Hamilton County school board votes to reduce benchmark testing
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- “It has taken a long time for benchmarks and the problems that surrounded them to even get any attention at all, so I’m grateful.”
Lori Powell taught in Hamilton County Schools for decades, and says she firsthand saw the changes that benchmark testing brought to the classroom.
These tests are separate from the end of year TCAP tests, as students in recent years have had to take eight separate benchmark tests, which administrators say are designed to measure the progress of student achievement at different points throughout the school year.
However, those tests have increasingly been criticized for stifling teachers and reducing student progress to their scores.
Powell explained in her experience, the test would have issues as on one science test, “My friend and I looked at the question and said, ‘We think we know what the answer is, but that’s not what they saying the real answer is.’ and situations like that where the person that wrote the test was given a list of standards and told to create a test that tested those standards. That person has no idea how it is actually being taught by a specific person in a specific Tennessee classroom.”
She sent a letter to the school board asking for a reduction in benchmark testing, in addition to concerns about the impact on learning, it was requiring a lot of resources.
Powell said, “I think people hear test assessment and they think, ‘Oh one day, two hour test’, but in actuality benchmarks start way before the test window starts.”
Several of the school board members like Ben Daugherty of District 2 agreed that the amount of tests should be reduced, as the board voted to reduce the amount of total benchmark tests per year to four tests.
Daugherty said,”The annual physical as a human being, you go once a year right that’s a pattern interruption for your day. You don’t do your blood work one day and you come back next week to have your conversation with your doctor, you do it all in one pass.”
However, administrators like Chief Talent Officer Blake Freeman warned the board that in their view, just one benchmark test is not enough to evaluate student progress.
Freeman explained, “Before the first benchmark assessment, the predictive nature of how those students should do will have been placed into an algorithm that is used by the vendor that we use.”
Powell says from her perspective, testing frequency should be left up to teachers.
She said, “When I was teaching, we were allowed to look at our students, work with them to assess and make plans and we saw a lot of growth because we personally knew those students.”
The school board still has to determine what subjects those tests will cover and when they will be.
Administrators suggested that they be split into two English/language arts and two math exams, but there was no consensus on if that should be the plan or one exam for four different subjects including science and social studies.
