House subcommittee advances legislation that would reduce high school testing

House K-12 Subcommittee (Photo by Jordan Adams)

Members of the House K-12 Subcommittee advanced Representatives Mark Cochran’s, R-Englewood, legislation Tuesday that would reduce the number of tests high school students take and weaken the evaluation system teachers face. 

The subcommittee adopted subcommittee chair Kirk Haston’s, R-Lobelville, amendment to Cochran’s bill that alters high school testing, but not elementary and middle school assessments.

Currently high school students take end of course (EOC) assessments in English I and II; Algebra I, II, and Geometry or Integrated Math I, II, and III; along with U.S. History and Biology. Studies have found these EOC’s have played a valuable role in helping improve student performance,

Representative Mark Cochran (Photo by the Tennessee General Assembly)

Cochran’s amended legislation removes every EOC assessment but science and instead requires students to take a postsecondary readiness assessment like the ACT in math and ELA each year in grades 9-11.

“This is an attempt to put more time back in the classroom, back into teaching. Not taking an emphasis away from testing but perhaps just using our time more efficiently,” said Cochran. “Not reducing accountability, we just want to make sure that we are holding teachers accountable to the correct test.”

The legislation advanced unanimously from the K-12 subcommittee though Representative Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville, did have questions how this testing change may impact student preparation for a career. 

“My concern is some of these end-of-course evaluations may be testing their preparedness for a skill.  Not necessarily a TCAT (Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology) skill but a skill that they’re going to go into afterwards and ACT really is about college preparedness,” said McKenzie.

The legislation additionally contains a provision that would allow students with a career and technical education (CTE) focus to substitute up to three CTE related courses for algebra II, chemistry, and a foreign language course and it includes reductions in the frequency of evaluations some teachers receive.

Cochran said he plans to remove the teacher evaluation changes when the bill moves to the full House Education Committee for a vote next week.

Members of the Senate Education Committee are also scheduled to vote on a companion bill next week.