State believes in TNReady plan
KNOXVILLE - As more than 600,000 students across Tennessee begin the annual spring TNReady testing this week, state officials said they’re confident the rollout will go as planned despite a debacle last year that led to the cancellation of the standardized tests.
This year is different, Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said Thursday. She pointed to a more experienced vendor with a proven track record, a scaled-down launch of online testing and the early distribution of test materials.
“What’s different is we have had a partner on the ground with us from the beginning, working toward success with the platform, with the districts, with the specific devices,” McQueen said, referring to Queststar, which won the twoyear, $60 million state contract. “This time last year we were struggling with paper delivery. We’re in a very different moment today than we were one year ago, with essentially all the boxes delivered and folks are prepared both online with confidence and paper delivery with confidence.”
McQueen said the company will have representatives deployed across Tennessee and within an hour’s drive of every district during the three-week testing window.
She acknowledged that the department had made similar assurances last year as it launched a new online version of the statewide test with the vendor Measurement Inc. But the server crashed and paper versions of the tests were not delivered in time for students to take them, leading the department to cancel tests for grades 3-8 and terminate the $108 million, five-year contract.
McQueen said the department had been “hoping for the best” last year, but had inklings that it could go awry after several other states had similar problems.
“We’re always hoping for the best, and we had that confidence,” she said. “But there was potential (for problems) there because we saw this in other states. In fact, some had very similar challenges as we had.”
This year the department offered online versions of testing to high schools only and 25 districts agreed to participate at least partially. In Knox County, four schools — Bearden, Gibbs, L&N Stem Academy and Career Magnet Academy — opted to administer the online version.
“From the beginning, once we awarded the contract last July, we’ve been working nonstop to make sure we’re able to deliver this year in the way districts expected,” said Nakia Towns, assistant commissioner of data and research. “We’ve been communicating constantly with the district, with regional meetings in the fall and again in late February. We’ve had webinars and virtual meetings.”
Fountain City Elementary Principal Tina Holt said she’s been impressed with the amount of communication and the consistency between Queststar, the state and the district.
“What’s nice from a principal standpoint is that we get direct emails from Commissioner McQueen,” Holt said. “They did a lot to front-load confidence about this year. Obviously we’ve waited to see if that’s true, and so far it has been. There’s no hiccups, and we have dual sources of information that are very much aligned.”
Holt said she hasn’t heard any complaints or concerns from parents, even after last year’s debacle. Testing will begin there on Tuesday and will be wrapped up every day by 10 a.m., she said.
Knox County opted to give schools flexibility this year on when they schedule their testing within the three-week state window. Many schools are beginning on Tuesday.
In addition to the new vendor and a return to the pencil-and-paper format, other changes include a shorter test by 3.5 hours. The state also created smaller testing sub-parts, allowing them to be administered within bell schedules for schools on block scheduling, McQueen said.