Destany Osborn’s daughter, Kabella, is finishing up third grade this month at Jellico Elementary, but due to the controversial new state third-grade retention law, she is at risk for staying in the third grade another year.
“Kabella brought home her first D this year,” Destany Osborn said.
She said that third grade has been Kabella’s hardest.
“It was the first report card,” Destany Osborn said. “But she got A’s, B’s and a few C’s the rest of the year.”
But how did Kabella do on the TCAP?
“She got approaching, whatever that means,” Destany Osborn said. “Not on grade level, I presume.”
Was the approaching result in the English Language Arts section of the TCAP?
“I honestly do not know,” Destany Osborn said. “I got a phone call from her teacher and was told she got 52nd percentile approaching and when the retake was. I assumed ELA. I think that’s all they were focused on, the state that is.”
The retake was set for May 24.
“She does have ADHD,” Destany Osborn said. “We got the official diagnosis this year. But when talking with her teachers it really only affected her with bigger tests. Such as reading, she got bored quickly and would just start guessing. We even discussed that if the TCAP ever went to computer testing that she needed accommodations to have hers using paper and pencil. It’s hard for her to sit for that long in front of a computer screen and read long passages and answer questions. It’s hard for me to do that. And sadly the retake is on computer Wednesday. I tried to challenge the TCAP score with her 504 for ADHD but because she doesn’t have a specific reading disability, because she can read and is a good reader, that didn’t work.”
According to the state law, as enacted for this first year of implementation, for a student scoring approaching in the ELA portion of the TCAP, there are three ways to be promoted to the fourth grade: retake and score proficient; go to learning loss bridge camp during the summer; or work with a tutor for all of fourth grade.
In addition to the retake, Destany Osborn also plans to appeal her score.
“She made high enough that I can appeal her score,” she said. “I will appeal that at her school with the help of the staff on the 30th. There is a process we have to go through.”
What she doesn’t plan to do is keep her daughter in school during the summer and make her miss travel softball, gymnastics and church camp.
“Swimming with her friends, just getting a well-deserved break,” Destany Osborn said.
She also doesn’t plan on holding her daughter back in the third grade.
“I am not sending her to summer school, and I will not retain her,” she said. “She will go to fourth grade, and we will most likely do the tutoring option. I’m just going to pray she passes the retake. I have told her this test does not define her and that I want her to try her best on the retake, but if she doesn’t make what the state thinks she should, that she isn’t a failure. She is a child of God, a singer, a piano player, a softball player, a great big sister and an awesome kid. She will do great things in life, and she shouldn’t have to experience stress like this as a 9 year old.”
