Representative John Cortes D. Osceola has filed bill 131 to end mandatory third grade retention based on the English Language Arts score on the Florida Assessment. Districts may retain students if needed, but they must continue to provide intensive remedial instruction. The provisions remain for promoting retained students mid year if the have improved their reading skills.
Rep. Cortes was elected to the Florida House in 2014. He does not serve on any legislative education committees, and the bill has yet to gain a Senate sponsor. Whether or not his bill progresses is worth watching. Unfortunately, third grade retention helps inflate fourth grade NAEP scores, and illusion is one of the signatures of school choice.
So glad I saw that bill yesterday when I was checking the Senate website to see what we are in store for this year. We need to commend Cortes for taking that stand!! Standing up to Jeb who we all know is still in the drivers seat!! Perhaps we can get Debbie Mayfield (a friend to us education advocates) to support his bill. It’s time to do away with Jeb’s harmful, ludicrous policies…….unless of course they want more lawsuits like the 3rd grade mandatory retention one going on right now. Let’s make 2017 a great year for our kids by kicking Jeb and his foolish foundations and “ideas” to the curb.