Educators from across the region voiced their frustrations with the TNReady state assessment to Gov. Bill Haslam and Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen at the second stop on Haslam’s “listening tour” Tuesday.
Last week, Haslam announced a six-stop tour across the state to discuss with students, teachers and administrators how TNReady testing can be improved after several years of problems.
“We felt like the whole situation was on fire,” said Michael Kahrs, director of student information systems for Cleveland City School, in regards to last spring’s testing window.
Delivery of TNReady has been fraught with issues since the test was first launched in 2015. This spring, students and educators experienced a new batch of issues, including problems with the test’s vendor, Questar, a malfunction that was initially believed to be a hack, and even a severed fiber-optic cable that halted testing across Middle Tennessee.
Haslam acknowledged those failures and the need to look for answers and ways to improve.