EDITORIAL: Critics will try to undermine ‘Read by 3 law’, but state must stay the course

There are many reasons why Nevada consistently turns up at the bottom of national rankings measuring student achievement. But the fact that so many of the state’s younger schoolchildren struggle with reading and comprehension is certainly near the top of the list.

Test scores show that about 55 percent of Nevada third-graders do not meet reading proficiency standards. More than half the state’s third-graders! Reading is the foundation of all learning. Without basic literacy skills, kids are doomed to failure. Yet the great majority of these Nevada students are shuffled along to fourth grade with nary a pause, set up to fall further and further behind as they advance through the system. This is disgraceful malfeasance.

In recognition that this must not continue, state lawmakers in 2015 passed the “Read by 3” law, which the governor eagerly signed as part of a broader education reform package. Under the measure, which is scheduled to be implemented in 2020, third-graders who fall short on the Smarter Balanced reading exam will be held back.

The law also includes grant money for schools to help them boost reading scores. Last week, state education officials revealed preliminary results of such intervention — and it was a very mixed bag. Only about 43 percent of those schools that received the extra funds showed improvement. The majority actually got worse.

“We know that factors outside of the school have an enormous impact,” said Mark Newburn, vice president of the state Board of Education. “I want us to be a little careful when we’re looking at the trend data, because we don’t know what else is happening.”

The Review-Journal’s Meghin Delaney reported that board member Felicia Ortiz was shocked that so many schools went backward even with the additional support.

What all this reveals about the notion that money will cure all of public education’s ills is an issue for another day. The key is to discern why the results varied significantly from school to school.

Make no mistake: There will be pressure to abandon “Read by 3.” Critics in the education establishment will argue that it is too drastic, that holding back students who lack basic skills could harm their self-esteem or damage their emotional and social development. But this is to excuse failure and embrace low standards.

In fact, the law itself represents a necessary incentive for schools, teachers, parents and students alike. There will be uncomfortable questions for everyone involved — as there should be — when retention rates skyrocket. That realization may already have led to positive change. “It has changed our mindset for when and how we address the needs of our struggling learners,” one educator told the state board about “Read by 3.”

The state must stay the course, learn why some schools continue to flounder despite the additional money and ensure that student exemptions contained in the law are used sparingly so as not to render it meaningless. Anything less is to applaud the state’s dismal academic rankings.