Teacher Survey: Overall, the benefits to my students from benchmark assessments are worth
the time and effort.
Strongly Agree - 4%
Agree
33%
Srongly
Disagree
18%
Disagree
45%
Figure 17
During focus groups and interviews, teachers, principals, and district leaders discussed common challenges faced with interim
assessments. Teachers, principals, and district leaders often discussed time spent on assessments, logistical challenges
related to scheduling and technology, funding, and lack of access to high-quality interim assessments.
As Tennessee transitions to technology-based assessments for its statewide summative assessments, many districts have
tried to adopt technology-based interim assessments. In focus groups, many teachers and principals indicated that while
technology-based assessments have benefits, they also create logistical challenges in implementation. Many teachers
and principals discussed challenges related to glitches with technology, scheduling time in computer labs, and student
preparedness for technology-based assessments.
Many teachers and principals also discussed limitations in the quality of district- or school-level interim assessments. As
mentioned earlier, one of the primary uses of interim assessments in many districts is to predict student performance on
statewide summative assessments. Many teachers and principals indicated that while many vendors claim interim assessments
accurately predict student performance on TCAP assessments, this was often not the case. An elementary school teacher
stated:
“I was told that Discovery Education Assessments didn’t really align to TCAP. A lot of our kids scored
advanced and proficient on Discovery Education all year, and then they got to TCAP and were below basic
and basic.”
Many teachers also indicated district- or school-level interim assessments were limited in terms of the information they
provided teachers. Teachers noted these interim assessments lack the specificity needed to guide their instruction and meet
students’ needs. An elementary school teacher in one of our focus groups said:
“At the elementary level, we have an interim assessment three times a year on the computer that I think is
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