Category Archives: Testing

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Nashville Schools and Numbers

TC Weber takes a look at MNPS and allegations that the numbers just aren’t adding up:

For years, Metro Nashville Public Schools has increasingly relied on data to tell its story. Graduation rates. Test scores. Growth numbers. Attendance. College readiness. Career readiness. Dashboards. Strategic plans. PowerPoints.

Numbers everywhere.

And when the numbers look good, we are repeatedly told they are evidence that the strategies are working.

Fair enough.

But here’s the problem with building your success story almost entirely around numbers:

Eventually people start looking closely at the numbers.

And lately, more people seem to be looking.

By now, many Nashville education watchers have seen videos of former Teacher of the Year Samira Hardcastle accusing Metro Nashville Public Schools of forcing teachers to change grades and passing students she believes should not have passed.

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Putting Guardrails on AI in Schools

Some Policy Leaders are Now Suggesting Ending Public Schools

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Zombie Policy

A note on Tennessee’s third grade retention policy:

Speaking of intensity, Tennessee’s absurd Third Grade Retention Law continues marching onward like a zombie policy nobody wants to admit doesn’t work the way it was originally advertised.

And as always, the media coverage continues to miss the mark.

The Tennessean recently reported that the release of third-grade reading scores “set off a fast-moving timeline to determine if tens of thousands of public school students will be held back or not.”

Technically, that’s true.

Practically, everybody involved knows it’s nonsense.

Despite years of political rhetoric and public fearmongering, Tennessee has retained fewer than 600 students annually under the law since its implementation. That number even includes students voluntarily retained by parents.

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Tennessee’s Pursuit of White Supremacy

In Bill Lee’s Last Year in Office, TN is Last in the Nation in School Funding

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Data Points

TC Weber takes a look at ACT data:

Average composite scores for selected Middle Tennessee public school districts were as follows:

Cheatham County School District: 19.3 Clarksville–Montgomery County School System: 19.3 Dickson County School District: 19.0 Maury County Public Schools: 18.0 Metro Nashville Public Schools: 17.5 Robertson County Schools: 18.3 Rutherford County Schools: 19.8 Sumner County Schools: 20.8 Williamson County Schools: 25.3 Wilson County Schools: 20.4

These figures are frequently contextualized by differences in student demographics, including poverty rates, mobility, and the proportion of English Learners. Those factors are relevant and should be acknowledged.

They do not, however, alter the practical reality that students across districts compete for the same postsecondary opportunities. Colleges and employers evaluate individual applicants, not district-level explanations.

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Photo by Nothing Ahead on Pexels.com

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Trump’s Plan to End Public Schools

Bill Lee Should Do the Right Thing, But He Probably Won’t

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A Note on Test Scores

A Nashville education blogger ponders the deeper meaning of all the horn-tooting over “Reward Schools.”

A comparison of this year’s list with previous years shows designations change constantly—Reward one year, not-Reward the next. The only thing consistent is that Priority Schools almost never escape the list.

Many have been on it for a decade or more.
They serve low-income, multi-cultural, multilingual communities.
We know—have known—that external factors shape internal results.

Yet we cling to these lists like they’re diagnostic tools rather than PR instruments.

TCAP, Poverty, and Investment in Schools

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The Florida School Voucher Swamp

Of Vouchers and School Closures

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Talk About Testing

Nashville education blogger TC Weber talks testing:

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?”

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Trump Budget Puts Key Education Programs At Risk

Your Child’s Next Teacher May Not Be a Person

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A Note on Testing

Does measuring more mean better results?

Policymakers love to tout the results of various standardized tests to prove whatever it is they’d like to prove about schools.

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.

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A Bleak Future for Schools

Diamonds, iPhones, and Vouchers

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Testing Progress Even as Vouchers Loom

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.

Chalkbeat reports:

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.”

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Bill Lee Battles Sun Bucks

Indiana’s Private School Coupon Scheme

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The Return of Calls for “One Big Test”

It’s a bad idea this time, too

Apparently, the proponents of Common Core haven’t learned – or, they are simply repackaging their old idea in hopes of gaining funding for “ed reform” for a few more years.

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.

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Bill Lee’s Legacy of Failing Kids and Schools

A National School Voucher Scheme

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Trump, Musk, and Testing

Will the oligarchy kill the NAEP?

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.

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Trump’s March Toward Theocracy

About That 504 Lawsuit

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Waste to Jobs Act

A “Back to Basics” Agenda

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Same Old Song

TNReady scores NOT ready for final grades

Well, here we go again.

The TNReady scores that are supposed to factor into a student’s final grades are NOT ready.

Districts are reporting that the testing vendor AGAIN missed the window for inclusion in final grades.

Districts have the option of waiting OR just not including them.

This happens. Every. Year.

Funding Failure: Testing Vendor Gets $40 Million Increase

What IS all this testing for, anyway? And if the scores aren’t back in time to be useful to districts in terms of grades, well, what’s the point?

I mean, sure, there’s the chance to hold kids back in third grade – a policy destined for failure.

The Least Wonderful Time of the Year

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.

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TN Teacher Pay Penalty – 25%

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