Amended Substitute Senate Bill 1: Fourth-Grade Reading Guarantee Update
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Senate Bills in Ohio are like certain movies. Once they hit the big screen, for better or worse, you know there will be a sequel.
Senate Bill 1 proved no exception, as Amended Substitute Senate Bill 1 was signed into law June 2001.
Columbus, like virtually every other district in Ohio, sees the impact heaviest in elementary schools. With softening of the Fourth-Grade guarantee regarding retention comes increased reading assessment—three times in one year.
How do large urban districts like Columbus implement the changes? They
begin with knowledge of exactly what the new law entails. Here are the
highlights, straight from the Ohio Department of Education’s Office
of Assessment:
New Reading Performance Levels
- Advanced 250 and above
- Proficient 217 - 249
- Basic 198 - 216
- Below Basic 197 and below
- Expanded Options
- Basic Level—School districts must (1) provide intervention and (2) offer the opportunity to retake the proficiency test. You may decide to link intervention to retesting as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention (see “District Intervention Policy” below).
- Below Basic
School districts have three options:
- promotion if the reading teacher and principal agree that the student is academically prepared for fifth grade;
- promotion with intensive intervention if the school believes that the student can succeed in fifth grade, but needs some help; or
- retention in fourth grade.
These options vest school districts with the authority and responsibility to determine the course of action to best ensure that each student becomes a strong reader.
District Intervention Policy
Districts must adopt an intervention policy. By statute, the policy must contain:
- procedures for using diagnostic assessments
- plan for the design of classroom-based intervention services
- procedures for the regular collection of student performance data
- procedures for using student performance data to evaluate
the effectiveness of intervention services
Additional Opportunities
Students will have three opportunities to take the Fourth-Grade Test in Reading—October, March, and July. School districts must provide students scoring below “proficient” the opportunity to retake the test. (There will not be a third-grade option this year.)
EMIS Reporting
For local report cards, districts will report each student’s highest reading score on the Fourth-Grade Proficiency Test.
Transition to Achievement Tests
Students entering fourth grade in the fall 2003 will be the last class to take the Fourth-Grade Proficiency Test in Reading. They will also be the last class to take the Mathematics and Science Proficiency Tests. Fourth graders in 2004-2005 will be the last class to take the Science and Social Studies Proficiency Tests.
Students entering third grade in the fall 2003 will be the first to take the Third-Grade Achievement Test in Reading.
