Mini-Series Part 1: LB1050 and Third Grade Retention
- Lisa (Admin)
- Jan 20
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
My Views Are My Own
By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.
1/20/2025
I have had people reach out to me regarding education bills in the legislature. I will write brief opinion pieces on these bills; these opinions do not reflect the views of the Nebraska State Board of Education. The first bill I will discuss is LB1050, which would “amend the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act to establish a policy that students identified with a persistent reading deficiency at the end of third grade will not be promoted to fourth grade and will instead be retained in third grade, beginning with the 2027-28 school year.” Due to the positive impact this type of legislation has had on literacy in other states, I am in favor of this bill. Sixteen of the 23 states that have third grade retention policies in place are outperforming Nebraska on their fourth-grade literacy proficiency rates according to the National Assessment of Education Progress NAEP website.
I have to agree with Excel in Ed on this one. We need to “push for the hard things –maintaining the third-grade promotion gate to support students who aren’t reading on grade level can ruffle feathers, but it’s a policy proven to help students long term. When students enter fourth grade, they should no longer be learning to read but reading to learn across all subjects.” ALL states making the most gains in literacy have third grade retention policies! According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Indiana have shown notable gains in reading and math proficiency, thanks to evidence-based policies (such as third grade retention policies), accountability systems and targeted investments in student learning. You can read more about what Mississippi and Louisiana are doing in my prior blog posts.
Let’s look at the arguments against this bill. I have heard the claims that students will have low self-esteem and potentially be bullied if they are retained. Let’s think about this; the same is also true for students who are passed on through the grade levels without being able to read. As I stated in my Mississippi blog post, according to the Child Mind Institute, “Children who struggle with reading are at higher risk for mental health challenges, such as low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and behavioral problems.” The problem is that when we continue to pass kids through the grades without addressing the root causes of literacy deficiency, their chances for achieving literacy proficiency become smaller. Kindergarten and first-grade teachers are typically the most qualified educators to teach kids to read. Once a student moves beyond the primary grades, general education classroom teachers tend to become less qualified to teach a student to read, as they are focusing on reading to learn.
Another argument I have heard is that this becomes an unfunded mandate for Nebraska’s public schools. Let’s remember that the primary role of the public school system is to teach students to read, write, and do math at proficient levels so they will someday be self-sufficient adults, participate in the workforce, and contribute to their communities. This role and this role alone must remain at the forefront of ALL tax dollar spending. Teaching kids to read at proficient levels should never be considered an additional mandate.
Many parents don’t even realize that their student is behind in reading until it feels like it is too late to catch up. A third-grade retention policy opens the door for these important discussions to be happening regularly from kindergarten through third grade, so parents and guardians are not surprised and frustrated by the lack of progress as their child continues to advance grade levels. This is without a doubt the accountability piece that Nebraska schools are missing.
