Lawmakers to consider reducing student testing and teacher evaluation requirements
Stock image of multiple choice test
Last year state testing and teacher evaluations played a major role in the defeat of Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship plan.
Representative Mark Cochran (Photo by the Tennessee General Assembly)
Lawmakers in the House proposed reductions to both as part of their plan to let parents send children to private school with public dollars, but the Senate declined to consider the changes.
This year, both chambers chose to leave out similar proposals for reducing testing and evaluation in the Education Freedom Scholarship Act of 2025, but the concept itself hasn’t gone away. On Tuesday, the House K-12 Subcommittee will consider two bills that would substantially change state testing, and one of them could also impact teacher evaluations.
Representative Mark Cochran, R-Englewood, is proposing the latter with House Bill 0675. His legislation currently has multiple amendments attached to it that could substantially reduce assessments and evaluations if advanced by lawmakers.
Currently elementary and middle school students in grades 3-8 take Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests in English language arts (ELA), math, and science assessments annually. Middle school students in grades 6-8 additionally take TCAP social studies assessments.
Cochran’s amendment would reduce elementary and middle school testing by continuing to require annual state ELA and math assessments but only requiring students to take science tests once in grades 3-5 and once in grades 6-8. Additionally, middle school students would only have to take state social studies assessments once, instead of each year.
Representative Kirk Haston, Lobelville, proposed a competing amendment to Cochran’s bill that has no proposed testing changes for elementary and middle schoolers but would instead alter high school testing.
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.
Haston’s amendment 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. Cochran’s amendment would continue to require state testing in math, ELA, and science but remove the EOC assessment for U.S. History.
The legislation does not address the cost of assessments, but Monday morning Representative Cochran asked representatives from the Tennessee Department of Education to detail them in the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee.
“Can you take us through how much the department spends annually on TCAP assessments, like how much does that contract cost annually,” asked Cochran.
A department representative responded that Tennessee spends roughly $31 million for the TCAP and another $5 million for the EOC assessments high school students take.
Teacher evaluation changes proposed
Both Cochran and Haston are proposing wholesale changes to the evaluation schedule for teachers.
Currently teachers are evaluated each year. Amendments to Cochran’s bill filed by both lawmakers would change that to allow teachers and principals who receive a “significantly above expectations” evaluation to skip the next three years’ worth of evaluations. Teachers and principals evaluated at “above expectations” would skip the next 2 years of evaluations and those rated “at expectations” would skip next year’s evaluation.
Under both lawmakers’ proposals, student growth would additionally become more important on evaluations.
Second bill proposed to reduce testing
Members of the House K-12 Subcommittee will also consider an unrelated proposal to reduce testing from Representative Clark Boyd, R-Lebanon.
Boyd’s bill would remove the requirement for all state assessments in grades 3-12 with the exception of an annual ELA assessment in grades 3-9 and science assessments once in grades 3-5, once in grades 6-9, and once in grades 10-12.
