Tuscaloosa City Schools is touting that 90% of its third graders have met the state benchmark for\u00a0reading sufficiency in 2026, marking the third consecutive year for that achievement.<\/p>\n
Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is essential, and under Alabama\u2019s Literacy Act, students who are not reading on grade level may be retained before entering fourth grade. TCS expects very few, if any, retentions this year. Most students who did not initially meet the benchmark are either exempt under state guidelines or participating in summer learning opportunities with a chance to retest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2015\u201316, only 39% of our third graders were reading on grade level,\u201d Superintendent Mike Daria said. \u201cWe committed to changing that \u2014 and these results show that commitment paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some schools showed significant gains in third-grade reading sufficiency compared to last year. Central Elementary increased from 70% to 80% sufficiency, while Oakdale Elementary rose from 83% to 90%. Oakdale\u2019s growth is especially notable compared to three years ago, when only 46% of third graders were reading on grade level.<\/p>\n
Deputy Superintendent James Pope said the district\u2019s consistent focus on literacy instruction and intervention continues to make a difference for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese results reflect years of intentional work by our teachers, administrators, support staff and families to ensure students are building strong reading skills early,\u201d Pope said. \u201cWe are proud of the progress our students have made and will continue working to support every child\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daria also praised elementary educators, school leaders and employees across the district for their continued dedication to student success.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big thank you to all of our elementary schools for remaining focused on strategies that work and for supporting our outstanding students,\u201d Daria said.<\/p>\n
2026 third-grade reading sufficiency results by school:<\/p>\n
Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools \u2013 Elementary: 100%Rock Quarry Elementary: 99%Verner Elementary: 97%University Place Elementary: 93%Woodland Forrest Elementary: 93%Oakdale Elementary: 90%Arcadia Elementary: 88%Skyland Elementary: 87%The Alberta School of Performing Arts: 84%Southview Elementary: 83%Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary: 83%Central Elementary: 80%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuscaloosa City Schools is touting that 90% of its third graders have met the state benchmark for\u00a0reading sufficiency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129,88213],"class_list":["post-198979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-tuscaloosa-city-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}