For a third straight year, Education Commissioner Candice McQueen will convene a task force to examine Tennessee’s testing program in the wake of persistent hiccups with its TNReady assessment and perennial concerns about over-testing.
McQueen announced Monday the members of her newest task force, which will assemble on Dec. 11 in Nashville and complete its work next July. The group includes educators, lawmakers, and parents.
At the top of the agenda: evaluating the first full year of TNReady testing for grades 3-8 and the second year for high schoolers, the latter of which was marred by scoring problems for a small percentage of students.
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The group also will look at district-level “formative tests” that measure student progress to help teachers adjust their instruction throughout the school year. The goal is to support districts so those tests align with TNReady and the state’s newest academic standards.
The transition to online testing and concerns about over-testing will be on the minds of task force members.
This marks the first school year that all high schoolers will take TNReady online since 2016, when a new platform buckled on its first day. State officials are more confident this time around under a phased-in approach that began last school year with 25 districts. (Middle and elementary schools will make the switch in 2019.)
On over-testing, McQueen has highlighted 11th-grade as a concern. The junior year of high school is intense as students explore their post-graduation options while taking the ACT college entrance exam, the state’s end-of-course exams, and for some, Advanced Placement tests. All are high-stakes.
McQueen told Gov. Bill Haslam earlier this month that the upcoming task force will seek to strip away tests that don’t align with Tennessee’s priorities.
“We’re looking for testing reductions … but also setting a path toward (our) goals, which is a new test that’s aligned to new standards that really matter,” she told Haslam during budget hearings.
During its first two years, task force work has led to a number of changes.
Recommendations in the first year resulted in the elimination of a test for eighth- and tenth-graders, as well as the shortening of TNReady tests for math and reading.
In the second year, the task force contributed to Tennessee’s education plan under a new federal law and slimmed down science and social studies assessments for third- and fourth-graders.
Members of the third task force are:
- Candice McQueen, Tennessee commissioner of education
- Sara Morrison, executive director, State Board of Education
- Sen. Dolores Gresham, chairwoman, Senate Education Committee
- Rep. John Forgety, chairman, House Education Instruction and Programs Committee
- Rep. Harry Brooks, chairman, House Education Administration and Planning Committee
- Rep. Mark White, chairman, House Education Administration and Planning Subcommittee*
- Wayne Blair, president, Tennessee School Board Association*
- Barbara Gray, president, Tennessee Education Association
- Dale Lynch, executive director, Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents*
- Sharon Roberts, chief strategy officer, State Collaborative on Reforming Education*
- Audrey Shores, chief operating officer, Professional Educators of Tennessee
- Gini Pupo-Walker, Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition and senior director of education policy & programs, Conexión Américas*
- Lisa Wiltshire, policy director, Tennesseans for Quality Early Education*
- Shawn Kimble, director, Lauderdale County School System*
- Mike Winstead, director, Maryville City Schools
- Jennifer Cothron, assessment supervisor, Wilson County Schools*
- Trey Duke, coordinator for Federal Programs and RTI2, Rutherford County Schools*
- Michael Hubbard, director of performance excellence, Kingsport City Schools*
- LaToya Pugh, iZone science instructional support manager, Shelby County Schools*
- Bill Harlin, principal, Nolensville High School, Williamson County Schools
- Laura Charbonnet, assistant principal, Collierville High School, Collierville Schools*
- Tim Childers, assistant principal, L&N STEM Academy, Knox County Schools*
- Kevin Cline, assistant principal, Jefferson County High School, Jefferson County Schools*
- Kim Herring, teacher, Cumberland County High School, Cumberland County School District*
- Jolinea Pegues, special education teacher, Southwind High School, Shelby County Schools*
- Stacey Travis, teacher, Maryville High School, Maryville City Schools*
- Josh Rutherford, teacher, Houston County High School, Houston County School District*
- Cicely Woodard, 2017-18 Tennessee Teacher of the Year, West End Middle Prep, Metro Nashville Public Schools*
- Virginia Babb, parent, Knox County Parent-Teacher Association
- Jennifer Frazier, parent, Hamblen County Department of Education*
- Student members will be invited*
*new members