Asked about education bills that are likely to be passed this year by the Indiana legislature, Sen. Ryan Mishler (R-Mishawaka) said Senate Bill 1 was probably the priority, which deals with literacy and retention of third-graders.
Mishler was speaking Friday at the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce Legislative Review Session at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion.
SB 1 would say that kids that have reading issues would be the priority for summer school. Mishler said one thing he learned while doing the bill and meeting with Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner was that a lot of summer school now was health and physical education classes for kids who don’t want to take it during the school year.
Mishler said when he found out kids were taking physical education and health during the summer so they didn’t have to take it during the school year, but there was no need for it, “I think those kids will get bumped and have to do it during the school year and then the kids with reading issues would take the spots in the summer school, which that’s the way it should be. I didn’t even know it until this year that they were doing phys. ed. and health,” he said.
It isn’t that p.e. and health aren’t important, he stated, but they’re classes kids can take during the school year and not have to take in the summer.
“The part of that bill (SB 1) that’s probably drawn the most attention is the retention piece, that third-grade retention,” Mishler said, noting that the state worked on that before several years ago.
Currently, if a third-grader doesn’t pass the IREAD at the end of third grade or in the summer, and they don’t have an exemption, they could be retained in the third grade for another year.
Mishler said he told Jenner he felt third grade might be a little late.
“It seems like if you’d catch them in kindergarten or first grade, it would be easier. And then from the social dynamic of being held back in third grade, kids are a little older and then they kind of label kids that are held back, where if you held them back at a younger age, they’re just going to say, ‘we got a new kid in school.’ They wouldn’t know the difference,” he said.
He recognized that he’s not an educator, but his personal opinion was that they should do it earlier than third grade. “But the bill does have the third-grade retention,” he said.
“Dr. (Jerry) Thacker at (Penn-Harris-Madison) said the two biggest fears a kid has are one, losing a parent, and two, being held back in school. And, so, when he told us that, it made me a little nervous about holding back third-graders, but we’ve to do something. If they can’t read, I don’t know what else you do and you’ve got to teach the kids to read somehow. If they’re not ready to go and we’re just passing them through, does that do the kid any good?” Mishler said.
Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert told Mishler, “Thank you actually for what you were saying because it’s right in line with our thinking as well. We want every kid to be able to read. I have some concerns with the third-grade level as well. I think if retention is to happen, it needs to happen at kindergarten or as late as first grade. Once you start getting to that third-grade level, there’s such a stigma that goes around with those kids, and the long-term prognosis for kids that are retained in third grade is not good. You’re looking at kids that aren’t going to finish high school, could end up in jail. Just the long-term data of late retention is really scary.”
Addressing summer school, speaking only about WCS and not anyone else in the state, Hoffert said WCS “has a phenomenal summer school program” that is one of the largest in the state and it’s focused on literacy in kindergarten to third grade. There are very few kids taking summer school for p.e. and health.
“One of the things that we brought up with Sen. Rogers - and, again, I know this is not a budget year - summer school reimbursement is only about 50%. It used to be 110% here just a few years ago pre-pandemic. But after the pandemic, when people are trying to get caught up on things, also the inclusion of online educational courses, again, has really drained that fund so, again, your local school system gets stuck with a big part of that bill. It can be pretty expensive because you’re asking teachers to come in at an hourly rate for those hours,” Hoffert said, asking Mishler to look at that especially with future summer school mandates because “I think that’s what drained that funding even more than what it is now.”
Mishler thought they put around $18 million a year in the budget for summer school, but he didn’t know the rate at which it was paid out.