As the Tennessee Department of Education works to find a new standardized testing vendor for the upcoming school year, a group of fifth-graders at Nolan Elementary are encouraging the state to rethink it’s approach to standardized testing.
Ever since the rocky roll-out of TNReady began to affect them directly this spring, the students in Lisa Hope’s fifth-grade advanced classroom at Nolan have been taking notes.
“We knew we would have to take that test soon,” student Christopher Romero said. “I thought there were many things wrong with it.”
So Romero and his fifth-grade classmates began working to critically analyze standardized testing – specifically TNReady – and over the semester developed a 14-page report attempting to persuade the state to change it’s mind about the assessment.
The students spent months interviewing teachers and friends. They scoured the internet for facts and statistics about TNReady, researching both sides of the testing argument. The kids ran calculations, made a video, and compiled it all into the report and a slideshow.