NASHVILLE — State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, says he’s backing legislation that could be on the Senate floor as early as next week that gives Tennessee public school teachers and principals the choice on whether to include 2015-16 TNReady student assessments in evaluations.
Watson said in a news release that he is signing on as a co-sponsor of the bill, which was introduced after the state’s new online tests melted down shortly after it began.
“I’m as frustrated and aggravated as everyone else,” said Watson, the Senate speaker pro tempore, in a statement. “We need to alleviate the concerns expressed by students, teachers, principals and parents about this test, which now may best be viewed as a trial run at TNReady.”
He said student scores “were not going to be counted already during the first year of transition. The proposed legislation ensures that these scores will not count for educators, unless it is beneficial” for the teachers.
Senate Bill 2508 says that if at any point in the three-year transition that an educator’s evaluation wouldn’t benefit by including student growth data from 2015-16 TNReady tests, he or she can have that data excluded. Educators would automatically receive the option that provides them with the best score, according to Watson.
“Due to the glitches, teachers and principals are now going to have full control over whether or not they want to use them in their personal evaluations,” Watson said.
The bill is Senate Bill 2508. A House companion bill is beginning to move through the committee system.
After the new system failed, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam announced last month that the state would offer teachers three choices. They could opt to count this year’s test results if they thought them favorable, use a three-year “rolling average” with two prior tests or use just the two prior years’ results.
Haslam and Education Commissioner Candice McQueen also said the state had pencil-and-paper tests ready as back up for the failed online system. But the traditional route for TNReady evidently wasn’t quite as ready as hoped. Many systems are only getting them now.
The paper tests were supposed to be in Hamilton County schools’ hands last week but officials said they only got them Thursday and plan to begin the testingMonday.
McQueen has blamed the test’s developer, Measurement Inc.