NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) — Education Commissioner Candice McQueen released the school-level 2018 TNReady results as well as 2018 school and district student growth data on Aug. 16, 2018.
The scores show that nearly 700 schools – more than 40 percent of schools in Tennessee – saw improvement across the majority of their grades and subjects in 2018, and 210 of those schools saw improvement across all grades and subjects.
Additionally, 88 school districts – about 60 percent – met or exceeded student growth expectations. There were 11 school districts that demonstrated the top level of growth in all tested subjects.
Today’s release follows the release of state- and district-level TNReady results in July. As the department noted at the time, while most students took TNReady on paper, the department had a third-party expert conduct additional analysis to see if and/or how the online disruptions from this spring impacted the scores.
These online disruptions have caused some school districts and lawmakers to lose faith in the TNReady testing process. WKRN reports that Dr. Shawn Joseph and the Director of Schools in Shelby County sent a letter to Governor Bill Haslam and the education commissioner asking them to stop TNReady testing for now.
Part of the letter says after years of issues with the test, teacher and public trust has fallen to irretrievably low levels.
The letter also addresses the millions of dollars schools have spent on technology to implement the tests that never happened, adding the technology will soon be obsolete.