TNReady, our state’s new online standardized test for this academic year contains several fatal flaws. The loss of instructional time is dramatic. The testing window has increased from one week to six weeks. This does not include the many hours that students have had to “test” the test for the state. Testing time has increased dramatically for many students, regardless of what officials say. This year, a third grader will be tested in reading 100% more than he or she was in 2014.
Schools do not have the digital capacity necessary to provide this test online to an entire grade or more. Students are often left staring at the “spinning wheel” on their screen. The General Assembly passed an under-funded mandate, requiring school districts to use this online test on technological tools that most schools did not previously have or have the funds to purchase.
Schools have scrambled to acquire the tools necessary to issue this test to their students beginning next week. Schools that were planning to use iPads to administer this test were told just last week by the TN Department of Education that iPads are incompatible with new test and that their students will be allowed to use pencil and paper.
Consider this: 3rd graders, who are eight years old, are required to type essays as part of the Language Arts section of TNReady. I can tell you with absolute confidence that my 3rd grader would produce two very different essays, whether typing or writing with a pencil. Typing proficiency is not a skill most 8-9 year olds have acquired. What about the children who do not have access to keyboards or other technology at home? There are major issues of equity here that the state is refusing to acknowledge.
Dr. Candice McQueen, the TN Commissioner of Education, was quoted saying, “There is no inherent advantage or disadvantage to a student in terms of taking paper version of TNReady versus a computer-based version.” How is standardization to be assumed when students are taking tests on different technological tools with vastly varying screen interfaces, as well as some taking it with pencil and paper?
There is a growing movement of parents who are refusing to have their children take this test. Some school leaders have told their parents that they can’t refuse this test and that their child will be forced to take it. This threat not only violates basic rights of students and parents, but also the Ethical Protections of Human Subjects in Research. Parents have a right to direct the educational path of their children and should insist that schools respect this.
In short, TNReady is not ready. The state is rushing to force many hours of testing using a test that is developmentally inappropriate and that will produce data that is statistically unreliable.
Julie Lewis, Chattanooga