SCS board may call for elimination of TNReady
The Shelby County Schools board is considering asking the Tennessee legislature to do away with TNReady, the state testing system used to evaluate students, teachers and schools.
A draft of the board’s legislative agenda says the board “urges the Tennessee General Assembly to eliminate the (Tennessee Department of Educa-
tion’s) use and reliance on TNReady.”
Board members and district leaders said during a work session Tuesday night they aren’t trying to skirt accountability.
“We just want a test that works, and maybe multiple measures of accountability, not just all how kids do on the test,” Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said.
Board member Kevin Woods also recommended the board add language to the document that includes suggestions for what could replace TNReady, if they plan to advocate for its disposal.
“When we talk about eliminating this, I think we also have to be prepared with what are we replacing it with,” he said.
Board members did not debate what that could be.
The board will vote on its legislative agenda, drawn up by the district’s general counsel, during a business meeting next week. The document includes other priorities, like a rejection of voucher programs and the idea of arming teachers. The district’s lobbyists use the board’s legislative agenda each year to advocate for the needs of SCS students and staff in Nashville.
The call to eliminate TNReady completely would be new for the board and the district, which have pushed in the past for a pause to work out the kinks that wreaked havoc on the online delivery of the test last year.
The test is baked into state law, and is part of the state’s plan to comply with federal law.
Tennessee Department of Education spokeswoman Sara Gast in an email called TNReady the “backbone” of the state’s accountability system.
“Historically, it has been the students from racial and ethnic minorities, economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities and English learners who have been most ignored and underserved by our schools when we have not had a statewide assessment,” Gast said.
The assessment itself, she said, has “received high marks from independent analyses in terms of its quality and rigor, and while we completely agree we must improve in administration, it is the right program to have in place.”
TNReady results were mostly withheld from impacting students and teachers last year after the online system suffered significant failures during spring testing.
Some students were able to take the test but not submit results, and others weren’t able to log in to the system. The General Assembly passed quick legislation to assure results couldn’t negatively impact a student, a teacher or a school.
Testing data is normally factored into students’ grades and is a portion of a teacher’s evaluation. The data is used to rank schools performing in the bottom 5 percent statewide, which can eventually make them eligible for takeover by the state’s Achievement School District.
Hopson made a separate recommendation to the board Tuesday night that TNReady count for 15 percent of students’ grades this year, the minimum allowed by law. He cited the testing platform challenges for his recommendation.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer. pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.