and challenges related to state- and district-level
State Board of Education in July 2013.78 The results of
assessments. In September, SCORE released the
the field test did not factor into students’ grades or
findings of this work in a report, Teaching, Testing,
teachers’ evaluation scores.
and Time: Educator Voices on Improving Assessment
in Tennessee. Key takeaways from this report include:
• Teachers, principals, and district leaders
In 2015-16, Tennessee’s new social studies
assessment will be fully implemented. Results from
this assessment will factor into students’ grades and
continuously pointed to the unique value
teachers’ evaluations. Students will take the test
of assessment in driving key decisions at
in two parts using the same online platform they
the classroom, school, and district levels.
use for TNReady. Unlike the previous social studies
For example, educators discussed using
assessment, the new assessment includes an
data from assessments to drive instruction,
extended response component, which asks students
teacher support practices, and student
to support their answers with evidence from a non-
interventions.
fiction text.79
• District leaders and principals consistently
identified assessment logistics, such as
scheduling assessments and implementing
technology-based assessments, as top
challenges faced in their roles.
• Teachers consistently identified instructional
time lost because of both district- and statelevel assessments as a top challenge faced
in their roles.77
During SCORE’s 2015 Listening Tour, educators voiced
some concern regarding the new social studies
assessment. While most agree that the previous
social studies test did not challenge students
sufficiently, many educators
feel that the new assessment is
too difficult. Many schools also
experienced technical difficulties
during online administration of a
pilot test, which led to the transition
Social Studies Assessment. In the 2014-15 school
to the MIST platform for further
year, Tennessee field-tested a new social studies
online social studies assessment
assessment. This assessment was designed to align
with Tennessee’s new academic standards for social
studies and US History, which were approved by the
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