Obion County Board of Education
January 9, 2012

Background Information:

During the latest legislative session, the General Assembly adopted Public Chapter 351, which added TCA § 49-6-3115. The new statute provides, “a student in the third grade shall not be promoted to the next grade level unless the student has shown a basic understanding of curriculum and ability to perform the skills required in the subject of reading as demonstrated by the student's grades or standardized test results. However, such student may be promoted if the student participates in an LEA approved research-based intervention prior to the beginning of the next school year.” The policy recommended by TSBA addresses the new law beginning on line 5. To bring current board policy into compliance with Public Chapter 351, the underlined wording in the TSBA recommended policy needs to be inserted into the Board’s current policy.  As a point of reference, during the prior school year, the System had 31 of 291  third graders (10.7%) who would have been affected by this change in law. The research-based intervention required by law has the potential to become very expensive.

Staff Recommendation:

I recommend approval of the above-noted amendment to Board Policy #4.603 – Promotion and Retention, on second and final reading.