CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – For years, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System has made strides toward their goal of a 100% graduation rate. In November, CMCSS announced a 95.1% graduation rate, and in January they saw significant improvements to their state report card. But one of those graduates has come forward after slipping through the cracks: He received his diploma with a 3.4 GPA but cannot read or write.
According to court documents obtained by Clarksville Now, in 2016, the student referred to as “William” moved here with his parents who were active-duty servicemembers. William began attending 5th grade in CMCSS.
During that 5th grade year, CMCSS identified William as eligible for special education through reading assessment screening and placed him on an Individual Education Plan (IEP). During these screenings, William tested in the 8th percentile for reading comprehension, and the 2nd percentile for oral reading fluency – well below the 25th percentile for reading deficiency. In subsequent years, he would continue to score below the 10th percentile.
William participated in a Curriculum Based Assessment (CBA) that showed he could write only 40 words in three minutes, spelling 28 correctly. From 5th to 8th grade, the CBA showed minimal improvement, and by the 8th grade, in 2019-20, the small improvements he was making came to a stop.
‘This kid can’t read’
On Jan. 13, 2020, CMCSS psychologist Brad Wooten reevaluated William to determine if he still had a disability under Tennessee standards. This evaluation showed that not only was William not improving, he was “regressing in the number of words he reads correctly per minute.”
On Jan. 29, 2020, the same day his new IEP was created, William’s teacher, Dr. Candice Leaverton, emailed a different school psychologist, Megan Christensen, asking her to “Please take a look at (William). I am very concerned.” When Christensen asked why, Leaverton responded, “I will have to talk to you later. This kid can’t read.”
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During the next school year, when William was in 9th grade, his average score on the eight English class tests in the first semester was approximately 65%. However, he routinely received scores of 100 for his classwork, homework, and “other” graded assignments, a trend that repeated in the second semester.
According to court documents, the average 9th grader reads 151 words a minute. William was reading only 59.
AI, the Army and outside help
By the time William was in the 11th grade during the 2022-23 school year, he was doing everything he could to stay in good academic standing and achieve his goal of one day joining the Army. But by this point, William had screened in the “high-risk” category in only the 1st percentile of reading fluency nationally.
When filling out his 2022-23 IEP documentation, William misspelled his own last name twice, and he scored poorly on his final exams, even when he was assisted by an in-person reader.
He continued to score poorly on in-class testing and assessments and could have failed were it not for his “other” graded assignments that he was able to work on at home. William was able to get high scores on these take-home assignments by using a combination of ChatGPT and Grammarly. He would then have a software program read to him out loud and would make changes if it “didn’t sound right.”
Unfortunately, AI was unable to assist him when taking the ASVAB, a military entrance exam. In order to join, a student must score a minimum of 31, and William scored only a 7.
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His teacher, Bethanie Hargett-Slack, told William’s mother, “(William) has a reading problem, he cannot read,” according to the court documents. On Nov. 3, 2022, William’s family began to pursue “outside resources.”
New diagnosis didn’t change IEPs
On Jan. 9, 2023, in 11th grade, William received an outside evaluation by psychologist Dr. Rebecca Townsend. By Jan. 26, 2023, Townsend had diagnosed William with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and autism. “William thought he was struggling to read, but he did not know he was functionally illiterate,” court documents state.
Townsend concluded that William’s results were significantly below grade level and, “These scores are indicators that (William) has had academic difficulties for a significant amount of time without adequate remediation.”
When an additional evaluation was performed by a CMCSS psychologist, they found William only met the criteria for autism and ADHD. Townsend’s report is the first and only mention of William having dyslexia.
“Without using the word (‘dyslexia’), CMCSS grossly failed to deliver dyslexia-specific interventions from 5th grade to 11th grade,” the complaint states. All of the IEPs that William received from 5th to 11th grade remained virtually the same.
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At the 2023-24 IEP meeting, for William’s 12th grade year, Dr. Sara McAfee, director of the Clarksville Center for Dyslexia, recommended implementing a 12-step program to teach reading to a dyslexic person, but it was refused.
Despite this, William began working in this program, known as the Wilson Reading and Language System. But the process takes three years minimum to complete for William become a functional reader.
William graduated from CMCSS in 2024 school year with a 3.4 GPA, a regular education diploma and functionally illiterate.
Court sides with family
On July 28, 2023, the court awarded William 888 hours of compensatory education.
Appeals have been filed, including one from CMCSS on Feb 3, 2025, arguing that since William had passed with a 3.4 GPA, and they had provided accommodations during his attendance, that the ruling for compensatory education should be overruled. The court stood by their original order.
When contacted by Clarksville Now, CMCSS declined to comment, saying that litigation is still pending.
One of William’s attorneys, Justin Gilbert, declined to comment.
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