Tennessee is banking that two companies are better than one when it comes to fixing the state’s troubled standardized testing program.
The legislature’s fiscal review committee gave its blessing Wednesday to hiring New Jersey-based ETS for some chores previously handled by Minnesota-based Questar.
Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said the shift will allow Questar to focus on delivering and scoring the state’s TNReady tests in math and English language arts — tasks that the company has struggled with the last two years.
It also will consolidate all of the state’s test design work with one company since ETS, also known as Educational Testing Service, already develops the questions, instructions, and materials for Tennessee’s social studies and science exams.
Beginning July 1, the change will add up to $12.5 million to ETS’ existing $25 million contract with the state Department of Education that runs through September of 2020.
State officials expect the extra money will be offset by re-negotiating down the cost for Tennessee’s $30 million annual contract with Questar, whose oversight of online testing this spring was plagued by interruptions from a string of technical problems.
McQueen told lawmakers that both companies have done solid work creating test questions and aligning them with Tennessee’s new academic standards — but that ETS has managed that task better.
“They have a much longer history in test development and design,” she said. “They do all our teacher licensure exams. They work across many states. … We’ve had positive interactions with them.”
Splitting the TNReady work among two companies marks a departure for the state Department of Education.
Tennessee has used one testing company at a time since launching the new test in 2016. The first was North Carolina-based Measurement Inc., which McQueen fired over online failures that led to the cancellation of most exams that first year. The state then hired Questar to take over and, except for some scoring problems, TNReady went better in 2017. But this school year, Questar had significant challenges with computerized exams as the state returned to online testing statewide for its older students.
“Testing, we’re learning, is very complex in terms of the number of things that one company is expected to do,” McQueen said.
Beyond creating the questions, testing companies provide Tennessee’s online and paper tests, score the answers, analyze the results to make sure they’re reliable, and report the data.
“We know that certain companies do some pieces much better than others,” McQueen said.
Questar’s contract ends in November but, even with this year’s problems, likely will be extended through next spring since the company will oversee testing this fall for high school students on nontraditional block schedules. Earlier this month, Gov. Bill Haslam said switching companies in the middle of a school year would present a “practical problem.”
McQueen and her staff faced stern questions about the ETS contract before gaining approval of the fiscal review committee. Among members’ concerns: the cost of testing services, whether the change will smooth out testing next year, and ETS’ purchase of Questar last year. (For details on that deal, read TNReady’s new testing company also owns the old one.)
“They are separate companies,” McQueen said of Questar becoming a subsidiary of ETS. “They have separate contracting, separate contract management, separate CEOS. We were working with ETS before we got in a relationship with Questar.”