TNReady. In the 2015-16 school year, Tennessee will
implement a new assessment, called TNReady, which
was developed in partnership with Measurement
Inc. following the RFP process outlined previously.
TNReady assessments align with Tennessee’s State
Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics.
TNReady replaces the old TCAP tests for English
• Improved alignment with Tennessee’s State
Standards: The standards teachers teach in
their classrooms will be the same standards
that are assessed on TNReady.68 Additionally,
if changes are made to Tennessee’s State
Standards, TNReady will be adjusted to
maintain alignment with the standards.
Language Arts, Math, and Writing in grades 3-11 and
will be different from Tennessee’s previous TCAP
The Tennessee Department of Education has taken
assessments in several ways.66 Differences include:
several steps to help educators and students
• Online administration: Students take
prepare for the new TNReady assessment. During
the 2014-15 school year, the Tennessee Department
TNReady on a desktop computer, laptop,
of Education offered Assessment Information
or tablet. For schools that do not have the
Meetings in each region of the state. The Tennessee
capacity to administer the test online, a paper
Department of Education also offered follow-up
and pencil version is available. In summer
Assessment Information Meetings in October 2015.
2015, the Tennessee Department of Education
These meetings were targeted at district leaders
surveyed schools and districts about their
and covered a variety of information on TNReady,
readiness to take the new assessment online.
including test scheduling, technology requirements,
More than 99 percent of schools reported
test design and item types, and accommodations and
their networks met the requirements outlined
accessibility features. The Tennessee Department of
by the state to administer the assessment
Education’s spring 2015 Leadership Course for school
online, and 90 percent of schools reported
leaders and Summer Trainings for teachers also
they had an adequate number of devices to
included information about the new assessment.69
administer the test online.
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• Two parts: Students will take TNReady Part
I in February or March 2016. Part I of the
assessment includes constructed response
and essay questions. Students will take Part
II in April or May. Part II consists of multiplechoice and short-answer questions. High
school students on a fall block schedule took
Part I of TNReady in November and Part II of
TNReady in December.
• Testing windows: Four-week testing windows
give districts and schools more flexibility to
decide when students will take the TNReady
tests and minimize disruption to instructional
time. While these testing windows are
longer than in previous years, students
will spend a similar amount of time on the
TNReady assessment as they did on TCAP
Achievement Tests and End of Course exams.
In addition to these informational meetings and
trainings, the Tennessee Department of Education
made two online tools available to teachers, students,
and parents to help them prepare for TNReady.
The first is a TNReady Item Sampler, available on
a website called MICA. Teachers gained access to
MICA in May 2015, and students were able to log
into the site in September. Through MICA, teachers
and students can access sample questions for each
grade level and subject that are similar to the items
that will be on TNReady. The Tennessee Department
of Education also offers an online TNReady Practice
Test. This practice test uses the MIST testing
platform, the same platform that will be used for the
actual test. The TNReady Practice Test was first made
available in September 2015. Nearly 1.5 million practice
tests were completed during the first practice test
period. Practice tests will be available in January and
March 2016.70
• New question types: TNReady moves
beyond multiple-choice items and asks
After the TNReady assessment was developed,
students to solve multi-step problems, write
higher education faculty from Tennessee institutions
extended responses, and support their
evaluated the TNReady assessment for alignment
answers with evidence.
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