As many as a third of Ohio third-graders scored below a new target on the fall reading test and if students don't meet tough new standards they can be held back.
Under the state's new third grade reading guarantee, it gives the first view of how many may be at risk of failing a grade this year.
State results show more than 32,00 students who took the fall reading test showed limited proficiency -- missing the new mark.
Tony Dunn, superintendent of Belpre City Schools says his concern is that kids learn how to read.
“Anytime you put legislation on that mandates that a kid or a school system must do something under any circumstances that is a concern,” he says. “Once you start putting everybody into the same box and using a cookie-cutter approach, you start missing things.”
Dunn says to risk holding a student back on a high stakes test even if you give it multiple times takes the teacher out of the equation and causes real stress for kids, parents and school systems.