NC superintendent says state board violated Read to Achieve law, causing 70,000 students to be improperly promoted

The memo was first reported by The News & Observer. State Board of Education Chairman Eric Davis and the superintendent's spokesman both provided WRAL News with a copy of the memo Friday evening.

In his memo, Johnson wrote: "It is disappointing, but not surprising, that we once again have uncovered evidence that bureaucrats in state government have sought to aggressively undermine clear, unambiguous legislative directives."

"Read to Achieve specifically directed the State Board of Education to end social promotion of 3rd graders – promoting students from one grade level to the next on the basis of age rather than academic ability. Sadly, the State Board’s policy aggressively avoided that directive," Johnson wrote.

"Rather than actually retaining students who were not reading at grade level, the State Board’s policy placed a hollow label of 'retained' on these students’ school records," Johnson continued. "They were labeled 'retained' but kept being advanced through grades, almost all of them falling further and further behind grade level each year."

Johnson said he directed senior staff to review the Read to Achieve program, starting with the requirements of the legislation, and it was during that review process that "this unlawful [State Board of Education] guidance was discovered."

Johnson said he has discussed the issue with local superintendents and together they "will work to address this issue."

"The group will restructure the policies implementing Read to Achieve and seek to improve the program," the state superintendent wrote.

State Board of Education Chairman Eric Davis provided the following comment by email to WRAL News on Friday:

"The State Board of Education has made improving reading proficiency for all North Carolina students by the end of third grade one of its top priorities. We will continue to work with the General Assembly, education leaders, and literacy experts from across the state and country to advance the state’s signature Read to Achieve initiative and help more students read at or above grade level. My colleagues and I on the State Board welcome any proposals the Superintendent may offer about improving state policy consistent with that goal, including implementing the nine priority actions on early grades reading that we passed nearly a year ago, but still await action.

"In addition, the Superintendent claims that the State Board enacted policy that violated state law about one of the GA leadership’s most important education priorities. If the State Board had enacted policy contrary to law, the GA would surely have taken action of which there is no evidence.

"The facts are that the Department of Public Instruction and State Board implemented the present Read to Achieve policies in consultation with General Assembly members and their staff. If the Superintendent thinks that these policies are somehow inappropriate, then he should come forward with specific policy proposals and solutions. Regardless, improving students’ reading proficiency is paramount and we welcome any specific proposals that the Superintendent may offer to improve Read to Achieve at or before the Board’s January meeting."

NC students continue to struggle with reading despite millions spent on literacy program, new test scores show

Under North Carolina's Read to Achieve program, students must be reading at grade level by the end of third grade in order to advance. The latest state data show only 56.8 percent of third-graders were proficient in reading last school year.

Researchers found it was too focused on third grade and that having each school district implement the program led to inconsistencies from teacher skills to the type of summer reading camps offered.