TN Dept of Education Delays Plan To Score Public Schools For Fifth Straight Year

Image Credit: TN Dept of Education / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn informed school districts last week that the TDOE will once again delay giving Tennessee’s 1,800 plus public schools A-F scores that indicates their academic effectiveness.

In a letter to Tennessee School Districts, acquired by Chalkbeat Tennessee, Schwinn stated her decision was based on an inconsistency in data caused by three straight years of disruptions by the pandemic.

She stated that there has been uneven participation rates of students taking the TCAP tests and that the State relies heavily on those test results viewed over several years when evaluating the effectiveness of districts, schools, teachers and overall student growth.

Further, Schwinn stated that nearly a quarter of Tennessee public schools did not reach the 95% national standard of student participation in standardized state testing during the 2020-2021 school year.

This delay means that parents and stakeholders in Tennessee will continue to not have “official” information about school quality in their locales for yet another year.  

The lack of implementation of the grading system goes against a 2016 state law that aimed to grade Tennessee schools much as a student is graded on his or her report card using an A to F grading system.  The law changed the previous grading system that rated schools on a scale of one to five.  

The new school grading system was planned to be put into effect in 2018 but the pause button has been repeatedly pushed by the Department of Education since then.

The first time the pause button was pushed was due to “online testing problems” that may have affected the reliability of 2018 test scores.  This led to emergency legislation being passed by Tennessee lawmakers so that “no adverse action” could be taken against students, teachers, schools or districts based on the standardized test results.

Then along came 2020 and the pandemic with the response being a cancellation of state testing throughout the nation.

And in 2021, the TCAP results showed a dramatic increase in learning loss brought about by virtual learning, shuttered schools and restrictive mandates.

However, in 2021, Tennessee did report a participation rate in the TCAPs much higher than expected, despite the policies implemented during COVID.

For 2022, the TCAP scores have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, but Schwinn is holding to the “inconsistent” participation in the test as a reason for not holding schools accountable.

Meanwhile, Tennessee parents and stakeholders have been forced to turn to other avenues to garner information about public schools since the state’s online report card has been inaccessible since late Spring.

In mid August, the Tennessee Comptroller’s office released a new interactive online dashboard on K-12 education. The dashboard provides updated education data on schools and school districts for the 2020-21 school year.

There are two dashboards: one for public schools and one for non-public schools.

The dashboards include data on teacher salaries, student enrollment, school building quality, and state and local funding. Users can filter the maps by school district, school, and legislative districts.

The interactive maps included within the dashboards allow users to drill down into individual school data. For example, a user can see the graduation rate and average ACT score within a particular high school.

“This resource provides Tennesseans easy access to a variety of helpful information,” said Comptroller Jason Mumpower. “Parents, in particular, can learn more about how education is working within their cities, counties, and individual school buildings. As Tennessee continues to invest in public education, it’s important that all citizens have easy access to this information.”

The public schools dashboard provides a variety of school and district data, including:

• Number of schools, classrooms, and students in a district;
• Student demographics for special education, economically disadvantaged, and English Learners;
• Salary averages for educators, instructors, principals, and superintendents; and,
• Per pupil expenditures by school for federal and state and local funding.

Schwinn told superintendents that the state will publish the updated school report card late November this year.

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