2018 TNReady Scores Show Overall Decline With A Few Silver Linings

The 2018 TNReady test scores were released this week, and they show Tennessee students did slightly worse this year in most subjects, but not all.

Middle school students did worse across the board, while elementary students saw an improvement in English language arts and a decline in science scores.

About 300 thousand students took the online exams earlier this spring, and a small percentage of them faced technical glitches.

Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen said the disruption had “a minimal impact” on the scores.

“We think that this is data that folks can still learn much from,” McQueen said in a media conference call.

The Department of Education will recommend that schools use the data as a factor when they are planning for the next year, but the scores will not be used to rate teachers or grade students.

Hillwood High School Executive Principal Steve Scheaffer said that some students might not have taken the test seriously because this was the second year that online exams had problems.

“Kids aren’t stupid. Once they figure out the test doesn’t count, you can’t always say everyone gave their best effort,” Scheaffer said. “But on the other hand, our kids want to do well. I think the data is as valid as we can ask for.”

Earlier reports indicated that a cyberattack was what took TNReady exams down, but it was actually the testing company’s own programmers who caused the problem.

“I think they lost a lot of confidence in the last couple of years,” Scheaffer said. “We were reassured it wouldn’t fail and yet we had some hiccups.”

Individual school data for the TNReady exams will be released in the coming weeks.

For the 2018 TNReady exams, students who scored well enough to be on-track or have mastered the course were considered proficient. 

Elementary school statewide proficiency average:

• 35.7 percent for ELA, up from 33.9 percent in 2017
• 40 percent for math, same as 2017
• 56 percent for science, down from 58.6 percent in 2017

Middle school statewide proficiency average:

• 32.1 percent for ELA, down from 33.5 percent in 2017
• 34.6 percent for math, down from 35.7 percent in 2017
• 60.2 percent for science, down from 62.2 percent in 2017

High school statewide proficiency average:

• 29.4 percent for ELA, down from 34.6 percent in 2017
• 22.5 percent for math, up from 21.5 percent in 2017
• 45.3 percent in science, down from 51 percent in 2017
• 27.8 percent for U.S. history, down from 30.8 percent in 2017