For the second year in a row, Indiana third graders will have to pass a high stakes reading test or risk getting held back.
It’s a lot of pressure for 8 and 9 year olds, but for some struggling readers, the IREAD-3 is an even bigger source of anxiety.
That’s because the root cause of their difficulty is dyslexia, a learning disability. Most students with special needs can qualify for a good cause exemption that allows them to move onto fourth grade even if they don’t pass.
But students with dyslexia don’t always qualify for the accommodations typically associated with a learning disability.
Find more education stories from our StateImpact Indiana team at http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/.