Mark White—longtime chair of Tennessee’s House Education Committee—just got a new gig overseeing the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This comes while lawmakers are finally asking if we test too much.
Meanwhile, real educators like Dr. Kevin Schaaf suggest common-sense alternatives. He argues students should be screened before taking high-stakes tests if we already know their reading levels. And maybe, just maybe, we could break up state testing into smaller chunks?
“Ten-year-olds aren’t built to sit for exams like college students,” Schaaf told the Joint Advisory Committee. “So why do we make them?”
The reality is a bit more complicated – but also, rather simple:
That’s the one actual lesson of NAEP; the dream of data-informed, data-driven decision making as a cure for everything that ails us is just a dream. Data can be useful for those who want to actually look at it. But data is not magical, and in education, it’s fruitless to imagine that data will settle our issues.
One reason Tennessee’s privatizer-in-chief (Bill Lee) suggests the state needs school vouchers is his belief that public schools aren’t always up to the task.
However, the most recent statewide testing data suggests otherwise, noting continuous improvement in scores post-pandemic.
Tennessee students continued to show post-pandemic progress on statewide testing this year, though a majority of third graders fell short of hitting a critical reading benchmark.
More third graders scored proficient this year, with 41.7% compared to 40.9% on last year’s reading test, according to testing data released Tuesday by the Tennessee Department of Education.
The article notes an upward trend and cites the current Education Commissioner as among those praising the work of the state’s public schools:
“We are encouraged to see improvements across all subject areas. This year’s TCAP results reflect Tennessee’s strong commitment to investing in our students’ futures and the steady progress we’re making statewide,” education commissioner Lizzette Reynolds said in a statement. “We are grateful to our teachers, schools, and districts whose unwavering dedication has driven significant improvements in student performance and paved the way for lasting success.”
This “answer” to all of education’s problems: One big, national test. And, since we already have the NAEP – just use that. But for every kid. Every year.
This will finally give us that comparative data everyone is looking for – except no one is really looking for it.
I guess the question is: If every 4th and 8th grader took the NAEP and it was administered annually, then what? What happens next? What will states be motivated to do? Or not do?
It probably doesn’t matter – this quest gives ed reform “advocates” a few more years of work – and a new opportunity to pursue funding.
The Trump Administration may end up killing the gold standard of standardized testing – the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Peter Greene reports on the DOGE destruction at the Department of Education, including cutting off the arms that collect and analyze data:
“The U.S. Department of Education has decided not to fund the NAEP 2024-2025 Long-Term Trend Age 17 assessment,” Marcie Hickman, project director of the NAEP Support and Service Center, said in an email to state officials. “All field operations and activities will end today, February 19, 2025.”
What has actually been canceled at this point is the test for 17-year-olds that was supposed to happen in the near future. Nobody seems to really know whether this cancellation will also affect all other future NAEP testing, but since Musk has gutted financing for the Institute of Education Sciences, the data wing of the education department, it sure doesn’t look good.
Will the era of big testing finally come to an end? It’s not clear – because, well, nothing about what’s happening at the federal level is particularly clear right now.
The state insists on the tests. The state insists that the tests count – for grades and for retention decisions – and the state’s selected vendor consistently fails to meet agreed deadlines.
Reports this morning suggest that Tennessee testing vendor Pearson experienced technical difficulties and TNReady testing didn’t start or couldn’t happen in some school districts.
Image from Tweets by David Carroll and TNHoller
And another one:
TNReady only experiences problems every single year.
Remember when we were told a dump truck had knocked out a fiber line and that ended testing?
And then remember when it turned out it WASN’T a dump truck, but problems with the testing vendor?
Pretty funny – unless you were the kids taking the tests or the teachers tasked with administering them or the teachers, principals, and schools who are graded and evaluated by the flawed (and often not working) tests.
Oh, and remember how the General Assembly passed a ridiculous third grade retention law based on a test that should better be described as TN-NEVEREADY?
So, imagine being a third grader at the end of your school year. You find out you have to retake an 85 minute test you’ve already taken. If you don’t do well enough, you have to go to summer school and possibly repeat third grade.
No pressure at all, right?
Then you show up for your retake and you’re ready to go and you have to wait for an hour or two while some tech issues are worked out.
It doesn’t matter that you’ve waited and are now likely extra anxious. This is it.
This test counts. For a lot – especially in the life of a 9-year-old.
This is the type of cruel and unusual punishment that passes for education policy in Tennessee.
And the worst part is, taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars to fund this insanity.
It seems the State Board of Education is aware of the failures of the policy and members are making some attempts to improve it or at least lessen the negative impacts.
“Failing a fourth-grader is not the answer,” said former fourth-grade teacher and current state Board of Education representative Krissi McInturff during the February meeting. While McInturff — who represents Tennessee’s 1st Congressional District on the board — voiced support for the intention of the law, she also listed negative effects associated with retaining students, including academic struggles, stress, increased dropout rates among students who have been retained and emotional impact.
Lawmakers are also considering tweaks to the law following the first year of implementation.
Other states that have implemented similar laws have run into problems. Michigan ultimately repealed the retention element of the law and instead focused attention on providing support for reading in grades K-3.
State standardized testing is supposed to help identify areas in public education that need improvement – and is often used to highlight achievement gaps based on socioeconomic status. However, a new piece in Jacobin suggests that high-stakes testing has done little to help in this regard and may, in fact, be creating more problems than it solves.
When we sort children into “proficient” and “failing” categories based on test scores, we’re not solving the opportunity gaps that show up in public education; we’re creating new ones. No one is helped, and many people are hurt, when we give students, teachers, and schools an impossible assignment and then sanction them for failing to complete it. Looking forward to the ESEA’s now overdue reauthorization, it’s high time we built accountability systems that nurture the humanity and potential of all kids — rather than placing artificial roadblocks in their way.
Tennessee’s experience with standardized testing has certainly been problematic.
It’s difficult to say this particular iteration of the state’s testing system has done anything helpful. Still, this year, the results determined whether or not third graders would be allowed to move on to fourth grade.
Previous analysis of the state’s testing system found it to be a solid way to identify the relative concentration of poverty in a school district – but otherwise, not really useful at all.
An analysis of TCAP performance over time indicates that those school systems with consistently high levels of poverty tend to have consistently low scores on TCAP. Likewise, those systems with the least amount of poverty tend to have consistently higher scores on TCAP.
Nevertheless, Tennessee’s testing vendor, Pearson, recently received a $40 million increase in its contract.
Amid third grade controversy, Pearson collects more cash
Tennessee standardized testing vendor Pearson will soon be collecting $40 million more thanks to Gov. Bill Lee’s administration extending and adding to the testing company’s contract.
The Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Review Committee voted Wednesday to tack on another year for British-based NCS Pearson to administer TNReady and increase the total contract to $132 million from $93 million. The state previously paid $30 million a year to Questar to handle its main K-12 test.
Pearson became the state’s testing vendor of choice after Tennessee had a difficult time transitioning to online tests several years ago:
