Governor Bill Haslam said during a hearing on Capitol Hill that teachers wont have to worry about TNReady scores affecting their performance evaluations unless it helps them.
Senators voiced many questions and concerns in Wednesday's meeting regarding the TNReady testing.
Meanwhile, testing could resume again for students as early as next week depending on the district.
The TNReady tests are the state's new online standardized test for public schools, replacing T-CAP. The test crashed last week on the first day of testing.
Shelbyville Republican Senator Jim Tracy said, "Some of them are disappointed that they couldn't take it online, but they were having glitches on line all through the Fall. In other words, they'd get going and it would glitch. So, can you assure everybody that this paper test is the same."
Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Candice McQueen answered, "the paper version of the test was completed at the same time the online forms were put together."
She said they were designed together and there shouldn't be much of a difference.
McQueen said the Department of Education was still reviewing what happened during the crash. The company running the test is Measurement Inc out of North Carolina. Many senators asked if Measurement Inc. can still handle the job.
The company signed a contract with the state for more than $100 million to administer the test over 5 years.
Senator Mike Bell asked, "If this contract totals 106-108 million dollars are you confident that this company can handle this going forward?" McQueen answered, "That's what we're reviewing right now. We're actually looking at exactly what the expectations were. What happened. What caused it. What we solved this particular testing period, and we've got to review that closely and have conversations with the vendor before we decide how we will move forward."
Measurement Inc was not at today's hearing. Lawmakers said they hope to see the company at a hearing in the future.
