s 3.7% — have something to do with academic troubles?
The point is, as educators have said, one size doesn’t fit all. Districts need support and guidelines from state lawmakers and the governor, but not directives that punish individual children.
Let’s again allow teachers to consider the overall progress of their third graders. One test score can’t measure everything.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio needs to fix Third-Grade Reading Test requirement
