Tag Archives: Testing Time

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Assessment Update: Eliminating Part I, Reducing Testing Time, and Online Assessment Rollout

In an email to all Tennessee teachers, Commissioner Candice McQueen had the following updates to give regarding the upcoming year’s assessment, which includes eliminating Part I, reducing testing time, and a rollout of online assessments:

This summer we announced how we’re streamlining our assessments to provide a better testing experience for you and your students. Below are several changes to our assessment structure for the coming year.:

  • We’ve eliminated Part I. All TCAP tests will be administered in one assessment window at the end of the year, which will be April 17–May 5, 2017. High school students on block schedule will take fall EOCs November 28–December 16.
  • We’ve reduced testing time. In grades 3–8, students will have tests that are 200–210 minutes shorter than last year; in high school, most individual End of Course assessments have been shortened by 40-120 minutes.
  • We will phase in online tests over multiple years. For the upcoming school year, the state assessments for grades 3–8 will be administered via paper and pencil. However, the department will work closely with Questar, our new testing vendor, to provide an online option for high school math, ELA, and U.S. history & geography exams if both schools and the testing platform demonstrate early proof of successful online administration. Even if schools demonstrate readiness for online administration, districts will still have the option to choose paper and pencil assessments for high school students this year. Biology and chemistry End of Course exams will be administered via paper and pencil.
  • In the coming school year, the state will administer a social studies field test, rather than an operational assessment, for students in grades 3–8. This will take place during the operational testing window near the end of the year. Additionally, some students will participate in ELA and/or U.S. history field tests outside the operational testing window.

You can find more detailed information in our original email announcement (here) and in our updated FAQ (here). 

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Phasing Out

As Tennessee schools prepare to administer Phase II of the TNReady tests in late April and early May, parents are petitioning the General Assembly to stop the second phase altogether.

Grace Tatter reports:

Nearly 2,000 parents have signed a petition asking Gov. Bill Haslam and other state leaders to nix the entire second part of Tennessee’s new standardized assessment for students grades 3-11.

The change.org petition, which was started last week, garnered 1,000 signatures in its first three days from parents across the state.

The petition was started by Tullahoma parent and School Board member Jessica Fogarty.

While the Department of Education indicates it has no plans to suspend TNReady testing for this year, the Tullahoma School Board is set to vote on a resolution asking for just that at a meeting on Monday, April 18th.

Here’s a draft of that resolution:

A RESOLUTION OF THE TULLAHOMA CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION

TO SUPPORT A DELAY IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF TCAP ASSESSMENTS AT THE 3-8 GRADE LEVELS UNTIL SUCH A TIME THAT THE ASSESSMENTS AT EACH GRADE LEVEL NOT EXCEED A TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS AS ENUMERATED BY THE GIVEN GRADE

WHEREAS, the Tullahoma City Board of Education is the local governmental body responsible for providing a public education to the students and families of Tullahoma City, Tennessee; and

WHEREAS, the State of Tennessee through the work of the Tennessee General Assembly, the Tennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee Board of Education, and local boards of education, has established nationally recognized standards and measures for accountability in public education; and

WHEREAS, the Tennessee Department of Education is currently working to implement a replacement to the former Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (“TCAP”) for the 2015-2016 school year; and

WHEREAS, these new assessments are called TNReady for the areas of English/language arts and math, 3 – 8 and TCAP Social Studies Achievement and U.S. History End of Course exams; and

WHEREAS, this school year is the first year that the new assessments will be administered and as such, the new assessments are more appropriate tools for establishing baseline performance than they are for evaluating or comparing performance; and

WHEREAS, because of the testing transition within TCAP including TNReady and other issues, the Tennessee Department of Education has already acknowledged that, for the 2015-2016 school year, public school systems in Tennessee will likely not be able to integrate the test results into each student’s final grades; and

WHEREAS, the Senate Education Committee of the Tennessee General Assembly has scheduled a hearing to address issues and concerns associated with the delivered assessment product provided by Measurement, Incorporated; and

WHEREAS, experts in education administration, child development, and child psychology endorse standardized testing as a limited measure of progress and effectiveness in the important task of learning; and

WHEREAS, current TCAP-TNReady mandated assessments in grade 3 exceed 11.23 hours per student, or more than the ACT Test at 2.95 hours,the SAT Test at 3.00 hours, the Graduate Records Examinations (GRE) at 3.75 hours, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) at 2.83 hours or the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) at 6.25 hours; and

WHEREAS, current TCAP-TNReady mandated assessments in grades four and five (4, 5) exceed 11.08 hours per student, or more than the ACT Test at 2.95 hours,the SAT Test at 3.00 hours, the Graduate Records Examinations (GRE) at 3.75 hours, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) at 2.83 hours or the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) at 6.25 hours; and

WHEREAS, current TCAP-TNReady mandated assessments in grades six, seven, and eight (6, 7, 8) exceed 11.83 hours per student, or more than the ACT Test at 2.95 hours,the SAT Test at 3.00 hours, the Graduate Records Examinations (GRE) at 3.75 hours, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) at 2.83 hours or the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) at 6.25 hours;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED

The Tullahoma City Board of Education implores the Tennessee General Assembly and the Tennessee Department of Education to direct school districts to delay administrations of the TNReady suite of assessments until such a time that the assessments are of a reasonable amount of time for student completion of the assessment.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,

The Tullahoma City Board of Education implores the Tennessee General Assembly and the Tennessee Department of Education to direct psychometricians, contractors, and developers to construct assessments designed to inform instructional practice and to provide accountability that would not require for administration a period of time in hours greater in aggregate than the specific grade level of the said child.

 

 

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

 

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A Little Less Ready

Grace Tatter reports on proposed reductions to the total testing time for TNReady:

After weeks of hard conversations prompted by the rocky debut of Tennessee’s new assessment, Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said Monday that the state will reduce the number of hours that students spend taking TNReady in its second year.

Beginning in 2016-17, the State Department of Education plans to scrap TNReady Part I in math and streamline the English portion of Part I, she said. Department officials will determine how many hours of testing the changes will save students in the coming weeks.

On average, third-graders this year will have spent 11.2 hours taking TNReady end-of-course tests; seventh-graders, 11.7 hours; and high school students, 12.3 hours.

The announcement comes amid concerns expressed by parents and district leaders and at least one district inquiring about the possibility of not administering TNReady Phase II this year.

Tullahoma’s Dan Lawson said:

“Outside of RTI-squared and TNReady, we don’t have time to do anything,” Lawson said. “We’re trying to have class on occasion.”

For more on education politics and policy in the volunteer state, follow @TNEdReport