Place yourself in the shoes of an innocent third grader trying your best to learn in school and please the adults in your life. You do well in most subjects but have difficulty with reading. Now you're being told you have to repeat third grade because you scored "not proficient" on the reading portion of the MEAP, even though you did your best. Your friends will all move on to fourth grade. Now you'll have to learn everything again in third grade because you struggled to read, and only read. How much sense does it make? The Michigan Legislature is debating whether to join about 20 other states in instituting a mandatory retention policy for third graders who are not proficient in reading. That would hold back just under a third of Michigan's third-grade students; for a total of over 36,000. Third grade students in Michigan who are not proficient in reading should absolutely not be held back in third grade; especially in how House Bill 5111 would implement this conservation. This is due to multiple reasons: there is plenty of evidence to show that student retention does not work and contributes to serious problems in students' lives; repetition is a waste of money; HB 5111 has many important problems that have not been changed, and ultimately, alternative methods to help lay readers would help much more than a mandatory retention policy. Holding a student back a grade has a number of negative effects on the student's life. The most serious thing is that the possibility of dropping out of high school increases enormously when a child is supported. A study conducted by Melissa Roderick in 1994 shows how tenure in the company influences attrition rates. The percentage of students who were retained once from kindergarten through eighth grade was about 21%, and of those…half the paper…could be put to better use. These include other options such as summer school, preschool and after-school programs, extra help during the school day, or early intervention from kindergarten through second grade. All of these methods would be better than a comprehensive, guided approach, such as that seen in HB 5111's mandatory retention policy. Overall, how non-expert referrals would be reined in in Michigan is a big deal. It is fraught with many problems, not to mention that student retention has been proven not to work and has a negative impact on students' lives. Due to the disastrous problems that arise from this policy, it should not be implemented. An alternative form of intervention should instead occur. We need timely and targeted intervention, first and foremost to prevent children from falling behind, without forcing them to fall behind even when the education system disappoints them..