Gov. Bill Haslam on Tuesday announced a six-stop statewide tour to discuss with students, teachers and administrators how TNReady testing can be improved.
The tour’s goal is to explore ways to improve TNReady testing, which is in its fourth year with the 2018-2019 school year.
“Tennessee’s unprecedented improvement in education is the result of high academic standards and an assessment that measures knowledge of those standards,” Haslam said in a statement. “Without aligned assessments, we don’t know where our students stand and where we need to improve. We finally have a test that is aligned to Tennessee’s strong academic standards, and I don’t want recent assessment delivery issues to cause us to lose sight of why we have these tests in the first place. Delivering the test without disruption is essential and we must get it right.”
Delivery of TNReady has been fraught with issues since the test was first launched in 2015. This spring, students and educators saw a new batch of issues, including problems with the test’s vendor, Questar, a possible hack that was later disproved and even a severed fiber-optic cable that halted testing across Middle Tennessee.
The goals of the engagement plan and tour, according to a news release, are: