One year after Tennessee’s first attempt at online testing fizzled, 25 out of 140 Tennessee school districts have signed up to try again.
About 130 districts were eligible to test online this year.
Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said Thursday the number is what she expected as districts prepare to administer the state’s TNReady assessment in April.
Although all districts will make the switch to online testing by 2019 for middle and high school students, they had the option to forge ahead this year with their oldest students.
The Department of Education is staggering its transition to online testing — a lesson learned last year when most of the state tried to do it all at once and the online platform buckled on the first day. As a result, the department fired its testing company, derailing the state’s assessment program, and later hired Questar as its new test maker.
Districts piloted Questar’s online platform last fall, and had until Wednesday to decide whether to forge ahead with online testing for their high school students this spring or opt for paper-and-pencil tests.
McQueen announced the state’s new game plan for TNReady testing in January and said she is confident that the new platform will work.
While this year was optional for high schools, all high schools will participate in 2018. Middle and elementary schools will make the switch in 2019, though districts will have the option of administering the test on paper to its youngest students.
Districts opting in this spring are:
- Alvin C. York Institute
- Bedford County
- Bledsoe County
- Blount County
- Bristol City
- Campbell County
- Cannon County
- Cheatham County
- Clay County
- Cocke County
- Coffee County
- Cumberland County
- Grundy County
- Hamilton County
- Hancock County
- Knox County
- Jackson-Madison County
- Moore County
- Morgan County
- Putnam County
- Scott County
- Sullivan County
- Trousdale County
- Washington County
- Williamson County