The Tennessee Department of Education is suspending TNReady testing for grades 3-8 immediately but testing for high schools will continue as planned, Education Commissioner Dr. Candice McQueen announced today.
“Measurement Inc.’s performance is deeply disappointing. We’ve exhausted every option in problem solving with this vendor to assist them in getting these tests delivered,” McQueen said. “Districts have exceeded their responsibility and obligation to wait for grade 3-8 materials, and we will not ask districts to continue waiting on a vendor that has repeatedly failed us.”
High school testing in Rutherford County will begin Monday, May 2, as previously scheduled.
Rutherford County Director of Schools Don Odom had the following comment after the state’s annoucement was made.
“I am glad the state made a definitive decision concerning the testing vendor so that we can resume some form of normalcy. We know this will bring some relief to our administrators, teachers, students and parents who have worked very diligently this year to perform well on high expectations,” Odom said. “High schools have received their test documents, which is why we believe the state is moving forward with testing for those grades, although the results are not expected to be released until next fall. As announced previously, parents should be relieved to know that TNReady results will not factor into student grades this year because the results will not be returned to districts before the final grades are calculated, in accordance with state law.”
The Commissioner’s full announcement is available online. Highlights include the following:
- TDOE is ending its relationship with Measurement Inc. for failing to provide testing materials by their own deadlines. All school districts are missing portions of their testing materials.
- Part II for grades 3-8 are suspended immediately; results from Part I will only be released as raw data.
- High school testing will continue as planned and the results will be released “in the fall.”
- The state is planning to identify a new vendor to score the tests and to develop assessments for next year.
- As previoulsy announced, if a teacher has TNReady data, it will only be used for evaluations if it will help the teacher. For those who don’t have TNReady data, the previous year’s data will be used.
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