Tennessee Senator Discusses Third Grade Retention Law at Second Annual Literacy Summit
State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, hosted the second annual Literacy Summit in Collegedale, where he, state and education officials discussed changes to the Tennessee Literacy Success Act that went into effect this fall.
The conversation centered on perhaps the biggest change associated with the act -- a law that requires school districts to hold back third graders who do not score proficiently on the English language arts portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test.
Watson was joined by four other panelists: Yvette Stewart, director of elementary teaching & learning and K-12 literacy for Hamilton County Schools; Lisa Coons, chief academic officer for the Tennessee Department of Education; Deborah Reed, director of the Reading360 Research Center at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville; and Aleah Guthrie, senior director of policy and government relations for Tennessee Score.