When it comes to education reform, lawmakers and teachers often
find themselves at cross-purposes. Lawmakers want to enact sweeping
legislation aimed
at overhauling what is often perceived as a flailing system.
Teachers want to help individual students who are actually in their
classes — right now.Â
This short term vs. long term dichotomy is playing out in the
debate over how to best address the nation’s literacy gap. Lawmakers in
at least four
states (Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and Tennessee) want to hold
back students who aren’t reading at grade level by the end of third
grade. But educators
and researchers say while that might seem like a short-term
solution, it could do long-term harm to a child’s social and educational
development.Â
The often-cited research makes it clear that the third grade is a
watershed of sorts. One study found that students who are not reading
at grade level
by then have only a 20 percent chance of ever catching up to
their proficient peers. A recent study by the Ann E. Casey Foundation
found students who
were below grade level in the third grade were four times more likely to drop out of school.
