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District reports improvement on K–3 literacy screener; discusses Act 422 third‑grade retention rules
Summary
Terrebonne Parish reported K–3 literacy screener results showing an increase from 59% to 68% of students at or above benchmark year‑to‑year and reviewed third‑grade retention outcomes under Act 422, including 23 retained third graders (2% of the cohort).
District assessment staff reported July 17 that results from the K–3 literacy screening showed gains and discussed how the state’s third‑grade retention law (Act 422) factored into promotion decisions.
Monica Bridal, assessment and accountability supervisor, described the district's K–3 screener (based on the science of reading) comprising six measures: letter naming fluency, phonemic segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, word reading fluency, oral reading fluency and a maze comprehension probe. She said scoring for each probe feeds a composite score that is labeled well below, below, at benchmark or above benchmark.
Bridal reported that the district's end‑of‑year composite results increased from 59 percent at or above benchmark in May 2024 to 68 percent at or above benchmark in May 2025. "At the end of the year here in May 2025, we had 68 percent of our students who were reading at or above grade level," Bridal said.
On third‑grade retention, Bridal said the district promoted 1,061 third‑grade students out of a cohort of 1,083 and retained 23 students (approximately 2 percent). The district used a small number of good‑cause exemptions: 5 percent of that group qualified under IEP or 504 protections, and 1 percent qualified for exemptions based on two or more years of intensive reading intervention. Bridal said the screener uses cut scores provided by the screening program and that the state uses those cut scores to determine benchmark levels.
Board members pressed staff on supports for students who were retained or who do not meet benchmarks. Bridal said retained students receive individual academic assistance plans, are candidates for high‑dose tutoring and will be placed in intervention groups of no more than four students. District staff emphasized that the pupil progression plan allows students to be retained only once between kindergarten and fourth grade; if a student has been retained previously, they are typically moved forward but remain on an assistance plan.
Board members asked for follow‑up data on retained students' progress and for tracking the cohort next year; Bridal said she could provide that information at a future meeting.
