Our schools did exactly what we expected them to do and wanted them to. It was frustrating when some students got in and got kicked out [of the system], but in terms of learning and seeing what was happening, it was good that we did it early instead of it being a real test.
Problems were expected when the Tennessee Department of Education asked schools across the state to log in at the same time and take an online practice test. In fact, the state hoped for problems in preparation for the surge of students that will take the new TNReady assessment this year.
"We didn't want this practice to go perfectly," said Ashley Ball, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education. "We wanted to know exactly what the vulnerabilities were."
TNReady is a revision of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, known as TCAP. A significant difference in this year's mandatory assessment for students in grades 3-11 is that students will set aside pencil and paper and take the test online for most subjects.
Online
Check out sample TNReady test questions at support.micatime.com.
Kirk Kelly, assistant superintendent of testing and accountability for Hamilton County
Kirk Kelly, assistant superintendent of testing and accountability for Hamilton County, said he was pleased to see that the district's bandwidth could support all the school system's devices being logged onto the state's testing system at the same time. He said the glitches that occurred during the test were on the state's end, and he is glad they have time to work them out.
"Our schools did exactly what we expected them to do and wanted them to," Kelly said. "It was frustrating when some students got in and got kicked out [of the system], but in terms of learning and seeing what was happening, it was good that we did it early instead of it being a real test."
Education officials said it was these glitches they wanted to uncover during the three-hour trial run which took place two weeks ago. Now they are working to make adjustments to the system. Hamilton County received the results of the test late last week.
"We purposefully wanted to overload the system," Ball said. "The goal was to take the data we got from the test to strengthen the system so that it is operating optimally by the time kids log on for the real test."
Participation for the test was optional for districts statewide, but Ball said more than 40 percent of the devices reported to be in schools across the state were logged onto the system during this designated window. This equates to about 110,000 people using the system within the three-hour period, which is more than the state expects to be logged in at a given time during the busiest window of testing next spring, Ball said.
"For context, last year during the state's writing assessment, which was required in grades 3-11 [and was also taken on this system,] we had 100,000 on the platform in one week and 25,000 on the platform on a peak day," Ball said.
Some districts, such as Cleveland City Schools, decided not to participate in the practice, but Cleveland Superintendent Martin Ringstaff said his district has been working and conducting its own internal tests to be sure they are prepared for TNReady.
"We feel good about the online assessment movement," Ringstaff said by email Tuesday. "We must make the jump as it gives us quicker feedback on the students, and I think it will improve our instructional process."
He said he doesn't want technology to just be used for assessment purposes inside the classroom, but has seen it help with regards to benchmarking and state-mandated testing.
The new TNReady assessment provides students with a revamped math and English test, but science and social studies tests similar to last year's TCAP. The new test is divided into sections, and the first part will be given for the majority of students during a window spanning February and March, and the second portion of the test will be taken between April and May, depending on districts.
For students on a block schedule - which is about 15 high schools in Hamilton County - testing will begin in November.
Kelly said he believes these Hamilton County high schools are prepared, but growing pains exist as schools transition away from the traditional paper tests where everyone can test at the same time, as schools are now limited by the number of devices available at each school.
Hamilton County school officials have expressed concern about the lack of devices in schools, saying students will be robbed of instructional time by this new assessment. But Kelly said Tuesday that schools with a high ratio of devices to students will face a similar amount of testing time with TNReady than the previous TCAP, while schools without as many devices will have to rotate when students test which can cause disruptions.
The district is in the midst of a three-phase plan to purchase more devices, but school administrators and school board members have expressed frustration that this is yet another unfunded state mandate that the cash-strapped district must fund.
In preparation for this first round of testing, which begins Nov. 2, the district purchased a series of devices. The next phase of the plan will involve buying devices for schools that will begin testing in February. And the final phase of device purchases is expected to take place sometime next fall, Kelly said.
At Brainerd High School, Assistant Principal Charles Mitchell said the school is preparing a testing schedule for students who will take TNReady in about two weeks. He said Brainerd students will do what most students across the county will do and rotate testing times based on available devices.
"We've known this is coming," Mitchell said. "And all schools in the district are in this together."
He said the practice test was helpful, and he is glad Hamilton County administrators required schools to participate because it provided valuable information to the state that will help testing run more smoothly this year.
At Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, administrators decided not to lose classroom instruction time by having students take the practice test, and instead invited parents to come in and log into the system and click through the dozen or so practice test questions.
"We didn't want to take students out of class time, and so we were trying to find a creative way to both meet the state requirements of being online during that window and using our devices to do that," said Kelly Coffelt, principal of the CSAS Lower School.
Coffelt said parents of the elementary students found the test interesting and the technical glitches frustrating, but parents understood they were taking the test to help the state identify and fix problems with the system. Overall, she said parents enjoyed seeing the questions their students will be answering with a tap on a touchpad this spring.
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow on twitter @kendi_and.