The majority of Little Rock School District third graders who did not pass an end-of-year literacy test were granted exemptions from a new Arkansas requirement that they be held back.

Around 50 of the district’s third graders are projected to be held back in the 2026-27 school year, according to district spokeswoman Pamela Smith. That number represents less than 4% of the district’s third grade enrollment, which fell between 1,420 and 1,440 in the 2025-26 school year.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ LEARNS Act of 2023 mandated that third graders in public schools must read at grade level to be promoted to fourth grade beginning in 2025-26. Students must score a Level 2 or above on the end-of-year Arkansas Teaching, Learning & Assessment System (ATLAS) test.

In Little Rock, “about 400 students” scored a Level 1, the lowest score, Smith said Friday. Smith said in an earlier statement that about 30% of third graders received a Level 1.

In the 2024-25 school year — before the new LEARNS requirement went into effect — the district held back only six third graders for academic reasons, Smith said.

The goal of the retention requirement, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva told the state Legislature’s Joint Education Committee in May, is to “hit a caution button” when a student is failing to meet standards “at a basic level.”

Research on retention has drawn mixed conclusions. Some studies have found short-term achievement gains associated with holding students back; a 2021 Education Trust analysis concluded that holding students back was effective if paired with intensive support but otherwise negatively impacted students in the long run.

In a recent survey by the Fordham Institute, more than half of teachers said retention policies “don’t have much impact because everyone knows most students won’t really be retained.”

Arkansas school districts have broad discretion to grant exemptions for some students who fail to meet the requirement, and early numbers from other districts show large numbers of students being promoted to fourth grade despite scoring a Level 1 this spring.

In the Pulaski County Special School District, “a little over half” of the third graders who scored a Level 1 qualified for an exemption, the district’s Deputy Superintendent of Learning Services Sonya Whitfield said at a June board meeting. In the North Little Rock School District, roughly 110 third graders qualified for an exemption out of the 202 who scored a Level 1, according to district spokesman Dustin Barnes.

In the Springdale School District, the state’s largest by enrollment, 403 third graders scored a Level 1. Of those, 390 students, or almost 97%, qualified for an exemption.

Oliva told the Joint Education Committee in May that the department wouldn’t know how many third graders were retained statewide “until probably after the school year starts,” because some students who fell short of the required score retested last month.

Smith said Friday that roughly 380 students received a good cause exemption.

The exemptions apply to students who have previously been retained, students with certain disabilities and English language learners with under three years of English Learner instruction.

Districts can also grant exemptions for students who have consistently performed at grade level before and “other students with necessary, justifiable good-cause exemptions,” such as those who experienced traumatic events that impacted their performance on the exam, according to a commissioner’s memo from the state Education Department.

Districts were allowed to retest students from May 18 to June 30 in hopes of them boosting their scores.

In Little Rock, “(students) who did not qualify for a good cause exemption were invited to Summer Lit Camp where they will have the opportunity to retest” from June 23 to June 26, Smith said in a June 11 statement. Ninety-three students fell into this category, Smith said in a May 22 statement.

Seventy-five of those students completed the retest, Smith said Friday. Thirty-seven scored a Level 2 or higher on the retest, meaning 38 remained at a Level 1.

Kelli Bell, the district’s director of teaching and learning, said the district is “incredibly proud of the effort these students put forth.”

“The vast majority of our third graders are being promoted to the fourth grade,” Bell said, due to “comprehensive good cause exemption reviews, the robust support of our Summer Literacy Camp and these retesting opportunities.

“We will continue to provide (students) with the targeted literacy resources they need to thrive,” she said. “Seeing nearly half of our re-testing students reach proficiency levels after less than four weeks of intensive instruction is a powerful testament to what our educators and students can achieve.”

Bell added that “a single test score on a single day does not completely define a student’s potential or the quality of our schools.”

“Our educators, families, and students worked tirelessly this past school year and this summer, and the growth we witnessed is proof of (the Little Rock School District’s) resilience and dedication to early literacy,” Bell said. “We will continue to invest heavily in our classrooms to ensure every child becomes a confident, proficient reader.”

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Snyder of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.