Third Grade Reading Guarantee
Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee is a program to identify students from kindergarten through grade 3 that are behind in reading. Schools will provide help and support to make sure students are on track for reading success by the end of third grade. The Ohio Department of Education provides policy guidance, instructional tools, and resources on the Third Grade Reading Guarantee.
2023-2024 THIRD GRADE PROMOTION SCORE UPDATE
State law requires the State Board of Education to annually increase the promotion score on Ohio’s State Test for grade 3 English language arts until it reaches proficient for the 2024-2025 school year. The promotion score for grade 3 English language arts to 690 for the 2023-2024 school year. Any student who scores 690 or higher on the English language arts scaled score will be eligible for promotion to fourth grade at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
In addition, the Ohio Department of Education has set the reading subscore alternative assessment score for Ohio’s State Test for grade 3 English language arts at 48 for the 2023-2024 school year. Any student who scores 48 or higher on the reading subscore will be eligible for promotion to fourth grade at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, even if the student scores below 690 on Ohio’s State Test for grade 3 English language arts.
The Ohio Department of Education also provides an alternative pathway for students to demonstrate an acceptable level of reading performance for promotion to fourth grade. Districts may administer alternative reading assessments from an ODE-approved list. In Perry Local, we have identified two alternative assessments as options for students. The first being i-Ready, which is already administered to grade 3 students as part of our benchmarking process. Students must obtain a score of 515 or higher during one of the benchmark windows. The second alternate option is the Terra Nova 3 (Complete Battery or Survey). Students must receive a score of 620 for the Complete Battery or 623 for the Survey in order to reach promotion.
Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, a student’s parent or guardian, in consultation with the student’s reading teacher and principal, may request that a student be promoted to fourth grade regardless of the student’s score on Ohio’s State Test for grade 3 English language arts.
Students promoted to fourth grade through this exemption must continue to receive intensive reading instruction until the student is able to read at grade level.
If a student is on a Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plan (RIMP), students must receive at least 50 hours of intervention services over 36 weeks. These intervention services must be aligned to the science of reading and continue until the student is reading proficiently at their current grade level.
