Briefing on 2017 NAEP and 2018 TNReady

Briefing on 2017 NAEP and 2018 TNReady Commissioner Candice McQueen | Monday, April 9 Agenda 2017 NAEP Context on purpose and last 10 years Overview of national results Overview of Tennessee results 2018 TNReady

Context on purpose Structure of the 2018 exam Preparations for online phase-in Score delivery timeline NEW: Assessment Task Force recommendations on EOCs Questions 2

Context on Purpose of NAEP and the Last 10 Years NAEP Serves as a National Benchmark The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, is called the nations report card because it is the only national survey of students progress over time It is useful to monitor the big picture and trends, and it serves as one helpful feedback loop More useful to use NAEP to look for patterns, not for

immediate reaction to a single data point It aims to capture what students know and is considered a rigorous assessment, but it is unclear how NAEP matches up with states standards in terms of year-byyear alignment 4 2007 NAEP Resulted in Call to Action After the 2007 NAEP results, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave Tennessee an F in Truth in Advertising

Percent of students who were on track according to 2007 TCAP and NAEP exams 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

2007 TCAP 2007 NAEP 5 Overview of 2017 National Results Context for 2017 NAEP 2017 NAEP included 4th and 8th grade math and reading

These results are from an exam taken about 14 months ago NAEP was administered online for the first time About 80% of students took the exam online and 20% took it on paper, but the paper results were only used for a linking study In TN, about 3,000 students take each exam and serve as a representative sample Tennessee made historic gains in 2013 that were maintained in 2015 Since then, we have made significant transitions:

New academic standards in math and English language arts New assessment with TNReady New accountability system New federal law with the Every Student Succeeds Act 7 Overview of 2017 National Results The nation was generally flat last year, with the only area of statistically significant growth in 8th grade reading 10 states improved statistically; one decreased

In 4th grade math, 10 states saw a statistical decrease and one improved In 4th grade reading, nine states saw a statistical decrease and zero improved In 8th grade math, three saw statistical decreases and two had gains Some gaps widened: there were decreases for lower performers and increases for higher performers 8 Overview of 2017 Tennessee

Results Overview of 2017 Tennessee Results In three of the four areas, there was no statistically significant change from 2015, and in one area grade 4 math we were one of the 10 states that saw a decrease Similar to what was seen nationally, the lower performers lost some ground Tennessee has essentially maintained progress since the 2013 gains and through recent transitions, but has not had additional growth

These results are not surprising as they mirror what we saw in the first year of TNReady in grades 4 and 8 While we always want to see more improvement, we are encouraged to see Tennessee students growth so far has been sustained 10 11 Overview of 2017 Tennessee Results We still are working toward being in the top 25 of all states, and were proud of the progress weve shown since the 2007 call to

action and from when Gov. Haslam came into office in 2011 But we recognize that we still have room to grow and ground to gain 12 How We are Learning from the Results Our policy foundation is the right one. But we must provide consistency instead of continuing to change. We have successfully improved our schools since 2011, when in every ranking we were among the bottom 40something states Now, we are solidly sitting several spots higher than where we were less than a decade ago In general, we are closing the gap between Tennessee

students and the national average Our educators have navigated huge changes in the last couple of years we need to provide them time to dig into this work instead of constantly changing course 13 14 How We are Learning from the Results We have closed the honesty gap between what we say on our state test and what NAEP indicates the reason we were given an F in 2007

In 2017, for the first time ever, our NAEP results and TNReady results show the same thing And weve done this while continuing to improve: Every NAEP scale score is higher than it was in 2007, and more students are proficient Because of this alignment, we are even more confident in the feedback we get from TNReady Every year, TNReady will provide us with detailed feedback on how our students are performing and where we need to focus 15

Where We Were in 2007 Percent of students who were on track according to 2007 TCAP and NAEP exams 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

2007 TCAP 2007 NAEP 16 17 How We are Learning from the Results We need to support our teachers in more targeted ways to take our progress to the next level. We think what we are doing with early grades reading

shows promise. Now, we want to scale up that intense focus on literacy to support teachers in the upper grades. We see a needed area of focus in math which mirrors what we see in key weaknesses from TNReady. Now, were revisiting what that support looks like to help our educators better teach the full depth of each standard. 18 We are Encouraged and Optimistic *Tennessee 8th grade reading increased 3 points, but it was not

statistically significantly different from 2011 Modified from an analysis originally run by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute 19 We are Encouraged and Optimistic Looking at the big picture and long-term trends, Tennessee is still one of the hottest states in the nation in terms of growth

We now must accelerate our foundational progress by staying the course and continuing to go deeper in instructional practice 20 Takeaways We have the right foundation. We have been through many transitions over the past three years. Stability matters so we can dig deeper. We now have state standards and an assessment that closes the honesty gap so our TNReady results give greater year-by-year information that is as rigorous as

NAEP and gives more details that assist with instructional changes. Tennessee is still one of the fastest improving states in the country we need to keep moving forward. 21 Questions? General Context on TNReady Purpose of TNReady

TNReady is our best way to see what our students know and are able to do each year, and it provides an apples-to-apples measure across the state to gauge student achievement and growth This helps us identify where we can learn from what is working and where more support is needed, whether in a specific district, for a specific group of students, or in a content area It is one and just one data point, but an important one to monitor individual student, school, district and state growth TNReady Helps Us Gauge Mastery of the

Tennessee Academic Standards TNReady has different types of questions to help us see the full depth of students understanding, including fill in the blank, multiple choice, multiple select, matching, graphing, and writing items On one section of the math exam, students cannot use a calculator We provide educators with assessment blueprints to help them plan TNReady Sample Answer Document Hand written answers like #3,

#4, and #7 will be hand scored. TNReady is Designed to be Minimally Disruptive to Students Schedules TNReady is broken into smaller subparts that can fit into the typical school bell schedule Overall time of each section varies by grade and content area Decisions about when to schedule TNReady over the testing window, including whether to schedule sections over multiple days or combine subparts for a longer

sitting, are local decisions We want to create the option to make it as least disruptive as possible, which furthers the goal of having assessments be a natural part of the teaching and learning cycle Variety of Additional Info at TNReady.gov We have posted several resources, including an overview of the structure for each grade, at TNReady.gov We also have posted the released test items from the 2016-17 exam 28

2017-2018 TNReady Administration & Phase into Online 2018 TNReady Context The 2018 spring testing window is April 16-May 4 2017-18 is the third year of TNReady for high school students and the second year for grades 3-8 About 600,000 students in grades 3-11 will take TNReady All high school students now take TNReady completely online

We have been phasing into online In spring 2017, more than 30,000 students successfully took TNReady online with very few, if any, issues Students completed nearly 200,000 subparts via the online platform in schools across 24 districts, including both urban and rural areas of our state Further Context on High School Testing High schools are either structured with: A traditional schedule, meaning students take one course over two semesters, or A block schedule, where one course is fit within a single semester, similar to a college course

We have 97 school districts who have some or all of their high schools on block schedules Students take their TNReady end-of-course (EOC) exam at the conclusion of the course, either in the fall or spring Currently, over the course of their high school career, students take EOC exams in English language arts (3), math (3), science (2), and social studies (1) These are generally completed by the end of their junior year 31 Successful 2017 Fall Block Administration Last fall, 266 high schools across 97 districts

successfully completed TNReady fall block end-ofcourse testing completely online Nearly 120,000 TNReady EOC tests, which included more than 300,000 subparts, were taken on the online Nextera platform With our new improvements in data flow and optimization, students raw scores were returned the first week of January, as promised Structure of grades 3-8 Students in grades 3-8 take an exam each year in math, English language arts, science, and social studies For 2018, we have cut the testing time in half for grades 3 and 4 science and social studies

Districts had the option to put some or all of their students in grades 5-8 online 313 schools across 59 districts are opting in this year All of grades 5-8 will be online in 2018-19 Grade Percentage of grade 5 15% 6

34% 7 35% 8 36% Supporting the Online Phase-in In addition to taking a more measured pace to phasing in,

we are also working with districts and teachers in new ways to prepare for online New protocols to ensure accurate data before testing and to speed up delivery of results, as well as checks for technical readiness New resources and tools like the Classroom Assessment Builder Opportunities to practice on the online platform, Nextera Additional collaboration with our vendor to proactively identify issues and develop multiple ways to address issues during the assessment window as quickly as possible 34

2018 Score Delivery Timeline Score Delivery Timeline For 2017-18: Raw scores will be back to high schools on May 22 and to grades 3-8 on June 15 Paper processing (delivery and scanning) takes longer Detailed score reports will be available over the summer For 2018-19: Generally, raw score delivery will move to end of May when most grades move to online testing Tennessee continues to provide scores to educators and

teachers earlier than the majority of states 36 District Option for Student Scores Starting last November, we asked districts whether given this expected timing for score return they plan to include TNReady results in student grades per state law State law allows districts to choose whether to include TNReady scores in student grades if raw score data is not received within five instructional days of the end of the year About half of our 147 districts plan to include TNReady in students grades for high school and most will not do so in grades 3-8 this year

Summary Will Will Not N/A Total No Response Grades 3-8

15 129 1 145 2 EOC

71 72 2 145 2 37 NEW: Assessment

Task Force Recommendations 38 Assessment Task Force 3.0 Goals The Assessment Task Force reconvened in December Materials and a recording can be accessed on the departments website Goals of the reconvened task force: Make recommendations for further improvements, including a review of 11th grade testing Review the first full year (2016-17) of grades 38 and EOC TNReady exams, including timeline and results

Review the first year of the optional grade 2 TNReady exam Review of district formative assessments and alignment to standards and TNReady expectations NEW: Todays Recommendations While the task force will continue meeting for the next few months, they reached consensus on three recommendations after months of analysis and feedback. These recommendations will be discussed on Monday: Eliminate the chemistry end-of-course exam; use statedeveloped chemistry test form as option for local administration and scoring Eliminate the English III end-of-course exam; additionally, the department will prioritize adding a statewide dual credit

English composition option that will be available beginning in 2019-20 Collaborate with TBR to use U.S. History end-of-course exam as dual credit exam and set cut scores for college credit NEW: Other Changes for 2018-19 These will complement other TNReady changes for next year (2018-19): Eliminating the stand-alone field test for next two years Reducing time on the English language arts exam in grades 3 and 4 to make it a combined 78 minutes shorter

41 Questions?