From the Dickson Herald, via the Tennessean:
Dickson County Schools have delayed administering the paper version of the state’s new TN Ready standardized tests until March 7 after a delay in receiving the testing materials, the schools director said.
Schools Director Dr. Danny Weeks alerted parents to the issue in a SchoolReach phone message and he also discussed the matter with the county School Board on Thursday night.
Educators and parents had prepared for administering the paper tests on Monday. However, Weeks said the school system had not yet received confirmation the print testing materials had yet shipped Thursday.
The TN Ready tests were first delayed when the online exam version experienced a technology failure Feb. 8 – the first day that online testing platform was used.
About the paper testing materials, Weeks said “because shipping could take two or three days, the school system had no confidence that the test materials would arrive in time for (Monday) testing.”
“Additionally, tests must be unboxed, labeled, and organized once they arrive at schools,” he added. “Lacking any specific information regarding test delivery, school and district leaders decided to move back the testing window to March 7-11.”
Weeks went on to say that each change in date and testing method “further complicates the already difficult transition from traditional testing to TNReady tests.”
“With online testing, students expected to have a calculator built into the test program on the computer, so the school district made no investments in calculators and trained students to use technology-based tools,” Weeks said in a statement. “Now that the test has been moved to a paper version, Dickson County Schools has had to purchase $12,000 in new calculators to make sure that every student had the necessary tools to be successful.”
Weeks said that students with learning difficulties will not have “appropriate accommodations that would have been available had schools known about paper testing earlier in the year.”
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