The Literacy Success Act, along with the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act (Third Grade Retention Law) was passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in January 2021. This legislation is aimed at ensuring 3rd grade students receive interventions and supports towards grade-level expectations before being promoted to 4th grade.
Throughout this school year, your child's progress surrounding the Tennessee Academic Standards for ELA (reading & language arts) will be tracked with a series of benchmark assessments. Your child will also take the TCAP test (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program) in the spring, which measures your child's performance in mastering grade-level ELA standards. This new state literacy law requires all third grade students to meet expectations/be on grade level on the reading portion of the TCAP assessment in order to be promoted to fourth grade.
The law also sets requirements for 4th graders in order to be promoted to 5th grade. At the end of 3rd grade last year, if your child did not score in the proficiency/meets expectations range (or on grade level range) on his/her 3rd grade spring English/Language Arts ( ELA) TCAP test, there were requirements for summer school and/or tutoring throughout his/her 4th grade year to be promoted to 4th grade.
The next step of the Literacy Law requires that 4th grade students who were promoted through one of the pathways above, MUST score on grade level (meets or exceeds expectations) this spring on the 4th grade ELA TCAP test OR MUST SHOW "adequate progress" on the spring ELA TCAP in order to be promoted to 5th grade.
Review the documents linked below for more information regarding these requirements for 3rd & 4th grade students.
You can visit the TDOE's website for Pathways to Promotion for 3rd & 4th Graders.