After months of talks, federal and Tennessee education officials have come to terms on how to identify and address the state’s lowest-performing schools in light of last spring’s problem-plagued student assessment program.
Their agreement, which navigates conflicting state and federal laws over the use of test results, means the state Education Department will release three lists of challenged schools in the coming weeks.
One list — Tennessee’s highly anticipated roster of “priority schools,” which perform in the bottom 5 percent — will exclude scores from last school year’s beleaguered TNReady assessment. Issued every three years, this roster will serve as the basis for determining state interventions and supports for at least the next year.
Two other lists — both of which are new — will include those results in deciding which schools will receive additional federal funding.
The revised framework, which is designed to hold schools and districts accountable on student achievement, is more complex than initially planned for meeting the standards of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
Under the 2015 law, Tennessee is required to factor in its most recent standardized test results when it comes to school accountability. But technical problems that disrupted computerized exams last spring prompted the Legislature’s order to disregard 2017-18 TNReady scores when compiling Tennessee’s priority school list, the state’s highest-stakes vehicle for improving underperforming schools by making them eligible for interventions such as state takeover and charter conversion.
The dueling laws have required thoughtful discussions and additional footwork, according to Sara Gast, spokeswoman for the state Education Department.
“The U.S. Department of Education was clear in our conversations that the last-minute legislation did not change the federal requirement for states to use 2017-18 data in accountability determinations,” Gast told Chalkbeat last week.
As a result, to comply with the emergency state laws, the upcoming priority list will be based mostly on test scores from 2015-16 and 2016-17 — not last school year — when charting the state’s school improvement strategies, interventions, and investments.
To satisfy federal law, a new CSI list, which stands for Comprehensive Support and Improvement, will identify the state’s bottom 5 percent of schools based on test results from all three years. This roster will determine opportunities for additional federal funding through several school improvement grants.
State officials emphasize that the CSI list, which will number about 85 schools, will have significant overlap with the state’s priority school list.
The other new accountability list, called ATSI for Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, will be based solely on last school year’s TNReady data. This list will identify schools with the lowest performance across student groups such as black, Hispanic, or Native Americans, or those who are economically disadvantaged, English learners, or have disabilities. ATSI replaces, for now, the state’s previously planned “focus school” list under its original ESSA plan.
“There is no adverse action that comes from being on the ATSI or CSI list,” Gast said. “The only changes for these schools is they will now be eligible for additional federal funding to support their students, and the department will be available to provide guidance to support improvement.”
"I think one of the frustrations for everyone is that the federal DOE is less flexible when adjustments need to be made based on real-world situations in each state."
Rep. Eddie Smith, R-Knoxville
The state began rolling out its new school accountability details a few weeks ago, catching some district leaders off guard with the news of additional lists to keep up with.
“This kind of came at us out of the blue,” said Paul Changas, who heads research and assessment for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. “Given the complexity of the new accountability system, the addition of new categories will likely make our training efforts even more challenging.”
Rep. Eddie Smith, who sponsored the emergency TNReady laws, acknowledged that multiple lists may cause some confusion. But the Knoxville Republican said it’s the best way to keep fallout from the state’s testing problems from disrupting the flow of federal resources to struggling schools.
“While we do not want schools punished, we do want to make sure that any support needed by these schools is received,” Smith said.
He added: “I think one of the frustrations for everyone is that the federal DOE is less flexible when adjustments need to be made based on real-world situations in each state.”
Tennessee’s amended ESSA accountability plan, which federal officials signed off on in mid-August, will be in effect for the next year and possibly for several years to come. Because state law now prevents 2017-18 TNReady results from being factored in to most state accountability work going forward, Tennessee will have to submit another ESSA amendment for 2018-19 and beyond.
Below, find details about the lists of schools being released this month by the state, including the reward list that recognizes schools achieving the highest performance or progress.