Editor’s note: Managing Editor Michael Hibblen is the author of this report.

Three years into the implementation of the LEARNS Act, Arkansas educators are bracing for a new reading proficiency requirement that will determine which third graders can be promoted to the fourth grade. Standardized tests will be administered in the coming weeks at all public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to provide a high-stakes assessment that will inevitably involve some students having to repeat third grade.

Hazen School Superintendent Andy Barrett says he recently met with the staff of the elementary school in his district and was told no third graders there appear to be on track to be retained.

Requiring a basic reading ability is vital at this stage for students, Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said in an interview with The Grand Prairie Herald’s Editor and Publisher Roby Brock.

“If students aren’t able to be proficient readers by fourth grade and you start getting deeper into content and explicit instruction on how to read isn’t as prevalent, then school’s not fun. We don’t want kids to just go to school and not have fun because you’re struggling to read,” Oliva said.

Allowing those students to be automatically advanced to fourth grade makes them more likely to struggle in later years, data shows. The state Department of Education identifies third grade reading proficiency as a “pivotal predictor of future academic success,” including whether they will graduate from high school.

If the new requirement had been in place last year, test results show only 36% percent of students would have been promoted to the fourth grade. But new assessments and interventions have been implemented since then which educators hope will ensure that won’t be the result this year.

Barrett says despite some hesitation from educators and the community, the new reading requirement is needed.

“There’s been a lot of criticism of this requirement, but nobody can argue that reading isn’t a foundational skill we have to have across the board in education,” Barrett said. “And I think that obviously from where we stand in our state right now, we’re not doing a very good job.”

Arkansas consistently ranks near the bottom in national education studies.

Students at Hazen Elementary School are scheduled to take the Arkansas Teaching & Learning Assessment System (ATLAS) test between May 5 and May 8. The state allows districts to administer the test any time between April 13 and May 22.

Students will need to score at Level 2 or higher in reading to advance to fourth grade unless they qualify for a “good cause exemption.” That includes students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, those with less than three years of formal English instruction, students who have already been retained and those who have experienced an isolated traumatic event that directly impacted their assessment.

Before the current school year began, Secretary Oliva says rules were put in place to identify at-risk students and provide strategies for teachers and parents to implement an Individual Reading Plan (IRP).

“If we see a student is not making grade level, well, what we’re able to do this year is maybe they need some short-term high impact tutoring, maybe they need to be in a summer program,” Oliva said. “So now we come together with a plan. You’re not automatically retained. What you’re required to do is have a plan on how we’re going to fill those gaps — and retention may be part of that plan — but it’s not the absolute.”

It can be difficult socially for students to be held back while their peers advance to a higher grade. But Oliva has said implementing the reading requirement will benefit people not only when they’re students, but through future life achievements.

Barrett said he’s confident the assessments and options for those who are struggling will be beneficial for school districts.

“If you have done all of the things that the state asks you to do, especially with the remediation and interventions throughout the year, and then some sort of growth,” Barrett said, there will be an improved outcome. “We’ve got to figure it out. It’s going to be a learning curve for most of the schools, including us, trying to figure out when and how to do things to get [students] to that level.”

Reforming education was a priority for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders when she came into office three years ago. The most controversial component of the LEARNS Act has been using public funds to create Education Freedom Accounts (EFA), which can be used to pay for private, parochial or home schools.

The Arkansas Legislature approved the plan in 2023 and will need to increase funding for the EFA program during a fiscal session that began Wednesday, April 8. Sanders’ budget proposal would set aside up to $379 million for the program.