State education department apologizes for TCAP snafu
- Parents can send their quick score questions to TNed.quickscores@tn.gov.
The Tennessee Department of Education is apologizing for its failure to communicate changes in how it calculated test scores this year.
The changes resulted in better-than-expected scores and may not be an indicator of overall student improvement.
Now, amid growing criticism from teachers and education groups — including a petition drive by 13 education advocacy groups — the department is holding meetings across the state with superintendents, principals and others to clear up the recent confusion.
The issue stemmed from how the department this year calculated "quick scores." These are the scores educators in grades 3-8 are legally required to incorporate into a student's final grade.
Based this year on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, the quick scores scale a student's raw TCAP results into a grade that fits within the typical 100-point grading system.
In the past, quick scores for grades 3-8 were tied specifically to proficiency levels, meaning a quick score of 85 meant a student was proficient. But this year, the state stopped that practice. That means an 85 this year doesn't necessarily mean proficient.
The decision was not widely communicated and has been a source of confusion for districts and educators, Ashley Ball, spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Education, said in an email.
The department also plans to talk with districts and stakeholders in a broader discussion about how to calculate quick scores for the new TNReady state test next year, Ball said.
Because the quick score calculation methodology did not change for high school, teachers, parents and students in grades 9-12 are not impacted.
The accountability data will officially be released statewide in June. District and school data will follow later in the summer.
But the mishap over quick scores has led to a heated debate and a call for greater transparency in the state education department's decisions.
The petition by advocacy groups calls for the availability of test questions and answers within a "reasonable" time after test administration.
It also says the process for determining scores should be clear, and standardized test scores should not be counted as part of a student's final grade or teacher evaluations.
"It's imperative that we move toward testing transparency — access to the questions and answers on the standardized tests — in order to ensure the tests are reliable and valid assessments of the standards being tested," said Lyn Hoyt, president of Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence. The group is leading the petition effort.
"We believe these principles are fair and represent what parents want: fair tests used to assess student learning relative to standards. By adopting these principles and the policies they would necessitate, we can return testing to its rightful place as one of many tools used to improve education, instead of the ultimate measure of student and teacher performance," Hoyt said.
Reach Melanie Balakit at 615-926-1638 and on Twitter @MelanieBalakit.
What's a quick score?
A quick score is generated from a student's TCAP raw score, or the number of questions a student answered correctly. Quick scores make it possible to scale a student's raw score into a grade that fits within the typical 100-point grading system that most schools and teachers use.
More on quick scores
• Quick scores drive no part of the TCAP scoring process.
• Quick scores are not meant to be a parent's primary window into their student's performance on TCAP.
• Quick scores are not used for teacher, school or district accountability.
• Student performance is the same regardless of the quick score method.
Parents can send their quick score questions to TNed.quickscores@tn.gov.