The offices of the Murphy Administration’s Department of Education have no clocks. That’s the only conclusion one can draw from its current habit of lollygagging over peripheral issues while delaying decisions on those most important to parents and students.

There are tons of examples of this pattern of habitual incompetence. Nowhere is it more apparent than in New Jersey’s failure to do what many families regard as the most fundamental jobs of schools: teach children to read. Don’t believe me? Currently only 42 percent of NJ third-graders can read at grade-level.

Now, I’m often harsh with Murphy’s DOE. Some have told me I’m too harsh. That may be true but I’m old and have historical context: I’ve seen what a state Education Department can achieve when its leaders stay focused on what’s best for kids, which includes giving districts clear guidance on how to effectively implement best practices like teaching reading and navigating hot-button issues.. I’ve seen what it looks like when educational leaders are honest with parents about their child’s academic progress.

Case in point: new research has come out from researchers at RAND about the positive results for students when states have policies that urge districts to retain third-grade students—have them repeat the grade—when they can’t read at grade-level. This is important: an earlier study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found students who weren’t reading well in third grade were four times as likely to drop out of high school and had more difficulty later in life when they tried to go to college or get a job. According to this new analysis, published by Fordham Institute, grade retention in third grade, when augmented with mandated remediation and intervention, increases student success in middle and high schools. Students who are retained eventually take more advanced courses and are more likely to say they have a “greater sense of school connectedness.”

In other words, it’s better for kids.

School systems that pass students along to the next grade, regardless of their ability to decode texts and comprehend material, engage in what’s called “social promotion.” We do that a lot in New Jersey: consider our new high school graduation qualifying test, which the DOE re-defined as “high school graduation-ready” rather than “ready for college or career.” Kids aren’t reading? No worries: promote them to the fourth grade (when the focus moves from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”). Kids can’t pass a basic skills test for high-schoolers? Set the bar as (according to a DOE staffer) “minimally competent” and hand them a diploma. Easy-peasy!

Currently half of U.S. states have policies that bar social promotion for kids who aren’t reading by third grade.

While it’s stigmatizing to have kids repeat a grade once they get older—kids retained after 8th grade have higher drop-out rates— younger students reap benefits.

Yet it’s not enough to hold students back a year. The researchers identify practices in states and large cities—New York City, Chicago, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi–that show retention works when students are identified early enough at risk of retention in order to receive “a dedicated set of academic intervention services throughout the school year.” At the end, many of those at-risk students end up getting promoted.

Here’s an example from the new analysis:

“Florida’s third-grade retention policy [under then-Gov. Jeb Bush], which has provided the blueprint for early grade-retention policies in many other states, requires schools to (1) develop academic improvement plans for students that specifically address their learning needs, (2) assign these students to high-performing teachers, (3) provide at least ninety minutes of daily reading instruction, and (4) offer summer reading camp at the end of the year that facilitates intensive reading intervention lasting between six and eight weeks for all students who scored below the retention cutoff.”

One of the researchers, Umut Özek, told the 74, “these students receive substantial support in the following year, and that support is more personalized and tailored toward their needs. That’s probably a key element behind the success of some of these policies.”

Imagine if New Jersey implemented these policies, with plenty of flexibility for students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and other circumstances, intervening early enough to ward off academic malaise. Not only would parents be informed that their children are behind (they’re not because teachers often feel compelled to inflate grades on report cards) but we’d be proactively catching problems before they become insolveable.

Wouldn ‘t that be better than lowering standards and setting our kids up for failure?

There’s a reason why only 29% of New Jersey community college students receive their associates degree within six years, one of the lowest rates in the country.

Can someone buy the DOE a few clocks so our kids can learn in a timely manner with all necessary support? They can’t wait.