State education officials admitted that things did not start well with the new TNReady test after there was a network outage while students were taking the test on Monday.
As a result of the problems students faced, the Tennessee Department of Education has ordered the test to be taken on paper, rather than online.
“TNReady is still TNReady whether it’s in an online format or whether it’s in a paper format.” Candice McQueen, Commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Education, said on Tuesday.
During a press briefing, McQueen voiced support for the new test, but said problems need to be addressed before the test moves online.
“We want to make sure that students are experiencing a platform with confidence and not with the continuing issues that we’re seeing.”
The issue on Monday, the first day of testing, happened when Measurement Inc., the company administering the test, experienced a severe network outage.
That network outage, along with other problems, has brought the Department of Education to question whether they will continue to work with Measurement Inc. moving forward.
“We have doubts about them going forward, we have concerns, and yes, we are reviewing all of that currently.” McQueen said.
While education officials voiced their concerns on Tuesday, so did democratic lawmakers, who said the move to online testing was set up for failure from the start.
“Everybody knew this was going to happen.” Tennessee House minority leader, Craig Fitzhugh, said. “We just didn’t particularly know it was going to happen in the first 15 minutes of the test.”
Fitzhugh, along with multiple other legislators, are calling for the test’s results to not be used against students or teachers until the test can be taken without any problems.
“TNReady is not ready.” Representative Antonio Parkison said. “We are asking Commissioner McQueen to hit the pause button for three years to get all of the new initiatives, strategies, and policies in place before rolling them out in such a hurried pace.”
While the test will not be online for this testing period, the Tennessee Department of Education believes the test still accomplishes what it was created to do.
“We believe that this test remains a positive experience for students long-term as they get better information about the true depth and breadth of the standards we have.” McQueen explained.
Because the test will now be administered on paper rather than online, the earliest students could begin taking the test is February 22nd.
As for the cost surrounding TNReady, Measurement Inc. was awarded a contract worth more than $107 million. According to McQueen, the state has only paid the company $1.6 million to this point, and will not pay more for this round of testing.
McQueen said the state will only pay for services provided, and the online test failed to provide a service.
