DOE Threatens TN Dept of Education Funding For Alleged Assessment, Accountability Issues
Image Credit: Tennessee Department of Education / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has placed a condition on a grant to the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) citing assessment and accountability issues and has threatened further enforcement actions unless resolved.
The DOE alleges that the TDOE failed to comply with federal assessment reporting standards in 2021.
In a letter addressed to Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn from James F. Lane, Senior Advisor in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education, Lane writes, “The assessment and accountability compliance issues are significant because they not only impact the State’s ability to provide clear and transparent information to the public about school performance, but also result in the State using information that is not comparable across schools in TDOE’s statewide accountability system.”
Lane continues, “As a result, I am placing a condition on TDOE’s Title I, Part A grant award until such time as these issues are fully resolved. In order to remove this condition, TDOE must address the items as described below. If TDOE fails to meet these requirements, the Department may take additional enforcement action.”
In the letter, several points are outlined in which he alleges that Tennessee did not meet DOE requirements under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.
DOE findings from a 2021 Performance Review of the TDOE, revealed that Tennessee allegedly failed to implement assessment and accountability requirements under Title I.
The letter states that under the ESEA, each statewide assessment a State administers for Title I purposes must be administered to all students in the State (with limited exceptions for alternate assessments for children with the most significant cognitive disabilities and any other flexibilities approved by the Department). The State must use the same assessments for purposes of calculating participation and proficiency rates for the State’s Academic Achievement indicator as part of its statewide accountability system, public reporting on State and local report cards, and reporting assessment results to the Department via EDFacts.
In addition, a State must submit all assessments used for Title I purposes for review through the Department’s assessment peer review process.
The DOE identified several failures related to TDOE’s State assessments for the 2018-2019 school year, specifically:
• For its statewide high school mathematics and reading/language arts assessments for Title I, TDOE has been using six end-of-course mathematics assessments (one progression of Integrated Math I, II, and III and another progression of Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry) and English I and English II. In the Performance Review, TDOE was not able to demonstrate that its approach of basing participation rate calculations on student enrollment in courses aligned to its high school assessments includes all students for each of the end-of-course assessments.
• Though TDOE has been administering two different progressions of three high school mathematics assessments and also administering English I and II assessments in high school for Title I assessment and accountability purposes, TDOE has been reporting only results from Algebra I, Integrated Math I, and English II assessments on State and local report cards and to the Department via EDFacts. This practice is inconsistent with Title I requirements that a State use the same statewide assessments for all Title I purposes.
• TDOE has extended implementation of the eighth-grade mathematics assessment exception allowable under ESEA section 1111(b)(2)(C) to lower grades and other subjects without approval to do so (i.e., the State has not requested, and the Department has not granted, a waiver to permit this practice).
• In addition, TDOE’s second response to the Department’s feedback (June 6, 2022) identified a non-compliant practice regarding statewide assessment requirements. For students in grade 11 who do not take an assessment in one of TDOE’s two progressions of mathematics assessments but who have a valid ACT or SAT test result for mathematics for the school year, TDOE has been using the students’ ACT or SAT results in place of results for a statewide assessment. However, the ESEA does not permit the use of substitute assessments. Therefore, any student who does not take one of the three mathematics assessments must be determined to be a non participant for that assessment when calculating the cohort-based participation rate.
The DOE required that the TDOE address the above “issues” for the 2021-22 school year.
However, the DOE points out that Tennessee did not adequately address the issues, instead on
June 6th, 2022 the TDOE submitted plans and timelines for steps it intended to take to determine how to resolve the issues for the 2022-2023 school year.
The DOE states that the TDOE must submit the following information within 30 business days, beginning with data from the 2021-2022 school year for accountability determinations in fall 2022.
• Evidence that TDOE no longer includes in its assessment results (participation and achievement) for ESEA Title I purposes any assessment that is not part of its statewide assessment system.
In addition, the DOE states that by no later than December 1st, 2022, the TDOE must provide:
• Documentation of the assessments TDOE will administer for the 2022-2023 school year, and future school years, for all Title I purposes – which must be the same assessment across all three purposes.
• Revised business rules for calculating high school assessment participation rates for the 2022- 2023 school year and future years that are consistent with all Title I requirements, including counting all students once for each statewide assessment TDOE administers for ESEA Title I purposes.
• Evidence that, for the 2022-2023 school year, TDOE will require all students to take the grade-level assessments for the grade in which the student is enrolled; implement the eighth grade mathematics assessment exception consistent with TDOE’s approved ESEA consolidated State plan and all applicable requirements; or submit a waiver request to extend the eighth-grade mathematics assessment exception to reading/language arts and lower grades in both mathematics and reading/language arts (note that a State may not implement a waiver unless and until the waiver is approved by the Department).
Read the full letter HERE.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
I certainly agree that the TDOE is one screwed up mess but I resent idiots from Washington sticking their noses in. They are overstepping their authority by leaps and bounds. If we chopped Washington in half, the Government would still be too big. TDOE, get your act together for the benefit of the kids, not the unions or the Government. If you don’t, I look at you as just another department that needs to be dismantled.
TDOE needs to get their act together and tell Washington to mind their own business. Schools are screwed up enough without them. Keep their useless grants with too many strings attached.