Haslam Issues Statement on Termination of Statewide Assessment Contract

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today issued the following statement regarding the announcement that the Tennessee Department of Education is terminating its contract with Measurement, Inc., the vendor awarded the statewide assessment contract:

“I share along with many teachers, students and parents a profound frustration with the lack of performance by the state’s education testing vendor and the subsequent challenges that failure has created. Annual assessments are essential to measuring our progress and providing the information we need to make improvements. Over the past few years, Tennessee has seen momentum in education, and we’re proud of the hard work of our teachers and students. The failure of the testing vendor to deliver the tests and meet its own obligations does not take away from the fact that Tennessee has created our own, higher standards, we have an improved assessment fully aligned with those standards, and we remain committed going forward to measuring student performance fairly and ensuring accountability for those results.”

The Department of Education’s press release can be viewed at this link: http://tn.gov/education/news/39912.

The Department of Education has also created a frequently asked questions document, which can be found at this link: https://tn.gov{filedir_42}tnready_faq_suspension.pdf.