Requirements for General Assembly’s Read to Achieve Legislation
Options for students to meet 3rd
grade promotion reading
standards
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Twelve standards of reading for
3rd grade
1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a
text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
2. Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from
diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or
moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in
the text.
3. Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or
feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the
sequence of events
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used
in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
5. Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word
or phrase.
6. Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and
phrases in context (e.g., take steps).
7. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a
text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
8. Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and
explain how they support the main idea.
9. Describe the relationship between a series of historical events,
scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in
a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and
cause/effect.
10. Determine the meaning of general academic and domainspecific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic
or subject area.
11. Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps,
photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate
understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how
key events occur).
12. Describe the logical connection between particular sentences
and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect,
first/second/third in a sequence).
Readability formula
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Pass beginning of grade reading test
Pass end of grade reading test
Pass state developed alternative assessment
Meet 70% proficiency on passages in portfolio
Pass State Board of Education approved local assessments
For grades 3 and below, NCDPI has used the readability
formula—Spache for the 120 passages from which teachers are
to select 36 (three per standard) based on the General
Assembly’s Read to Achieve requirements and if the teacher
or school decides to use a portfolio approach.
The readability charts will be provided in a secure manner to
local testing coordinators to share with teachers in your
district.
1/15/2014
Portfolio Passages
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Legal Citation from Senate Bill 795, Excellent Public Schools
Act
§ 115C-83.1C.Definitions
(8)"Student reading portfolio" means a compilation of
independently produced student work selected by the
student’s teacher, and signed by the teacher and principal,
as an accurate picture of the student's reading ability. The
student reading portfolio shall include an organized
collection of evidence of the student’s mastery of the
State's reading standards that are assessed by the Stateapproved standardized test of reading comprehension
administered to third grade students. For each benchmark,
there shall be three examples of student work
demonstrating mastery by a grade of seventy percent
(70%) or 38 above.
§ 115C-83.1G. Elimination of social promotion.
(b)Students may be exempt from mandatory retention in
third grade for good cause but shall continue to receive
instructional supports and services and reading
interventions appropriate for their age and reading level.
Good cause exemptions shall be limited to the following:
4) Students who demonstrate, through a student reading
portfolio, reading proficiency appropriate for third grade
students. Teachers may submit the student reading
portfolio at the end of the school year, or after a student's
participation in the local school administrative unit’s
summer reading camp. The student reading portfolio and
review process shall be established by the State Board of
Education.
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Number of passages currently available: 120
Usage determination: student’s teacher has the authority to
determine which students and which passages to use to meet
Legislative requirements should portfolios be chosen as an
option.
Future development of passages: It is the Department’s intent
to develop an item bank of portfolio passages that can be
retrieved from Home Base.
1/15/2014