Tennessee to make changes to testing
Increased focus to be put on English language arts
Tennessee third- and fourth-graders will spend less time testing for science and social studies and more time on reading assessments, the state Department of Education announced Wednesday.
“There will be an increased focus on literacy in those grades, aligned with the state’s focus on reading, and new components will be included in the English language arts exam,” Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said in a blog post Wednesday announcing the changes.
Increasing reading proficiency statewide has been a major focus for McQueen, especially with her Read to be Ready campaign focused on the more than half of all students who aren’t reading at grade level.
The possible reduction in testing time, as well as an added focus on literacy, came as welcome news to Nashville school board Vice Chairwoman Jill Speering.
“I’ve been a big proponent of reducing time spent on testing,” said Speering, who also has been an advocate for Nashville literacy initiatives. “I look forward to hearing more and learning more about the assessment.”
McQueen’s blog post was meant as an update to the ongoing work the department is doing to finalize its Every Student Succeeds Act draft plan. The state has received over 2,000 pieces of feedback on the plan, McQueen said. The Every Student Succeeds Act is a sweeping new federal education law, and Tennessee’s plan to comply with it is expected to be submitted to the federal government in April, McQueen said.
The need to reduce the testing requirements for the two subjects in the lower grades and boost some aspects of the reading test came up as part of that input, McQueen said.
“It has also been clear that there are some adjustments we already believe make sense for our final ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) plan,” she said.
The state already announced testing time reductions on the state’s TNReady assessment in July when the state switched to a new test vendor. The state said at the time testing would be cut by 30 percent for teachers and educators.
For grade 3-8 students, that’s about three-and-a-half hours less time spent on state-mandated standardized testing each year. High school students also will see a cut in year-end tests, with a typical 11th-grader seeing about the same reduction in testing time.
The paring down of science and social studies exams might not necessarily translate to dramatic reductions in testing time because the department is beefing up the reading and language arts assessments. A state Education Department spokeswoman said it is unclear how time spent on testing will be impacted, but it could be reduced.
Arlington Community Schools Superintendent Tammy Mason said she supports focused testing such as the announcement to target reading in third and fourth grades. The Memphis-area schools director added she also supports any testing time reduction.
“I would say we need to be careful not to dwindle (testing) so much in every grade where we can’t get a good picture of what kids know,” Mason said about reducing science and social studies testing.
In the announcement Wednesday, McQueen also said the state will continue to explore what it will take to streamline 11th-grade exams. The comment in the blog post by McQueen comes a day after she took a stand against bills pending before state lawmakers aimed at replacing TNReady with the ACT.
A bill has been filed on limiting testing time in all grades. Other bills have targeted TNReady assessments and call for allowing districts flexibility in using either the ACT or SAT to monitor student progress.
McQueen said during the meeting that the ACT and TNReady tests have two very different purposes. The ACT looks at the cumulative knowledge students have gained during their time in school, she said. TNReady tests whether students have mastered the standards required for students to graduate.