Dive Brief:

• The Tennessee Department of Education is drawing fire over changes made to how student test scores are tallied.
• At least a dozen advocacy groups are crying foul over the change, which no longer sees "quick scores" tied specifically to student proficiency levels, because the department wasn't transparent about it.
• The state's "quick scores" are calculated by converting a raw score based on the number of correct answers on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program exam into one that fits on a traditional 100-point grading scale.

Dive Insight:

According to the Tennessean, the "quick score" had been used in previous years to measure student proficiency in grades 3-8, with an 85 as the minimal score for proficiency. Due to the change, that's not the case this year, and the lack of transparency has only made things more confusing — especially since the changes didn't impact high school grades. 

While the department reportedly now plans to discuss the changes with districts and other stakeholders, the entire situation seems like it could have been completely avoidable. The advocacy groups are now petitioning for questions and answers from the exams to be made available within a "reasonable" amount of time after the testing period ends, according to the Tennessean, but what that timeframe may be is yet to be specified.