Schoolchildren in Tennessee will spend nearly a third less time taking standardized tests as part of forms adopted after the costly fiasco of TNReady earlier this year.
State Education Commissioner Candice McQueen on Thursday said state assessments will change significantly in response to feedback from educators, parents, and students - including eliminating Part I in all subjects, restructuring the test to better fit within the school day and year, and reducing overall testing time.
McQueen said the changes come as the department finalizes its contract with Questar, the company that will administer TCAP tests in the coming school year.
"We have learned a tremendous amount from our testing experience this past year, and we want to make the right adjustments to create a positive, balanced culture around testing in Tennessee's classrooms," McQueen said in a news release. "...We are still working toward the same goal of providing aligned, rigorous assessments to measure what our students know and can do, but now we have a smarter logistical approach and a strong partnership with Questar to achieve this goal."
Testing changes vary by grade. Students in grades 3-8, students will have tests that are more than three hours shorter. High school End of Course assessments have been shortened by 40-120 minutes. This means a typical 11th-grader will send three hours and 45 minutes less time in tests compared to last year.
The 2016-17 TCAP will be given during one period at the end of the school year, and the tests for the four subjects have been divided into shorter subparts.
McQueen said the department has finalized a two-year contract with Questar to administer the 2016-17 TCAP. Questar has experience developing a statewide test on a similar expedited time frame as well as with administering it at a scale even larger than Tennessee's.
In April, McQueen suspended testing for grades 3-8 and fired the state's testing vendor, Measurement Inc. That company's TNReady test was to replace TCAP but the rollout was a massive failure.