Skip to Main Content

Hurricane Helene Disaster Relief

Student Retention Policies: Tennessee and Other States

Teacher helping a young student with her homework in the library after school. Two females are reading a book together in the bookstore. They are doing research for a project

April 2023

Author: Erin Brown

Full Report
Snapshot

In 2021, the General Assembly passed legislation updating 4th grade promotion requirements for 3rd graders. Under the new law, 3rd graders who do not achieve grade-level proficiency on the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the spring TCAP assessment are identified for possible retention. This legislative brief examines recent retention legislation in Tennessee, considers the experiences of other states that have also passed retention requirements, and identifies the variables that will influence how many 3rd graders are likely to be retained in 2023.