What a whirlwind the past 24 hours have been at the Capitol! Legislators were eager to go home. Generally, legislative sessions last from mid-January through late April or May of each year. Bless their hearts, all this complaining about TNReady has really TESTED their patience. They wanted this testing problem off their plate so they could go home and not be bombarded with complaining constituents.
Without going into a whole government lesson, here's what happened last night: The House of Representative (99 members) were pissed. They tacked some amendments onto a bill to take away the power from TNReady. One of those amendments was an Opt-Out Amendment that would have let parents legally refuse the test for their children without penalty just like so many other states have. Oh, it was beautiful! Behold its splendor!
Without going into a whole government lesson, here's what happened last night: The House of Representative (99 members) were pissed. They tacked some amendments onto a bill to take away the power from TNReady. One of those amendments was an Opt-Out Amendment that would have let parents legally refuse the test for their children without penalty just like so many other states have. Oh, it was beautiful! Behold its splendor!
Oh, what could be!
Alas, that amendment was not meant to be, because the meany-pants Senate members rejected it, plus they rejected some other fantastic amendments that would have gotten rid of TVAAS, forced paper & pencil only tests in the future, and done an investigation into testing problems. The House members kinda backed the Senate into a corner with, "well, if you're not gonna approve this TNReady fix-it bill, then we won't approve some stuff that you need us to approve like the state budget." So, the Senate (33 members) had to compromise. Unfortnately, one of the things that got cut was the Opt-Out bill.
But, here's what did get approved: TNReady will not harm any student, teacher, or school for 2017-18. Yay!
But, here's what did get approved: TNReady will not harm any student, teacher, or school for 2017-18. Yay!
I'm pretty, too
Day 9 of TN READY testing and guess what????
We have YET another excuse as to why the computers crashed almost state wide.
TODAY it was a fiber optic cable that was cut somewhere between Atlanta and Nashville. ONE. FIBER. OPTIC. CABLE. That is one important cable that has all of the important TN Ready tests floating along inside of it.
We're pretty good at geography, but we just don't see how ONE FIBER OPTIC CABLE running from Atlanta to Nashville would interrupt testing in Memphis or Bristol.
That's one important cable. And might we add, that's one wonderful dump truck!!!
Momma bears have searched the internet today to see how many other people and businesses have been affected by this one important cable. Nope, nothing. We haven't seen any other news on it.
Every single article says what happened according to telecommunications experts but not one has pinpointed the name of the company or the area the "cutting" happened. Not one person who is posting on all the social media sites we follow has commented about their internet being down.
But maybe......it's because their internet is out? Hahaha!
But surely if there was such a wide spread internet outage in our state someone other than the TDOE would be reporting it? So obviously this is just the important standardized testing cable and magically no one else was affected. It almost feels like the Department of Education has a magic test excuse wheel.
We have YET another excuse as to why the computers crashed almost state wide.
TODAY it was a fiber optic cable that was cut somewhere between Atlanta and Nashville. ONE. FIBER. OPTIC. CABLE. That is one important cable that has all of the important TN Ready tests floating along inside of it.
We're pretty good at geography, but we just don't see how ONE FIBER OPTIC CABLE running from Atlanta to Nashville would interrupt testing in Memphis or Bristol.
That's one important cable. And might we add, that's one wonderful dump truck!!!
Momma bears have searched the internet today to see how many other people and businesses have been affected by this one important cable. Nope, nothing. We haven't seen any other news on it.
Every single article says what happened according to telecommunications experts but not one has pinpointed the name of the company or the area the "cutting" happened. Not one person who is posting on all the social media sites we follow has commented about their internet being down.
But maybe......it's because their internet is out? Hahaha!
But surely if there was such a wide spread internet outage in our state someone other than the TDOE would be reporting it? So obviously this is just the important standardized testing cable and magically no one else was affected. It almost feels like the Department of Education has a magic test excuse wheel.
DOE Person 1: "Oh no! The reports are coming in from parts of the state, we are in crash mode again!"
DOE Person 2: "We can't tell the tax paying public that this testing company is incompetent we must bring out the wheel."
All the DOE People Together: "THE WHEEL???"
DOE Person 2: " Yes, The wheel of Excuses!"
Momma Bear side bar: WHAT?? HUH???? You unknowing Momma Bears might ask, What is the wheel of excuses? It's how they come up with today's excuse. --- spin the wheel and find out what today's excuse will be!
Doe Person 1: Gives the Wheel a big spin
All the DOE People watch in total amazement.
Doe Person 1: "What will it be today: Hacking? The Eclipse? Russians?, a hurricane? (in Tennessee, in April???{probably not but at this point I think the DOE thinks we will believe ANYTHING) no none of those it is slowing down and today excuse is a cut cable!!!!"
DOE Person 2: "Yes that's it a cut cable. Hurry tweet it out. Blame it on some poor cable guy who obviously didn't call 811 and he didn't know he was supposed to look before he dug:
Things that make you go HMMMMM??????
Why would Questar be utilizing a cable between Atlanta and Nashville when their computer servers are in Minnesota? It seems as if the magic time for all these test crashing reports is about 10 am eastern time. That is about the time that the central time zone students start logging on. As someone posted this week, maybe the eastern Tennesseans' would be able to finish if all the central time zone people just waited a couple hours!
The question of the day today from all across the state is this????
If we aren't counting any of these tests against any of our kids, or our teachers, or our schools then why the heck are our kids still being tested? That my dear momma bears is the million dollar question.
More mess...
We also got an alarming report that around 900 middle schoolers were given the wrong grade level tests. How frustrating.
DOE Person 2: "We can't tell the tax paying public that this testing company is incompetent we must bring out the wheel."
All the DOE People Together: "THE WHEEL???"
DOE Person 2: " Yes, The wheel of Excuses!"
Momma Bear side bar: WHAT?? HUH???? You unknowing Momma Bears might ask, What is the wheel of excuses? It's how they come up with today's excuse. --- spin the wheel and find out what today's excuse will be!
Doe Person 1: Gives the Wheel a big spin
All the DOE People watch in total amazement.
Doe Person 1: "What will it be today: Hacking? The Eclipse? Russians?, a hurricane? (in Tennessee, in April???{probably not but at this point I think the DOE thinks we will believe ANYTHING) no none of those it is slowing down and today excuse is a cut cable!!!!"
DOE Person 2: "Yes that's it a cut cable. Hurry tweet it out. Blame it on some poor cable guy who obviously didn't call 811 and he didn't know he was supposed to look before he dug:
Things that make you go HMMMMM??????
Why would Questar be utilizing a cable between Atlanta and Nashville when their computer servers are in Minnesota? It seems as if the magic time for all these test crashing reports is about 10 am eastern time. That is about the time that the central time zone students start logging on. As someone posted this week, maybe the eastern Tennesseans' would be able to finish if all the central time zone people just waited a couple hours!
The question of the day today from all across the state is this????
If we aren't counting any of these tests against any of our kids, or our teachers, or our schools then why the heck are our kids still being tested? That my dear momma bears is the million dollar question.
More mess...
We also got an alarming report that around 900 middle schoolers were given the wrong grade level tests. How frustrating.
We've continued to receive reports of weary over-tested students wasting time in empty classrooms or gyms while other students test, of students shown movies because there was no lessons planned because they were supposed to be testing, testing codes not working, high school rosters being wiped out by a Questar software update, and sadly, reports of children crying in frustration.
The best thing you can do is to contact your weary legislator and complain. Complain loudly. They have to listen. Election time will soon be here.
We'll leave you with this fantastic tweet from a candidate for Governor, Representative Craig Fitzhugh:
The best thing you can do is to contact your weary legislator and complain. Complain loudly. They have to listen. Election time will soon be here.
We'll leave you with this fantastic tweet from a candidate for Governor, Representative Craig Fitzhugh:
Headed home for a much needed haircut.I may pull my hair out first. More problems with TN Ready. Don’t make me turn around Gov Haslam, Commish McQueen: Stop this craziness! Our students,teachers,schools,and State deserve better.#studentsteachersschoolsmatter
— Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (@craigfitzhugh) April 26, 2018
