April 11, 2022 Group Watch: Lawmakers Approve Delay of Reading Retention Requirement
The legislature voted to delay a high-stakes requirement to hold back third graders who don’t meet reading benchmarks. The bill now goes to Governor Kay Ivey, who previously expressed support for a one-year delay. Many lawmakers expressed concern about putting the requirement on students after the pandemic interrupted classrooms for two years. There had been disagreement over how long to delay the requirement. The promotion requirement, part of the 2019 Alabama Literacy Act, stated that to move on to the fourth grade, students would have to make above a “cut score” on a standardized test or demonstrate mastery of reading standards through a reading portfolio. Earlier this year, state officials said 23 percent of students scored below the set cutoff score on the latest assessment.
