2015-16 Public Education in Tennessee: A Policymaker’s Guide | Page 13

ASSESSMENT

November 2014: The Central Procurement Office selected the

High-quality assessments should guide the instruction of
teachers, help students and parents to measure student
progress on standards, and support students’ development
of the skills and competencies the workforce demands.8
Research finds that the content and format of assessments
affect teachers’ instruction of academic standards.9 Thus,
while academic standards create a map for more rigorous
instruction and learning in Tennessee, if student progress on
these standards is not measured with a high-quality, aligned
assessment, it is unlikely that the standards will achieve
their instructional and student achievement goals.

The purpose of educational assessment is to provide
educators, parents, and students with information that
helps them better understand students’ strengths and
opportunities for growth. This information allows teachers
to more effectively meet students’ unique needs and to
recognize opportunities for instructional improvement. For
this reason, continued attention must be paid to the quality
of Tennessee’s statewide assessments, ensuring they provide
parents, educators, policymakers, and the public with the
information they need to support student learning.

TOPIC TIMELINE

TEACHER EVALUATION

Here are key recent events in educational assessment in Tennessee:

Research demonstrates that teachers have a greater
impact on students’ academic growth than any other
in-school factor.14 For this reason, shifts in policy and
practice related to teaching quality have the potential to
minimize achievement gaps and yield large and sustainable
improvements in student achievement levels. To maximize
student access to high-quality teaching, it is important
to have an evaluation system that provides an accurate
assessment of teaching effectiveness.15 Prior to 2011, most
teacher evaluation systems in Tennessee relied only on
classroom observations and most teachers were rarely
evaluated. Further, teacher evaluations often did not consider
measures of student learning.16 The result was an evaluation
process that did little to provide teachers with actionable
feedback.

1988: Standardized assessments were first implemented

through the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment
Program (TCAP). TCAP is a series of achievement tests that
were designed and implemented to measure student
progress on Tennessee’s academic standards.

2001: Tennessee expanded TCAP as a result of No Child Left
Behind (NCLB), requiring assessments in grades 3-12 in
English language arts, math, science, and social studies.10
However, only mathematics and reading assessments were
used for accountability purposes under NCLB. Since NCLB,
TCAP has been the centerpiece of the state’s accountability
system, using students’ scores on standardized
assessments as a central measurement of school and
teacher performance.11
2011: As a result of the adoption of the Common Core State
Standards in math and English language arts, Tennessee
committed to implementing an assessment aligned to the
new math and English language arts standards that could
be administered online. Tennessee became a governing
state in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers (PARCC) in 2010, with the intention of
implementing the PARCC assessment in the 2014-15 school
year.
May 2014: Senate Bill 1835/House Bill 1549 delayed the

implementation of PARCC, which was set to replace TCAP
assessments in English language arts and math in the
2014-15 school year. This legislation also required that a
new assessment system be selected through a competitive
bidding process.12

July 2014: Tennessee’s Central Procurement Office issued a

Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new statewide assessment
in English language arts and math. Any assessment
vendor throughout the country was eligible to apply. The
RFP established that the contract would be awarded to the
vendor that could most effectively meet the assessment
needs of Tennessee schools.13

assessment proposal from Measurement Inc.

Over the last few years, Tennessee made significant
changes in teacher evaluation. Teacher evaluation today
incorporates multiple measures of teaching quality including
student growth data, classroom observations, and student
surveys. This allows Tennessee’s teacher evaluations to
more effectively inform teacher support, which can result
in improved instruction for students.17 With the passage
of the First to the Top Act of 2010, Tennessee became one
of the first states to adopt a comprehensive, statewide,
annual teacher evaluation system based in part on student
achievement measures. Tennessee’s teacher evaluation uses
the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS) to
measure student learning growth from one year to the next.18
TVAAS allows for the creation of “individual growth scores”
for teachers who teach a “tested” subject, such as math or
English language arts. However, other teachers who teach
a “non-tested” subject, such as art, do not have individual
growth scores. In most cases, teachers of non-tested
subjects have a school-wide growth measure included in
their evaluation. In addition, evaluations include classroom
observations, other student achievement data, and in some
cases student surveys.19

Public Education in Tennesee | 13