The Tennessee Department of Education released district-level data on Tuesday from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) retake opportunity, one of the pathways to promotion for third-grade students who failed to score proficient on the original administration of the assessment.
Statewide, roughly 44,000 students, which translates to 60 percent of the state’s third-graders who took the initial assessment, did not score proficient on the spring TCAP English Language Arts assessment. By law, those students are eligible for a retake exam. According to the TDOE, over 25,000 students took advantage of the opportunity.
While the department did not release state-wide results, analysis shows that half of Tennessee’s districts had between 10 percent and 20 percent of their students achieve proficiency through the retest. Additionally, a third had between 10 percent and 20 percent of students improve from “below” proficiency to the next level of “approaching” proficiency.
The retakes came four to six weeks after students took the original exams.
“The TCAP retake assessment pathway provides an important opportunity for third-grade students identified for potential retention to be able to retest to move directly to fourth grade, and we are proud of students who participated in the retake for exploring this pathway,” said Interim Commissioner Sam Pearcy (pictured above). “The work and dedication of schools, districts, educators, and families across the state made this opportunity possible for our students, and we are glad to see such strong participation in the first year of implementing this law.”
For some districts, the jumps in proficiency were even greater.
- Clay County had 62.5 percent of its students achieve proficiency, with a 47 percent participation rate.
- Franklin Special School District had 36.4 percent achieve proficiency, with a 22 percent participation rate.
- Lexington City Schools had 40.5 percent achieve proficiency, with a 69.8 percent participation rate.
- Perry County Schools had 26.3 percent achieve proficiency, with a 55.9 percent participation rate.
- Smith County School had 31.9 percent achieve proficiency, with a 50.4 percent participation rate.
- Sweetwater City Schools had 33.3 percent achieve proficiency, with a 39.5 percent participation rate.
- Unicoi County Schools had 30 percent achieve proficiency,
Before the retake being administered, expectations were that there would be little change in student scores.
Last month during a State Board of Education Workshop session, David Laird, TDOE assistant commissioner of Assessment and Accountability, explained to board members that the department had done considerable analysis on the retake assessment to ensure that the exam created by the TDOE carefully aligned with, and mirrored, the spring TCAP.
“We are using our operational item bank.” He told the board, “That for every item that went in there, we have prior operational or field test results.”
When questioned further by board members, he reassured them that they had consulted with numerous partners and that despite the retake not including the writing portion of the exam, “The performance levels on the retake have very strong psychometric similarity to what we get out of the spring retake.”
SBE Chair Robert Eby asked, “So you would assume that the statistical probability that a student would then move from one category to another on a retake is probably pretty low?”
“I would say so,” Laird responded, “These tests have high reliability. If you keep giving the same tests to a child, those scores should not change considerably. Particularly if you are administering them just a couple weeks apart.”
Assessment experts, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Tennessee Star, “There are so many variables at play here. Studies show that when a student takes a test for the second time, they typically score better. Since these were all students taking TCAP for the first time, those who did the retake may have benefited from familiarity with the process.”
They also indicated that they would be interested in knowing the time limit for the retake versus the original. TCAP is a long test due to the number of standards that must be covered; if the retake was shorter that would indicate fewer standards were covered.
The Star attempted to contact the TDOE for further information on why some districts saw higher-than-expected changes in student performance but did not receive a response.
Those who scored “proficient” on the retake may not pass to fourth-grade with no further requirements.
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TC Weber is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. He writes the blog Dad Gone Wild. Follow TC on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]. He’s the proud parent of two public school children and the spouse of a public school teacher.
Photo “Sam Pearcy” by Tennessee Department of Education. Background Photo “Classroom” by 12019.
Only correction I could offer to Karen’s comment is that it was Phil Bredesen and Jamie “we were going to do it anyway” Woodson who rigged the special session to adopt Common Core standards before they existed – and the mandatory online assessments with required multi-state consortia. All in a hurry to turn in the Race to the Top application the next week. They committed federal fraud with the claims made in the Race to the Top federal funds application. It was Haslam and Kevin Huffman who had conflicts of interest with PARCC who was given the no-bid testing contract for millions of taxpayer dollars. The fix was in for TN to get that money. Gates had already bought and paid for TN Department of Ed with Diploma Project, National Governor’s Association and Chief State School Officer funding – not to mention the millions to Woodson and Bill Frist at TNSCORE to promote Commie Core. Both R and D sold Tennesse’s children for the Gates-led Common Core. Now reaping the benefits. Maybe one day the control of Tennessee government will return to Tennesseeans.
Inexcusable, the students at this rate will drop to the performance level of peers in California. These disappointing results will most likely be attributed to COVID which is wrong. That excuse, COVID, is today’s boogeyman blamed for all failures. The problem is the absence of in school teaching, the problem is the profession move away from core education, the problem is teachers caught up in woke mentality. Too much focus is on transgenderism, a mental illness that seems to have consumed the left. Too much focus has been on CRT, a fictitious mindset propelled by left wing politicos like Biden, Hillary and Bernie for no other purpose than vote pandering. The profession, and there are many good teachers, needs a thorough house cleaning. School boards need to be held accountable, if they fail they should be removed. Enough of the PC, it is time to get serious.
How can they get proficient when school is always closed due to rain, possibility of rain, high winds, possibility of high winds, it’s cloudy, it’s sunny, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, etc.
They will blame this on COVID but truth be told our children have not been able to pass the muster when it comes to reading for many years and especially since we jumped on the Common Core bandwagon in order to get a nice big chunk of federal money. Tennessee signed on to the new standards before the standards were even written. It was all about the money. Governor Haslam was willing to sell out our children and sign on to a set of standards sight unseen for $535 million. Any legislator that tells you we do not have Common Core standards in TN is a flat out liar. What we have was the same as many other states have; a renamed set of Common Core standards. After the TN state school board approved the new standards I sent them to the top standard writing experts in the country (Dr. James Milgram-math, and Sandra Stotsky-English Language Arts) Dr. Milgram said the few changes that were made were even worse than Common Core and although most of the standards followed Common Core to the tee the small changes that were made were even worse and he would have rather they were left alone (even though CC was horrendous). Sandra Stotsky was appalled. I sent their evaluation to every member of the TN House and TN Senate and received only one email back in response.
Maybe TN teachers should spend more of their time on pride events. I’m sure that would help.
The TDOE Assistant Commissioner of Assessment and Accountability makes nearly $160,000 annually. For that kind of money I would think he would know more than he does. I would also expect that the SBE would not be making assumptions. The level of useless administration in education is astounding, the cost of that administration is nothing short of grotesque.