A TNReady History Lesson

Tennessee uses troubled test for high-stakes decisions

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Standardized testing is in the news again with decisions on third grade retention resting on the results of a portion of TNReady testing and state lawmakers awarding an additional $40 million to a testing vendor.

This seems like a good time to review the history of TNReady - a test that has failed over multiple administrations and continues to fail students, teachers, and schools.

Let’s go back to 2016, when the state moved to a new, online standardized test known as TNReady:

Brian Wilson at the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal reports:

A technology failure from a state vendor halted standardized testing across Tennessee on the first day that TNReady, the state’s new online exam program, was set to be administered on a widespread basis.

The state’s testing platform “experienced major outages across the state” Monday morning because of network issues with Measurement, Inc., who is contracted to administer the standardized exams, according to a memo Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen sent to schools directors across the state.

This inability to administer the test on day one would be the start of a number of testing challenges, to put it mildly.

That initial difficulty led to waiving the use of the tests for teacher evaluation. It should be noted that using these tests to evaluate teachers is highly problematic - because tests designed to assess student understanding are not designed to assess teacher effectiveness.

Still, in a regime where THE TEST is the answer to everything and is used for a range of high-stakes decisions, waiving its use for teacher evaluation was significant:

Governor Bill Haslam and Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen announced today that in light of difficulties with the administration of the TNReady test, they are proposing that TNReady data NOT be included in this year’s round of teacher evaluations.

The statement comes after the Knox County Board of Education made a similar request by way of resolution in December. That resolution was followed by a statewide call for a waiver by a coalition of education advocacy groups. More recently, principals in Hamilton County weighed in on the issue.

It’s worth noting, too, that the 2016 transition to online testing was not the first time there were problems with state testing. In the years leading up to TNReady, there were problems with providing results to districts:

This is the third consecutive year the state has had problems with its testing regimen. In 2014, quick scores were not ready in time to be factored into student grades. Last year, there was a change in quick score calculation that was not clearly communicated to districts and which resulted in confusion when results were posted.

Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash

A Return to Paper

With the online testing system not working well in 2016, the state decided to move forward with paper tests. So, instead of just scrapping the testing altogether, Tennessee asked its vendor to provide paper testing materials.

That did not go well.

Following the Day One failure of TNReady testing, the state proposed switching to only paper and pencil tests.  Last week, the first sign of trouble on that front developed, as Dickson County reported a delay in receiving the printed materials.

While the Department of Education reports that most districts have received their materials, Chalkbeat reported yesterday that at least a dozen districts have had to reschedule testing due to printing delays.

The testing vendor struggled to provide paper tests at the scale needed in Tennessee. After all, they said, the plan was to provide the tests online. So, they had to secure a printer to produce the tests and then arrange to securely ship materials to the state.

The delays reached the point of the absurd and caused districts to plan and then cancel tests again and again.

Photo by Michael Fousert on Unsplash

2018: The Year of the Dump Truck

In 2018, the state was slated to start online TNReady testing again.

This time, a range of new problems - from hackers to dump trucks - meant more testing trouble.

Day 1:

Reports from school districts across Tennessee indicate that the state’s online TNReady platform is failing. This despite promises from the Tennessee Department of Education that all would go smoothly this week.

The Department of Education at one point blamed a cut fiber line caused by a dump truck (this turned out to be fiction) for the testing failure:

The Tennessee Department of Education is blaming a dump truck for cutting a fiber optic line that provided internet connectivity.

A week later, another dump truck?

Tennessee’s failed testing system, TNReady, is experiencing problems yet again. Last week, the Department of Education alleged a dump truck took out the test.

That was the latest in a line of testing challenges during this year’s administration of TNReady.

This morning, eleven systems so far are reporting login and/or submission problems with TNReady. Knox, Putnam, Campbell, Sequatchie, Rutherford,  Robertson, Williamson, Montgomery, Collierville, Sumner, and Cumberland have reported issues with the test today so far.

Oh, and it turns out, the hacking and dump trucks didn’t actually happen:

By now, it should come as no surprise that our Commissioner of Education and the department she leads has a troubled relationship with the truth. That said, today’s revelation at a legislative hearing that an alleged hack of the state’s TNReady test didn’t actually happen again raises the question: Why does Candice McQueen still have a job?

This is a test with a history of problems - and a number of different vendors (Measurement Inc, Questar, now Pearson) - and yet year after year after year, we give the test and pretend it has some meaning. We use it to evaluate teachers.

This year, it’s being used to determine third grade retention.

This despite ongoing problems:

So, the state spends millions on the test, schools spend hours prepping for it, students spend days taking the exams, and then — NOTHING. No score that is useful for grades, no return of data in a timely fashion.

In fact, TNReady has failed so often and in so many ways, the clown show is now just accepted as an annual rite of passage. We’ll give the test because the state can’t imagine NOT testing every year and then we’ll fully expect there to be one or several problems. A surprising TNReady year would be one in which there were no problems with administration AND the results came back on time.

It seems our state’s policymakers have a solution:

Give Pearson $40 million more for the test.

Attach higher stakes to the test.

Continue ignoring all the evidence that suggests we shouldn’t be spending all this time on standardized testing.

Tennessee students and families deserve better.