Teaching Testing and Time | Page 4

SCORE shared ongoing feedback collected from teachers, principals, and district leaders with the Assessment Practices Task Force, providing the group with critical information to inform their discussions. The Tennessee Department of Education will also release a report, independent from SCORE’s report, summarizing the task force’s findings and recommendations. Informed by surveys, interviews, and focus groups with teachers, principals, and district leaders, this report provides an overview of assessment practices in the state, with a focus on summative and interim assessments. More specifically, the report seeks to address the following key questions: • What are best practices in the selection and implementation of interim and benchmark assessments? • How do districts in Tennessee use data from interim and benchmark assessments to drive instruction and strategic decisions? • What challenges do district leaders, principals, and teachers face with assessments? • What type of interim assessments (vendor, subject area, grade level, etc.) are districts in Tennessee currently implementing and for what purpose? • How do districts select interim and benchmark assessments? What processes exist at the district level to select and evaluate interim assessments? • How much time do students spend taking assessments in Tennessee? The report begins with a brief history of assessments in Tennessee and an overview of the data collected to inform key research questions. The report then provides an overview of findings from surveys and focus groups conducted with teachers, principals, and district leaders related to assessment practices in Tennessee. Primary findings include: • Teachers, principals, and district leaders continuously pointed to the unique value of assessment in driving key decisions at the classroom, school, and district levels. For example, educators discussed using data from assessments to drive instruction, teacher support practices, and student interventions. • 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 lost instructional time as a result of both district- and state-level assessments as a top challenge faced in their roles. The report concludes with a discussion of next steps based on these findings. 4