Excerpt from the Parents Campaign email:
A bill that would hold Mississippi third-graders harmless for the first-year results of a new high-stakes reading test and delay retentions for one year could die without your help.
A majority of the House supports the amended version of the bill that allows children who don’t meet the (as of yet undetermined) cut score to progress to fourth grade while providing them the intensive remediation they need. Sources tell us that the leadership is likely to kill it. If the bill dies, thousands of third graders who would not otherwise be retained will be held back.
These are third-grade children who are being punished because of state leaders’ rush to score political points. So much of the focus of this literacy initiative has been on punitive repercussions for children rather than on providing resources that will result in better reading proficiency. In their haste to solve one problem, legislators have created a whole set of problems that are becoming nightmares for children and their families.
2/11/15
Magnolia Tribune
