force. According to the Tennessee Department of
Based on these principles, the task force made 16
Education’s 2015 Educator Survey, 69 percent of
recommendations. Key recommendations included:
teachers thought students spend too much time
taking statewide standardized exams and 62 percent
of teachers thought they spend too much time
preparing for statewide exams.74 At the same time,
a statewide public opinion survey commissioned by
the Tennessee Association of Business Foundation
in April 2015 found that 43 percent of Tennessee
voters thought students in public schools were given
the right amount of tests, while 35 percent thought
• Improving transparency by releasing test
items for students, parents, and educators
• Eliminating the kindergarten and first grade
standardized test option
• Eliminating the 8th grade EXPLORE test and
the 10th grade PLAN test
• Providing expectations to districts
students were given too many tests. Half of parents
regarding formative assessment usage and
in the same survey thought that students took the
communication
right amount of tests.75
In September 2015, the task force released its final
report. Through this report, the task force proposed
guiding principles for summative standardized
assessments, formative assessments, and test
preparation and logistics.
• Creating additional input opportunities for
parents on the issue of assessment
• Ensuring that institutions of higher education
validate and use TNReady as a measure of
postsecondary and career readiness and as a
tool to determine remedial placement76
To support the work of the task force and gather
critical feedback from educators on the issue of
assessment, SCORE conducted surveys, interviews,
and focus groups with teachers, principals, and
district leaders with the goal of identifying successes
27