Guarantee passes its first test

Surprisingly strong results from third-grade students across Ohio on year-end reading tests should quiet some of the Henny Penny critics out there who feared the sky would fall with implementation of the state’s Third-Grade Reading Guarantee.

The guarantee requires all third-graders to read at their grade level or be held back from advancing to fourth grade. Some had feared disaster, predicting as many as one-third to one-half of all test-takers would be doomed to fail. That, in turn, would create massive headaches for school districts, they cackled.

As it turned out, nearly 90 percent of all Ohio third-graders passed the test this spring. Many of those who did not likely will pass a last-chance exam this summer. Even in Youngstown, too often the poster child of academic struggle, a full 75 percent of third-graders passed and advanced.

Though we’ll reserve final evaluation of the program until after its remediation phase kicks in this fall, initial results indicate the fear of being left behind may provide just the motivation for some students to commit to achieve.