Superintendents support delay in law that holds back 3rd graders weak in reading

Mar. 7—Several local school administrators support a bill that would delay by three years the holdback requirement in the Alabama Literacy Act to account for pandemic-related disruptions in learning, but a Decatur lawmaker who sponsored the Literacy Act opposes the delay.

The Literacy Act, approved by lawmakers in 2019, currently requires that starting at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, third-grade students demonstrate sufficient reading skills before being promoted to fourth grade. Senate Bill 94, sponsored by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, delays that retention requirement until the 2024-2025 school year.

Smitherman's bill received unanimous support in the Senate Education Policy Committee last week.

"Morgan County Schools supports this effort to delay the retention of those students failing to reach sufficient reading skills at the end of the third grade," Morgan County Schools Superintendent Robert Elliott Jr. said. "We know the pandemic has caused difficulties for some of our students, especially those whose families have chosen to learn remotely."

He said the school district also needs more time to fully train its staff on the Literacy Act.

Smitherman also cited remote learning during the pandemic and a lack of training for teachers as the impetus for his bill.

"We're getting ready to flunk a whole generation of kids," Smitherman said.

Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, was the House sponsor of the Literacy Act. She said Wednesday that Smitherman hadn't discussed his bill with her and she hadn't seen it. If it passes the Senate, Collins said she would oppose it in the House.

"There is no accountability for the Literacy Act in 2021, there is only continued implementation, which I want to continue to encourage us to move forward on," Collins said. "Now, next year we may need to talk about that and I'm very willing to talk about it then, but until we get real data from the (Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program assessment and other markers) ... we can't make a qualified decision."

On Wednesday, the House approved a resolution from Collins encouraging the Alabama State Department of Education and all local systems to administer the new Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program for students in grades 2 through 8 in person. Last year was to be the first for the new test, but it was delayed because of the pandemic.

Collins said the test should be a baseline, but its results shouldn't negatively impact schools. The resolution encourages the Alabama State Department of Education to waive all accountability indicators for 2021, including the "Legislative School Performance Recognition Program, the school grading system, the designation of schools as failing schools and the levy of any penalties against school systems, schools, educators, or students... ."

The resolution doesn't impact the Literacy Act, though, because students wouldn't be retained until spring 2022, more than a year away, Collins said.

"We can't make an educated decision about what we need to do until we see where we are," Collins said. She said some of that data will be available by the end of the current school year.

Athens City Schools Superintendent Beth Patton said she supports the changes to the Literacy Act that would be made under Senate Bill 94.

"We know that there are gaps in learning caused by the pandemic," she said. "We are focused on meeting academic and emotional needs, and that will not change by delaying the holdback requirement. The delay will simply give teachers an opportunity to provide a variety of interventions and give students time to recover from the learning loss before having to look at retention."

Virus's impact on learning

Decatur City Schools Superintendent Michael Douglas said he was not focused on whether the bill delaying the retention requirement passes or fails.

"Our job is to teach kids to read," Douglas said, and "that's what we're going to do even if they give us a three-year reprieve."

Douglas does hope that school districts will be allowed to use documentation and professional judgment in deciding whether a student is retained or not.

"I don't think we'll know the impact of COVID on student learning for two or three years," he said.

Wendy Lang, a Uniserv director with the Alabama Education Association, said educators support the intent of the Literacy Act but believe it has issues that need to be addressed.

"One of those issues is the postponement of the retention requirement," she said.

Lang, whose district includes the Morgan County, Decatur City and Hartselle City systems, said she receives calls from educators every day about the Literacy Act.

"Some of our finest educators are leaving the classroom because of the undue stress and strain that has been brought on by this piece of legislation," Lang said. "Certainly more time is needed for training and implementation as well as a postponement of the retention requirement."

Money for reading programs

Limestone County Randy Shearouse said it's important for local school districts to have some flexibility in regards to retention.

"Students lost instructional opportunities last March and although most of our students have attended school in a traditional manner this year, interruptions have continued to occur because of quarantining protocols," he said.

Gov. Kay Ivey last March ordered an end to public K-12 classroom instruction for the remainder of the school year.

Ivey's proposed 2022 education budget would give reading programs a $20 million increase to help schools meet new, higher reading standards in the act. That would bring the total reading education funding to $98 million, approaching the highest ever state investment in literacy.

The Alabama Association of School Boards said it supports reassessing the Literacy Act after students have taken some assessments that give a sense of where they are and the degree of learning loss.

"The retention portion is something we agree will need to be reexamined," the association said in an emailed statement. "A one-year delay is something we think certainly should be on the table, but we believe any longer term decisions should be made based on data."

Ryan Hollingsworth, executive director of School Superintendents of Alabama, said Wednesday his organization is in favor of a minimum one-year delay in the retention portion of the act because of COVID-19.

Earlier this year, State Superintendent Eric Mackey said public schools saw a decrease in enrollment of about 9,700 students this year, according to the official count taken early in the school year.

— marian.accardi@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi. Mary Sell of Alabama Daily News contributed to this article.