3rd & 4th Grade Promotion/Retention Law

In 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly revised the state’s law regarding the promotion of students from 3rd grade. These changes require students to achieve “met or exceeded” score on the 3rd grade English Language Arts (ELA) TCAP assessment or they may be retained in the 3rd grade.
Students will take the state assessment (TCAP/TNReady) in April. This assessment is an important measure of your child’s performance with English Language Arts (ELA) content and their ability to demonstrate that they have learned the necessary 3rd grade ELA standards. 

** This information is subject to change pending state legislation and/or guidance from the Tennessee Department of Education.

Overview

If your child scores: 

• APPROACHING (Level 2)

• BELOW (Level 1) 

on the 3rd ELA TCAP assessment in May they will be provided with additional supports to ensure they are ready for 4th grade reading lessons. 

If a student’s family does not wish to take advantage of these supports, the student will be retained to third grade to ensure that they receive an additional year of instruction and can participate fully during their fourth grade ELA classroom moving forward.

Exemptions

Students will not be retained if any of the following are true:

Scores Approaching or Below

Has a disability that impacts reading

Is an English learner and has received less than two (2) years of English instruction

Has been retained previously

Has a suspected disability* that impacts literacy development

 

Promotion Pathways

If your student is not exempt, and he/she scores APPROACHING (Level 2) or BELOW (Level 1) on the 3rd ELA TCAP assessment you have the following pathways to promotion. 

Wilson County Schools will provide the following supports to ensure they are ready for grade-level ELA lessons in 4th grade.

• TCAP Retake: Option to retake the reading portion of the TCAP Retake testing will be held at your student’s home school at the end of May 

  • Scores will be reported within 48 hours.

  • If they receive a score of “met” or “exceeded”, they may be promoted to 4th grade
     

• Attend Summer Learning Camp (June)

  • Must have 90% attendance rate

  • Make adequate progress (as determined by pre- and post-assessment)
     

• Receive reading tutoring at school for the entirety of the 4th grade year

  • If your student scores at or above the 50th percentile on spring screener assessment (aimsWeb), they will receive district-provided tutoring during 4th grade and be promoted to 5th grade

  • If your student scores at the 49th percentile or below on the spring screener assessment (aimsWeb), they will receive district-provided tutoring during 4th grade, AND be required to show adequate growth in 4th grade as determined by the department, before the student may be promoted to the fifth grade

If a student’s family does not wish to take advantage of these supports, the student will be retained to third grade to ensure that they receive an additional year of instruction and can participate fully during their fourth grade ELA classroom moving forward.

Please view the Tennessee's Pathways to Promotion for 3rd & 4th Graders graphic to better understand the possible pathways to 4th grade.

Screening Assessments

Wilson County Schools understands that 3rd grade is a crucial year for future literacy success. We give students a universal screening assessment (aimsWeb) three times a year to determine how students are performing on a norm-referenced assessment that compares all 3rd grade students across the country. We will use the universal reading screener in October and May, along with other data sources, to make our best prediction of whether or not your student is likely to fall into the below or approaching categories on state assessment. 

Appeal Process

Universal Screening Score

A family of a student scoring “approaching” (Level 2) can choose to appeal the decision documenting a score at or above the 40th percentile on the spring Aimsweb assessment. 

• If granted by the state, your student may be promoted to the 4th grade with an Academic Remediation Plan and free tutoring for the entirety of the 4th grade year. 
• Your student will not be required to demonstrate adequate growth in 4th grade in order to be promoted to 5th grade. 

Please note - if your student scores at the 50th percentile or above on the spring Aimsweb assessment, there is no need to file an appeal. They will be promoted, with 4th grade tutoring, and no requirement for adequate growth for promotion to 5th grade.

Catastrophic Event

A family of a student scoring “approaching” (Level 2) can choose to appeal the decision for retention due to a catastrophic event.

• This option is not available to students who score at a level of “below expectations.”
• A third grade parent may appeal the retention decision within 14 days of receiving the official retention notification. 
• Parents must provide documentation of the event that impacts the student’s ability to perform on TCAP. 
  • Examples may include: loss of an immediate family member, loss of the family home, major medical event, etc.

The TCAP state assessment has four performance levels that describe how well a student has met the expectations of the content area based on Tennessee Academic Standards:

Wilson County Parent Presentation

3rd Grade Promotion Policies - TDOE

Frequently Asked Questions - TDOE

TCAP Parent Resources

TCAP Family Portal

The Tennessee General Assembly revised the requirements for promotion in third and fourth grades, T.C.A. § 49-6-3115, to ensure students who are determined to need additional support in reading receive intervention before and/or during fourth grade. The law requires third grade students who were promoted to fourth grade via the TN ALL Corps tutoring promotion pathway to demonstrate “adequate growth” before being promoted to fifth grade.

Which fourth grade students are eligible for adequate growth evaluation? 
Third grade students who are not proficient in English Language Arts (ELA) and are promoted to fourth grade by participating in tutoring supports must achieve “adequate growth” in fourth grade in order to be promoted to fifth grade. 

What is adequate growth?
As specified in law, students who were promoted to the 4th grade by participation in tutoring must demonstrate improvement from the 3rd grade TCAP assessment to the 4th grade TCAP assessment. Implicit in the law is an expectation that the growth observed from 3rd to 4th grade is sufficient to make a reasonable assumption that, with core academic instruction along with additional learning supports, the student is on an improved trajectory to achieve proficiency in the future. 

How is adequate growth calculated?
The adequate growth target is set for each student individually based on their own fourth grade ELA proficiency projection, with the goal of reducing the gap between current performance and future success over their eight years remaining in K-12 education. The proficiency projection has a score range of 0.01 to 99.9 percent. To meet the intent of the law, the state department sets 50.0 percent proficiency projection as the success metric, as it means a student’s projected score is right at the cut score for meeting proficiency. 

Additionally, for students to catch up and become proficient in the future, it takes quality instruction, time, and continuous support. Therefore, the department stretches the time to eight years for students to close the gap fully, assuming that as long as students continue to receive high-quality instruction and support throughout the remainder of their K-12 learning journey, any student can ultimately be proficient in the future as long as they continue to demonstrate growth and meet the adequate growth target year over year. 

The AG target formula is presented below. 

𝐴𝐺 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎 = (50.0% 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 − 4𝑡ℎ 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝐸𝐿𝐴 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦) / 8 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 

A simple example follows: 

A student scored “below” on the third grade TCAP. His/her fourth grade proficiency projection is 26.0 percent. His/her AG target is 3.0 percent ([50.0-26.0]/8). To demonstrate adequate growth, he/she must achieve a fifth grade proficiency projection of 29.0 percent or higher (26.0 + 3.0).

When will I know if my student has met the adequate growth target? 
The state department will release the fifth grade projection score and the retention/promotion decisions to districts by July 1, 2024. Districts will then distribute the information to families.

**NEW Legislation passed** - TCA, Section 49-6-3115(a) 

If a 4th grade student does not meet their adequate growth requirement, he/she may still be promoted with the following steps: 

• The student’s school shall convene a conference that must be attended by the following participants: the student's parent or guardian, the student's ELA teacher, and the student's school principal. The recommendation made by a majority of the participants determines whether the student must: 
  • Be promoted and receive tutoring the entirety of his/her fifth grade school year; or
  • Be retained in the fourth grade (no student may be retained in 4th grade more than once)

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