To: Candice McQueen,
Commissioner,
Tennessee Department of Education
Candice.McQueen@tn.gov
Commissioner McQueen,
First I want to say I have heard many good things about you from our school leadership in Oak Ridge. Thank you for working to raise the bar in education in our state. Since the failure of the first part of TNReady in February I have been concerned about the testing my daughters and other Tennessee students are to take this school year. With the latest schedule slip, which will cause additional stress to both students and teachers, I respectfully ask you to cancel testing for this year, or as an alternative to not report or test scores outside your department.
Many parents have lost faith in testing and resulting scores that would come from the flawed implementation. While I do understand most of the issues are linked to the contractor, our students, teachers and even schools are the ones that will pay the price. Students and teachers across the state have already paid a price in loss of instruction time and with stresses caused by endless preparation for testing, only for it to be put off, again.
Please use this as an opportunity to reinstall trust with parents across the state in the educational direction of Tennessee. Consider canceling TNReady for this school year. While I cannot speak for anyone other than myself I am confident there are many like me across the state that want high-quality education with high standards. I know you share that. We have the opportunity to accomplish great things if we all work together.
Thank you for what you do for our sons, daughters and neighbors.
Mike Mahathy
Oak Ridge
Mike Mahathy for BOE 