OKLAHOMA CITY -- By a veto-proof margin of 89-6, the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed and sent to the governor a bill that would let parents and educators decide whether to retain or promote third-graders not reading at grade level.
House Bill 2625, by Rep. Katie Henke, R-Tulsa, calls for a committee of educators and each affected student's parents or guardians to determine on a case-by-case basis whether to promote or retain students failing the third-grade reading sufficiency test.
Under current law, most third-graders failing the test are automatically retained. That law as passed in 2011 and became effective this year.
Gov. Mary Fallin has been less than enthusiastic about retreating from the hard line drawn three years ago, but Monday's margin and the Senate's 44-0 vote last month makes a veto problematic.
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"No one is arguing that we don't want our children to read," Henke said in closing debate. "We're not saying they won't be retained. But saying they will all be retained without looking at them on a case-by-case basis is not appropriate."
Oklahoma public schools learned on Friday that nearly 8,000 third-graders statewide, including nearly one-third of those in Tulsa Public Schools, scored "unsatisfactory" on this year's reading tests.
Critics charged that basing retention or promotion entirely on a single test was unfair and possibly counterproductive, while others said promoting students who can't read at grade level does them an even greater disservice.
"Here's the plan," state Rep. Mike Reynolds said Monday. "You take the third grade again ... We don't need to do anything else. We let them take the third grade again."
Randy Krehbiel 918-581-8365
