Delaware’s Third-Grade Retention Policy: Strong on Paper, Unclear in Practice

More than half of Delaware's third graders enter the school year reading below grade level, according to a Caesar Rodney Institute analysis of three years of state screening data published by the Delaware Department of Education. Delaware law sets out a process that can lead to struggling readers being held back. But no one is publicly reporting whether that policy is working.

The Law on Paper

Under Title 14, Section 153 of the Delaware Code, a third grader's path depends on the student's score on the state reading assessment. A student scoring below the standard must first work through an improvement plan with their family and district. If no agreement is reached, summer school follows. Retention is the last step, not the first, and academic review committees can still promote a student based on other indicators.

Districts set their own promotion criteria, which vary widely. In Indian River, for example, students must receive a passing grade in math, writing, and ELA to advance. Other districts set different standards. 

This flexibility allows local control, but without transparency, it is difficult to know whether the policy is being applied as intended.

No Public Data

Districts set their own promotion criteria, which vary widely. In Indian River, for example, students must receive a passing grade in math, writing, and ELA to advance. Other districts set different standards. 

This flexibility allows local control, but without transparency, it is difficult to know whether the policy is being applied as intended.

What Other States Prove

The strongest evidence comes from students most like those Delaware struggles to reach.

A peer-reviewed study from Boston University researchers found that retention under Mississippi's policy produced significant gains in English language arts scores, with the strongest results among Black and Hispanic students. Mississippi retains a higher share of early-grade students than most states, about 8% of K-3 students in 2018-19, up from 6.6% the prior year.

A 2017 study published in the Journal of Public Economics, drawing on Florida student data through high school, found that third-grade retention raised grade point averages and reduced the need for remedial courses. A separate Manhattan Institute study of Florida and Arizona found broad improvements in third-grade test scores after both states adopted retention policies.

In states like Mississippi and Florida, the policy created shared urgency to get children reading on time, and the data shows results.

What Delaware Doesn’t Know

Yet Delaware already requires retention for struggling readers, but no one is tracking whether it's happening or helping. Without public data, families have no way to know if the law is being enforced, and policymakers have no way to know if it is working.

Other states do better. Mississippi publishes annual retention data through its Literacy-Based Promotion Act within months of each school year's end. Florida also reports publicly. By comparison, Delaware families and policymakers are working with information that is years out of date.

Without current data, Delaware cannot determine whether its retention policy and literacy interventions are closing gaps or putting the state on track to meet its goal of 53% third-grade reading proficiency by 2028.

What Needs to Change

Delaware already has key tools: a K–3 reading screener, a shift to the science of reading instruction, and a retention policy. What’s missing is the transparency to evaluate whether these efforts are working.

The state should publish annual retention data, broken down by district and student demographics, within three to five months after each school year. Without it, progress is difficult to measure and accountability is impossible.

States that have seen the greatest reading gains use retention as one tool within a broader literacy strategy, not as a penalty, but as additional time paired with targeted intervention. Research shows this approach, when applied carefully, can produce meaningful results for students who need it most.

As Delaware works toward its 2028 reading proficiency goal, it should draw on what other states have proven: when retention is paired with real intervention and real accountability, children learn to read. The tools are in place. The urgency is overdue.