© 2024 WKNO FM
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Senator Alexander Blames Feds For TNReady Delays

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He sponsored the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is meant to replace No Child Left Behind.
TN Photo Services
Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He sponsored the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is meant to replace No Child Left Behind.

Hear the radio version of this story.

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander says federal interference could be at fault for the state’s continued delays in standardized testing. He spoke at Belmont University Monday about passing his fix to the No Child Left Behind law. He also addressed Tennessee’s problems moving to a new test.

TNReady wasn’t the original plan. Tennessee was supposed to use the PARCC test that goes along with Common Core classroom standards. But when lawmakers decided to back away from Common Core, they also decided to go with a new test — even though that meant hiring a company for $107 million to design a new one.

Senator Alexander chairs the education committee and previously served as the country’s top education official. But he blames the feds.

“You had the backlash to Common Core, so you had to change Common Core," he said during a presentation to students and education officials. "Then you had to change the assessment. Well you can’t just do that overnight, and it costs a lot of money. And a lot of that was because people felt like Washington was telling Tennessee what its standards and tests ought to be."

At the moment, state education officials are primarily pointing fingers at the company hired to create TNReady. This week, Measurement Inc.said it could not guarantee that the paper tests would be delivered in time for students to take them by the state’s deadline of May 10.

“To say their performance on this has been dismal would be generous,” Governor Bill Haslam said on Friday.

Copyright 2016 WPLN News

Blake Farmer
Blake Farmer is WPLN's assistant news director, but he wears many hats - reporter, editor and host. He covers the Tennessee state capitol while also keeping an eye on Fort Campbell and business trends, frequently contributing to national programs. Born in Tennessee and educated in Texas, Blake has called Nashville home for most of his life.