Hamilton County’s schools are waiting for the ink to dry.
The Tennessee Department of Education said Hamilton County’s standardized tests should be printed and delivered by the end of this month, and local school officials say students across the district should be taking the first round of TNReady tests March 9-15.
TNReady, the state’s new assessment replacing TCAP, was intended to be administered online this year, but significant glitches in the online testing platform earlier this month forced the state to return to paper and pencil tests.
Hamilton County Assistant Superintendent of Testing and Accountability Kirk Kelly said the school system is familiar with distributing and administering standardized tests on paper, but this year, there isn’t a time cushion between the arrival of about 30,000 tests and the start of testing like previous years.
“We are used to this process, the only thing that makes it different is we are going to have to [distribute the tests to schools] twice for grades 3 through 8, and do it fast,” Kelly said. “Normally, there is more time between getting the test and when we test.”