Assessment

12 Tennessee School Districts Pilot Online Assessment Platform

• By Sri Ravipati
• 10/03/16

In Tennessee last week,12 school districts throughout the Volunteer State tested out an online assessment platform, in an effort to ensure schools can administer state tests online next year.

The Tennessee Department of Education piloted Nextera, “an end-to-end assessment platform that integrates as a content management system, student test interface, fixed-form and CAT engine, administrative portal and image-based hand scoring capabilities,” according to the platform’s website. Nextera was created by the state’s testing vendor Questar, which has successfully implemented Nextera in other states in the past.

The dozen participating schools piloted the platform for the first time, involving more than 9,000 high school students, and found that “the product was performing as expected in Tennessee,” according to a statement. The department found that Nextera has a few functional issues, but it is addressing these issues so that “high school students and teacher will again have access to it starting in November for practice.”

To learn more about the pilot program, visit the Tennessee Department of Education site.