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Seventy-six third graders in the North Little Rock School District, or about 13%, will be held back due to low performance on an end-of-year reading test, a spokesman for the district said last week.
That percentage is much higher than third-grade retention rates in the other three school districts in Pulaski County, though the rate at which third graders at the North Little Rock School District passed the test was not dramatically lower — and was higher than the Jacksonville-North Pulaski School District.
In North Little Rock, about 30% of third graders scored a Level 1, the lowest score, on the reading portion of the Arkansas Teaching, Learning & Assessment System (ATLAS) test during the end-of-year exam or a retake offered during the summer, according to Dustin Barnes, a district spokesman. A total of 569 third graders took the test, and 173 scored a Level 1.
In the Little Rock School District, about 25% of the district’s roughly 1,400 third graders, or 363 students, scored a Level 1 in reading on the ATLAS during either initial testing or the retake, a district spokeswoman said in July. Of those, only about 50, or less than 4%, are expected to be held back in the 2026-27 school year.
In the Pulaski County Special School District, 181 third graders out of 847 total scored a Level 1, or about 21% of the total. About 35 will be held back, a spokeswoman said last week, or about 4% of the total.
In the Jacksonville-North Pulaski School District, 117 third graders out of 334 total scored a Level 1, or about 35% of the total. Of those, 21 will be held back, or about 6% of the total, a district spokeswoman said in July.
The 2025-26 school year was the first in which third grade students had to meet new standards to advance to fourth grade under Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ LEARNS Act of 2023. Ostensibly, third graders must score Level 2 or higher on the reading portion of the ATLAS, meaning they demonstrate at least a “basic understanding of the grade-level standards.” Early screener tests suggested thousands of Arkansas third graders were at risk of falling short, sparking alarm among some parents and educators.
But LEARNS and the Arkansas Department of Education also gave districts broad discretion to waive the testing requirement. In all four districts in Pulaski County, most students who scored a Level 1 on the test were given exemptions and will be promoted to fourth grade anyway.
In the North Little Rock School District, 116 students were given an exemption, or about two-thirds of the total who scored a Level 1. Even larger percentages of low-scoring students received exemptions in the Little Rock, Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville-North Pulaski districts.
“The goal of this policy was never to retain as many children as possible,” said Kaelin Clay, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education, in an email Friday. “It was to guarantee that no child reaches fourth grade behind in reading without a plan and required support behind them — the LEARNS Act provides that guarantee.”
State Education Secretary Jacob Oliva downplayed the stakes of the retention requirement earlier this year, describing it as a “red flag” to identify which students need greater attention and academic support like high-impact tutoring.
The LEARNS Act allows districts to grant “good-cause exemptions” to some third grade students who score a Level 1, including students who were retained in the past, students who have certain disabilities and those who have been English language learners. Districts can also grant exemptions to students who consistently performed at grade level, or who qualify for “necessary, justifiable” waivers, such as those who experienced a traumatic event that could affect exam performance.
The state Education Department said in late May that the full number of students being held back under the requirement statewide wouldn’t be known for months, though most if not all districts in Arkansas should by now have projections of how many students they expect to hold back for the 2026-27 school year.
From May 18 to June 30, districts were allowed to hold retests to give students a chance to improve their scores. The retest window also gave educators a chance to give extra help to students at risk of being held back.
April Reisma, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said reading standards “should function as a diagnostic tool to deliver help, not a trapdoor to punish children.”
“The value of an assessment is that it could highlight which students need immediate, targeted reading interventions, high-impact tutoring, or additional classroom resources,” Reisma said in an email.
Reisma said districts should not use good-cause exemptions as an excuse to ignore students’ reading needs. Instead, such waivers “should acknowledge that classroom evidence proves they are ready for fourth-grade material, provided they receive ongoing intensive literacy support.”
For each student who does not meet the state’s reading standard by the end of third grade, including those who receive exemptions, districts are required by state law to provide more academic support during the subsequent summer and school year, such as priority access to literacy tutoring grants and access to a highly effective reading teacher.
Clay pointed to statewide improvements in student performance on the ATLAS as evidence of the state’s success in boosting reading levels. According to ATLAS results, students’ overall proficiency rose from 36.9% in spring 2025 to 42.2% in spring 2026, according to state education officials.
“That’s what screening in kindergarten, early intervention, transparent communication, 120 literacy coaches, and tutoring grants deliver,” Clay said.
Stacy Smith, deputy commissioner of the Education Department’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, has said that retention is not new to Arkansas. In the 2024-25 school year, before the new LEARNS rule went into effect, public school districts across Arkansas held back a total of about 2,500 students from kindergarten through third grade, she said.
However, the North Little Rock School District held back just one third-grade student in the 2024-25 school year, according to Barnes, the district spokesman.
Arkansas is among many Southern states that hope to replicate the success of Mississippi in pulling up reading scores. The neighboring state, once known for its poor academic performance, reported dramatic gains in literacy after it began a push 13 years ago to improve outcomes.
Research on the effectiveness of third grade retention on literacy shows mixed results. While some reports suggest retention can bring short-term benefits for students, a 2021 study by the Education Trust found that such efforts harm students in the long-term unless they are buoyed by further academic support.
A survey published in April by the Fordham Institute suggests teachers are skeptical of the strategy, with 51% of respondents to a survey saying it is ineffective “because everyone knows most students won’t really be retained.” The remaining half of teachers were evenly split on whether the strategy benefited or harmed students.
Reisma, whose organization is an affiliate of the National Education Association, a teachers union, said the state should devote more attention — and money — into improving literacy from pre-kindergarten through second grade. Doing so would improve the likelihood that “reading difficulties are identified and addressed long before a student ever sits for a third-grade state assessment,” she said.
“Ultimately, the measure of a successful reading policy isn’t how many children we retain; it’s how many children we support,” Reisma said.
Information for this story was contributed by Anne Li of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
With support from the ADG Community Journalism Project, LEARNS reporter Josh Snyder covers the impact of the law on the K-12 education system across the state, and its effect on teachers, students, parents and communities. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette maintains full editorial control over this article and all other coverage. View all LEARNS Act coverage at arkansasonline.com/learns
Josh Snyder
Josh Snyder reports on how the state LEARNS Act has changed public education, including on the local level. His position is funded by the ADG Community Journalism Project. A Phoenix native and graduate of the Clinton School of Public Service, Josh has worked for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2018.
