State Sen. Arthur Orr believes there’s no reason to again postpone the requirement for third-graders to be proficient in reading before entering the next grade.
Signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in 2019, the Alabama Literacy Act requires students in the third grade to demonstrate proficiency in reading by scoring a minimum of 435 on the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program English test before being able to move up to the fourth grade.
While the provision was originally supposed to take effect during the 2021-2022 school year, it was later postponed to 2024 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite concerns the new law could create for public schools, Orr (R-Decatur) said it’s necessary to improve education in the state.
“No we can’t back down anymore,” Orr said on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.” “The problem so many times…is the family. The child is not being helped or assisted at home. They turn on the TV and just set the kids in front of it and that’s babysitting.
“There’s no accountability at home for the child to get serious about their studies and it shows its effect or impact in the classroom when they’re not being held accountable at home by their parents.”
The senator admitted it will create issues for some schools in the state, but believes it will only occur in “pockets.”
“I think it will be more in pockets around the state,” he said. “You will see children being held back in the third grade who can’t adequately read even though they changed the cut score for those children based on the tests…there will be a fair amount of students that’ll be held back.”
Orr said one of the issues being worked on by state officials is making sure students actually show up to class everyday.
“If you have a 50% truancy rate or absentee rate in your school, that means half the kids aren’t even showing up, that’s a problem,” he said. “And that’s something…we’ve been appropriating funds across the state, working with the local district attorney’s offices. There’s a program called ‘Helping Families Initiative’ that incorporates that DAs and a social workers employed by the DA’s office with the full power of the badge and to pull parents before a judge if they don’t get serious about having their children in school.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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