Tennessee Faces Trouble with State Standardized Testing
A new third grade law exposes a testing system that consistently fails
Ah, yes. It’s that time of year again. The time of TNReady troubles.
This year, of course, the TNReady issue is compounded with a new and ridiculous third grade retention law.
We’ll start there.
As a result of the devastating new law, third grade students who didn’t meet a certain score on the ELA portion of TNReady this year are subject to being held back. To avoid that fate, they can participate in summer school and possibly have a tutor in 4th grade.
If those options don’t work, or they don’t complete summer school, the student will repeat third grade.
Since the test had much higher stakes this year than normal, the TN Department of Education offered the opportunity for students to retake the test if they fell into the score category requiring retention.