State education officials take responsibility for vendor's test failures

Education Commissioner Candice McQueen speaks to media representatives while at the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015.
Education Commissioner Candice McQueen speaks to media representatives while at the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015.

NASHVILLE - State education officials say they take responsibility for a series of computer glitches caused by a vendor that forced students to stop using a new online assessment test known as TNReady.

"When you talk about a vendor, you talk about the state," State Education Commissioner Candice McQueen told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.

McQueen has ordered students to take the test using pencil and paper because she no longer has confidence in vendor Measurement Inc.'s ability to administer the tests online without the system crashing. This came a day after the rollout proved disastrous, as students across the state weren't able to take the TNReady because of a widespread computer networking failure, which state officials described as not being able to access the Internet.

It's not clear how many school systems were affected.

The vendor, North Carolina-based Measurement Inc., did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday. The state awarded the company a contract of more than $107 million for work from 2015 to 2020. The company is currently scheduling the printing and shipping of paper tests at no cost to school districts. The new testing schedule will be available by Thursday.

McQueen said that, so far, the state has paid the company only $1.6 million and will not pay any extra money as a result of the online failures.

The company developed TNReady, which evaluates math and English skills for grades 3-11. It replaces the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, known as TCAP. McQueen and others said the new test does a better job of assessing critical-thinking skills.

School officials said the delays have been frustrating.

"We are very saddened to hear the news that TNReady is being changed from an online venue to the traditional paper and pencil testing," Bradley County Schools Director Linda Cash said in a statement Tuesday. "We understand that this must have been a very difficult decision for Commissioner McQueen to make at this point in time, and we commend her for deciding to abandon the much anticipated online testing that was proving to be problematic."

Questions remain about how teachers will be evaluated. State law says school districts can evaluate teachers based on 10 percent of the TNReady scores, and the weight of the test will gradually increase each year in decisions about teacher pay, firing and placement.

"Any time there's a glitch in test administration - because there's such high stakes - that's worrisome," said Wayne Miller, executive director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. State law gives local districts discretion on how they want to interpret the TNReady scores.

The TNReady testing meltdown quickly flowed into the political arena with legislative Democrats calling on McQueen to punch a "pause button" and move to exclude TNReady test scores in making high-stakes decisions in teacher evaluations, as well as for determining schools' performance.

Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, said otherwise, parents, students and teachers will pay the price.

"TNReady is not ready," Parkinson told reporters. "We are asking Commissioner McQueen to hit the pause button for three years to get all of the new initiative and strategies and policies in place before rolling them out in such a hurried pace.

"Our children are at stake," Parkinson added. "The only ones who suffer in all of this are the children, the teachers and the communities."

House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, said he thinks legislation should be filed to prevent test results from TNReady being applied to teacher evaluations this year.

"Everybody knew this was going to happen," said Fitzhigh, who joined Parkinson at the news conference. "We just didn't know it was going to happen in the first 15 minutes of the test. We should have been ready for this."

Andy Sher contributed to this story.

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