TN’s TCAP - 3rd Grade Retention

[BP4Prez]

What’s everyone’s opinion on this? I guess I see it both ways. I don’t think we should blindly move kids through that are not ready or up to standards, but at the same time putting it all on a one off test seems ridiculous to me. Numbers from Knox County (I’m not in East TN) have recently come back and a whopping 36% scored below the threshold so will either be held back, retake the test, or have to attend summer school. Just seems like a lot to out on a third grader to me.

KCS: Around 1,600 students scored below proficiency line in Knox Co. on TCAP exam | wbir.com

 

[Vol8188]

In theory holding kids back who fail to meet standards sounds great. My first question though is how are they defining their standard because the TCAP is percentile based. So surely they aren’t committing themselves to a system that would automatically retain the lowest x% of students, even if those students did really well.

The other issue with holding kids back is social. 16 year olds in elementary school isn’t good for anyone.

I think the ultimate answer is that we need to maintain high standards for moving to the next grade level while keeping students sorted by their age. So if you’re 10, you’re with other 10 year olds. But you may all be working on different level work.

That’s a nightmare to do in a traditional classroom, but it’s something technology may be able to achieve one day.

In the meantime we are only left with bad answers

 

[BreatheUT]

The public education system is broken. They don't even want to assign homework anymore because the thought is that households are worse off today than decades ago and kids won't do the work.

Then when you bring in the illegal immigration population which slows the quality of the education further by putting stress on the available funds and slows the quality due in part to the teacher to student ratio in an already strained employee pool. The affects the low and middle class the most.

Schools are just pushing a lot of kids on because they don't want to lose funding so something needs to be done. I'm not sure this is the answer.

I heard Vivek Ramaswamy campaigning that he would get rid of the Dept of Education. It really appears to be a useless bloated bureaucracy. Give the power back to the states. I need to see where Tennessee is on the idea that they might stop accepting federal funds.

 

[MG1968]

Third graders now would have been kindergarteners, or maybe first graders during the Covid lockdowns and the group least able to gain any sort of benefit from virtual learning.

 

[DC_Vol]

I heard Vivek Ramaswamy campaigning that he would get rid of the Dept of Education. It really appears to be a useless bloated bureaucracy. Give the power back to the states. I need to see where Tennessee is on the idea that they might stop accepting federal funds.

It’s evident in the educations children receive. Performance consistently declines as funding is increased.

Their biggest achievement is driving the cost of college education through the roof via government backed loan programs.

Ramaswamy has my attention with talks of eliminating federal agencies, but I want to see just how serious he is.

 

[BP4Prez]

Third graders now would have been kindergarteners, or maybe first graders during the Covid lockdowns and the group least able to gain any sort of benefit from virtual learning.

Exactly probably the group most affected by the extreme and ridiculous measure. Read where over 50% of students in Dickson County did not meet threshold.

 

[Orangeburst]

Future of America looks great

 

[davethevol]

The GOP screwed up badly with this retention law. 3rd graders should not have to deal with something like this. I know families with kids that are straight A students and have other metrics showing they are at or above grade level in reading, and then they took the TCAP and are looking at summer school now. I hate that I’m siding with the left on this, but it’s a rare instance where they are correct.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

The GOP screwed up badly with this retention law. 3rd graders should not have to deal with something like this. I know families with kids that are straight A students and have other metrics showing they are at or above grade level in reading, and then they took the TCAP and are looking at summer school now. I hate that I’m siding with the left on this, but it’s a rare instance where they are correct.

Agree. The purpose of this law was to attempt to justify taking state control of low performing "blue" districts (think, Memphis)....

Problem is those in charge got tangled by their own net...

 

[Zues1]

Third graders now would have been kindergarteners, or maybe first graders during the Covid lockdowns and the group least able to gain any sort of benefit from virtual learning.

Ding, ding, ding ..we have a winner

 

[davethevol]

Agree. The purpose of this law was to attempt to justify taking state control of low performing "blue" districts (think, Memphis)....

Problem is those in charge got tangled by their own net...

And they’ve doubled down on it. I hate it for the children and all the teachers that have to deal with this. It will backfire on the GOP bigtime.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

And they’ve doubled down on it. I hate it for the children and all the teachers that have to deal with this. It will backfire on the GOP bigtime.

Yeah, this will backfire big time on the Rs.

This is clearly meant to help the private or religious based schools. This is clearly meant to allow for state takeover of certain low performing districts. This was clearly intended to punish those districts that did not go back to full 5 day in class learning for 20-21 school year.

 

[BP4Prez]

The GOP screwed up badly with this retention law. 3rd graders should not have to deal with something like this. I know families with kids that are straight A students and have other metrics showing they are at or above grade level in reading, and then they took the TCAP and are looking at summer school now. I hate that I’m siding with the left on this, but it’s a rare instance where they are correct.

Completely ruining summer plans for many families.

 

[ATC_VOL]

Have a 3rd grader who thankfully passed. He’s tested well in the past, but ELA is usually his worse subject. They took several practice tests at school and we really pushed at home with doing practice tests as well.

He’s been super stressed since taking the test about how he did. Glad he can enjoy summer now.

I’ve seen a handful of counties release their overall results and hope all of the counties do. With 60% in the state not passing, there has to be some counties that are over 80% failing I would think.

 

[BP4Prez]

Have a 3rd grader who thankfully passed. He’s tested well in the past, but ELA is usually his worse subject. They took several practice tests at school and we really pushed at home with doing practice tests as well.

He’s been super stressed since taking the test about how he did. Glad he can enjoy summer now.

I’ve seen a handful of counties release their overall results and hope all of the counties do. With 60% in the state not passing, there has to be some counties that are over 80% failing I would think.

Can’t imagine what some of the inner city scores are going to look like. And I don’t mean that to be political. But that’s who this was targeted at but it’s coming back to bite the GOP districts as well.

 

[scooty_vol]

The public education system is broken. They don't even want to assign homework anymore because the thought is that households are worse off today than decades ago and kids won't do the work.

Then when you bring in the illegal immigration population which slows the quality of the education further by putting stress on the available funds and slows the quality due in part to the teacher to student ratio in an already strained employee pool. The affects the low and middle class the most.

Schools are just pushing a lot of kids on because they don't want to lose funding so something needs to be done. I'm not sure this is the answer.

I heard Vivek Ramaswamy campaigning that he would get rid of the Dept of Education. It really appears to be a useless bloated bureaucracy. Give the power back to the states. I need to see where Tennessee is on the idea that they might stop accepting federal funds.

Yep, the dept of education focuses on everything but education

 

[scooty_vol]

Can’t imagine what some of the inner city scores are going to look like. And I don’t mean that to be political. But that’s who this was targeted at but it’s coming back to bite the GOP districts as well.

Yeah, how bad are Chicago's scores.

 

[StarRaider]

StarBearette is retired but doing an interim. Their school has 6 thirdies out of 6 classes (probably around 120-130 kids) not pass, the rest go on to be forthies.

 

[allvol123]

I’d advise doing everything possible to get your kids out of public school. That is very difficult for some, nonetheless it should be the goal.

 

[landscapingvol]

What’s everyone’s opinion on this? I guess I see it both ways. I don’t think we should blindly move kids through that are not ready or up to standards, but at the same time putting it all on a one off test seems ridiculous to me. Numbers from Knox County (I’m not in East TN) have recently come back and a whopping 36% scored below the threshold so will either be held back, retake the test, or have to attend summer school. Just seems like a lot to out on a third grader to me.

KCS: Around 1,600 students scored below proficiency line in Knox Co. on TCAP exam | wbir.com

Virtually everything you just mentioned will never happen, it's nothing more than an empty threat employed by school districts to pretend to hold students accountable. If you multiply those numbers across the state, you are talking about 10's of thousands of students. There is a teacher shortage nationwide and it would require hiring hundreds of other teachers to address the additional students not to mention class space. It will never happen on a mass scale

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

I’d advise doing everything possible to get your kids out of public school. That is very difficult for some, nonetheless it should be the goal.

The goal of this legislation isn't to help the kids but to provide ammo for expanding the private/religious school voucher program statewide....

 

[allvol123]

The goal of this legislation isn't to help the kids but to provide ammo for expanding the private/religious school voucher program statewide....

I am for helping kids. If at all possible, get them out of public schools. I don’t care about this legislation or it’s motive. Take ownership of your child’s education. Get them out of government schooling.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

I am for helping kids. If at all possible, get them out of public schools. I don’t care about this legislation or it’s motive. Take ownership of your child’s education. Get them out of government schooling.

What would private school education look like when they are dependent on govt vouchers for survival (assuming a statewide voucher system)?

When gov't $$$$ is involved, there's always strings attached

It will be govt schooling 2.0 with the only difference being force fed the social doctrine of the political party in charge...

 

[allvol123]

What would private school education look like when they are dependent on govt vouchers for survival (assuming a statewide voucher system)?

When gov't $$$$ is involved, there's always strings attached

It will be govt schooling 2.0 with the only difference being force fed the social doctrine of the political party in charge...

I just said I don’t care about this legislation. I am agreeing with you. Even with the best of intentions, government ruins stuff.

Thus, ignore this, be done with them, get your kids and move on.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

I just said I don’t care about this legislation. I am agreeing with you. Even with the best of intentions, government ruins stuff.

Thus, ignore this, be done with them, get your kids and move on.

So, let's say there's a statewide voucher program (which is the ultimate goal of this legislation). What do you do when private schools essentially become gov't funded?

Home schooling??