Waiting Continues For Test Scores

Tennessee teachers have seen how their students performed on achievement tests taken in the spring. Parents know too, because their child’s scores were mailed in October. But individual schools and districts still don’t know if they did well enough to avoid being labeled struggling or failing.

Official test scores should be released by the end of November or early December. Usually, they’re released in the summer. The delay is due to tougher achievement tests this year.

To ease the transition to tougher standards, the state Department of Education lowered the number of questions students had to get to right to pass. The federal government still has to sign off on those changes.

The delay of scores doesn’t come as a surprise to districts, but Metro Schools Director Jesse Register says it makes it difficult to know which schools need more attention.

“My concern is, the later in the school year we get, the harder it is for us to adjust instruction for this year based on that data.”

Register says teachers do have the power to start addressing kids’ individual academic weaknesses since they have access to students’ tests, and can see what skills they struggled with.

This year, if the Metro school system does not meet federal benchmarks, the state could take over the district.