After years of concern and intense debate, the final numbers are in: Alabama schools held back 452 third graders at the end of the 2023–24 school year because of the accountability requirements of the Alabama Literacy Act. That figure represents less than 1% of the 55,100 third graders statewide, according to data from the Alabama Department of Education.
This outcome is far fewer than critics feared, as previous testing suggested as many as 24% of third-graders could be retained.
The spring reading test, administered to all third graders, revealed that 4,800 students were not reading “sufficiently” to move on to fourth grade. “Sufficiency” is a measure lower than grade-level and distinct from “proficiency.” The terms are not interchangeable and have caused confusion among educators and parents alike.
Reaching sufficiency on the spring test is the first step to promotion. Students who met the benchmark score were automatically eligible to be promoted to fourth grade without further assessment. Those who fell short had multiple opportunities to demonstrate sufficiency, including summer reading camps, retesting or showcasing progress through a portfolio of work. Some students also qualified for good cause exemptions.
Students scoring below sufficiency were invited to summer reading camps for 60 hours of intensive reading instruction. Attendance was not mandatory, though strongly encouraged. While half of K-3 students were eligible for the camps, 22% attended.
Of the 4,800 third graders needing improvement, more than 3,000 retested over the summer, and nearly half of them reached the benchmark score. This left 1,700 students still falling short of sufficiency.
Closer look at the data
The final breakdown of those 1,700 students is unclear, but the data shows 2,052 third graders were promoted under good cause exemptions. This included:
- 396 who are English learners with less than three years of English instruction;
- 1,553 students with disabilities who received two years of intervention or had been previously retained; and
- 103 students who received intervention for more than two years and were retained for two years in previous grades.
Ultimately, 452 third graders were retained for insufficient reading skills.
The high promotion rate has raised concerns among literacy advocates who worry that many students went on to fourth grade without the skills needed to succeed.
Concerns
Shelley Vail-Smith, President of the Alabama Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, voiced her concerns.
“We know that more than 452 third-grade students statewide didn’t have the skills they needed to be successful in fourth grade,” Vail-Smith said. “The issue becomes what we did with those students who lacked the skills and were promoted anyway. Did we close the gap from where they were at the end of third grade until now?”
She warned that, despite the progress Alabama has made in early literacy, promoting struggling readers without proper interventions creates a cycle of failure with predictable and devastating consequences.
State Superintendent Eric Mackey assured that students promoted through good cause exemptions would continue to receive support in fourth grade.
“Our (Alabama Reading Initiative) staff have done extensive training on Student Reading Intervention Plans for districts and schools so they can continue to reinforce reading skills with these students,” he said.
Mackey also emphasized the need for ongoing funding to expand initiatives like the Struggling Readers Beyond Grade Three program, which received $5 million last year.
Reading scores improved in 2024
Alabama saw notable improvement in third-grade reading scores in spring 2024, when 91% of third graders reached the benchmark score of 435 on the reading test, up from 83% in 2023.
Alabama Reading Initiative Director Bonnie Short credited this progress to teachers’ hard work and their adoption of science-based methods for teaching reading.
Reading coaches — experts who work with teachers to improve their skills in teaching children how to read — played a crucial role in success. The Literacy Act requires educators to use teaching methods based in the science of how children learn to read but most elementary teachers had not learned those methods during their college preparation to become a teacher.
Teachers used tools like practice ACAP tests and year-round progress tracking to identify struggling students and missing skills.
Beyond the classroom, schools engaged parents, explaining the Literacy Act’s requirements and offering ways to support their children’s reading development at home.
Retention rates for K-3 students have risen statewide since the pandemic. While the reasons remain unclear, increased rigor in early-grade reading instruction and heightened focus on third-grade readiness may be contributing factors.
“Sufficiency” versus “proficiency”
Confusion over terms like “sufficiency,” “grade-level” and “proficiency” has been a recurring issue. For example, while 91% of third graders met the reading sufficiency benchmark, only 63% reached proficiency on the full English language arts section of the ACAP.
Questions about whether the 435 benchmark score was high enough prompted the Alabama Board of Education to incrementally raise the sufficiency benchmark over the next three years.
Passed in 2019, the Literacy Act’s retention provision was delayed twice due to the pandemic and legislative actions. Originally slated for implementation in 2021, it was postponed until 2024.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
Share with others: