Still Not F*&#ing Ready

TNReady Phase II is supposed to be starting, except it won’t. It seems that shipping delays will prevent at least eight school districts from starting the planned administration of Phase II next week.

In Sumner County, emails have gone out confirming the delay and a new planned start date of May 2nd.

Officials in seven other districts have confirmed they have yet to receive the testing materials.

This comes after a disastrous first day of TNReady testing back in February and subsequent shipping delays of Phase 1 paper materials.

It also comes after the Murfreesboro City School Board discussed refusing to administer Phase II and the Tullahoma City Schools considered a resolution calling on the state to stop any further testing this year.

From the start, the transition to TNReady has been bungled. While Commissioner McQueen continues to make excuses, blame the vendor, and promise a better outcome next time, students in Tennessee schools face disrupted schedules and loss of learning time.

Instead of issuing threats to districts, perhaps the Department of Education should have been developing solutions or simply responding to the frustrations of students, parents, and teachers across the state. Maybe stopping after Phase I would have allowed for a true course correction.

In any case, we’re still not TNReady.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

10 thoughts on “Still Not F*&#ing Ready

  1. Shipping delays? So, now they’re blaming the mail? Oldest line in the book. That is a hell of a spin. How about the truth DOE?

  2. The worst part of it is that students (and teachers) do not see the point of taking these tests. We know that results will not be in until next October. My Juniors are asking me why they should take it. They say, “It won’t count if we’re Seniors.” We are sick to death of standardized tests. They are incredibly disruptive to teaching and learning. After a 3 hour test, students do not want to do anything but “chill.” An entire week of instruction is going to be lost to TnReady II and for what purpose? So data miners can get more data? Teachers are worn out from losing their planning periods because they have to proctor tests. This test should not have been allowed to proceed until the problems with it were worked out.

  3. Why don’t we, as Sumner County parents, come together and create a grassroots refusal movement? Maybe the district can’t, but the parents sure can. If we all refuse the tests for our children, it would send a very loud message to Candice McQueen as well as to our legislators. Enough is enough with these tests.

  4. How does anyone keep their job after this fiasco? I challenge all TN parents to keep their kids out of school on test day. There is no benefit to your kids anyway and it is the only way perhaps the people trying to administer this test to get the message. This is laughable and totally embarassing to TN.

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