As Jacob Sorrells winds down his seventh year as director of Marshall County Schools, located south of Nashville, he is doing his best to plan for a new Tennessee law focused on third grade literacy.
The test used to measure reading levels will be given this spring, with results released as the school year ends in May. Based on those outcomes, an unknown number of students will need to attend a summer learning camp in June, receive tutoring throughout their fourth grade or repeat third grade. Figuring out the new staffing levels needed for the summer and for the next school year ahead of the countys June budget process will take some ballparking, Sorrells said. Then, he will need to hire those additional tutors and teachers amid a shortage already felt acutely in many of Tennessees urban and rural districts.
We are doing the best we can with the information we have, Sorrells said. All those logistics are difficult.
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