Alabama weighs new cut score, with impact on third grade reading retention

The Alabama Board of Education will vote Thursday whether to change the reading score a third-grader must reach to go on to the fourth grade. That change could make a difference as to whether thousands of third graders move on to the fourth grade.

The Alabama Literacy Act requires third graders to be reading on grade level before being promoted. One measure of that is to reach “sufficiency,” or grade-level, on the reading portion of the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program or ACAP.

The reading subtest of the ACAP is the first way a third grader can meet requirements to move on to the fourth grade. Third-graders below that score risk being held back unless they surpass one of the other methods to be promoted or can be exempted from the requirement.

State Superintendent Eric Mackey said he will recommend setting the score at 435 and that the board should revisit that score next summer. The current score of 452 was set in 2021.

Mackey told AL.com the lower numerical score does not mean they’re setting a lower bar. The state adopted more rigorous standards in reading in 2021 which meant what students are tested on had to be updated, too.

Gov. Kay Ivey, who serves as President of the Board of Education, was not present at the August work session where board members discussed the cut score but said she supports Mackey’s recommendation on the cut score.

“Alabama has adopted a new, more rigorous reading sub-test, and it is important to know this is not a lowering of the standard, but instead, a better alignment with the science of reading,” Ivey said. “As I have stated strongly, we must fully implement the Alabama Literacy Act. This is an important next step in doing that, and I support the Board adopting the recommended cut score.”

The Alabama Committee on Grade-Level Reading, set up to oversee the implementation of the Literacy Act, disagrees. President Shelley Vail-Smith sent an email to Mackey and board members Tuesday asking them to delay the vote on changing the cut score.

Vail-Smith said lowering the cut score is the same as lowering expectations. She said the current cut score of 452 is already too low and students that fall between the recommended 435 and the current score risk being sent to fourth grade without the support they would have received had they been retained.

On spring reading tests, 76% of third graders reached the current cut score.

Mackey said the new cut score of 435 was recommended by a committee of educators and an advisory committee of statisticians and assessment specialists.

Three options for a new third grade cut score were presented to board members during their August work session showing what percentage of third graders failed to reach the score:

A score of 473, the score a committee of educators said shows the student has grade-level reading skills; 32% fell below this score
A score of 454, one standard error below that score; 24% fell below this score, and
A score of 435 that is two standard errors below the score; 17% fell below this score.

Mackey said one or two standard deviations help ensure children who might have just had a bad test day can move forward in school. But school board members saidthey’re equally concerned about putting a child in fourth grade who isn’t reading on grade level.

“We will do them a grave injustice by moving them along [to the fourth grade],” board member Jackie Zeigler said.

“When I look at third grade, this should be our last chance to catch the ones that will not be successful. If they’re not ready at the end of first grade, don’t wait till third grade.”

Mackey is expected to recommend a cut score of 455 for second grade reading, two standard errors below the recommended 487. The current cut score is 448. On spring 2023 reading tests, 76% of second graders reached the cut score.

Mackey told board members more children are being held back in the first grade. Numbers obtained from the Alabama Department of Education show more are being retained in kindergarten, too.

Retention numbers show the number of children retained in kindergarten, first, second and third grade in 2019 and in 2023:

Board member Marie Manning said schools are likely holding more first graders back because teachers have a better idea of what expectations are for what second graders are supposed to be able to read. Second graders take the ACAP reading test, too.

“This is my guess,” Manning said. “Probably most teachers and administrators are saying let’s retain them in first grade instead of waiting. I would think that that will be beneficial in the next couple of years as far as making scores as a third grader.”