Power outage during TCAP has some worried for Whitehaven High
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A TCAP testing dilemma has some students, teachers and even the teacher’s union worried.
Whitehaven High School students were in the heat of TCAP testing April 18 when the school had a power failure. Students were only halfway through the electronic test and were not able to finish.
“If the power is out there, that compromises the entire test. So some of the children, none of them had completed the test, but they were at various points,” said Keith Williams with the Memphis Education Association.
Williams is with the Teacher’s Union and represents that area of Whitehaven on the school board. He says he started getting calls immediately.
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“Whitehaven High School, it must be noted, scored very well last year. We believe that there may be some conspiracy that is designed to impugn the integrity of that school and their efforts to improve, and that does not pass the smell test,” he said.
WREG also got calls from teachers. We are told at Whitehaven, around 100 kids were affected, having only 38 minutes of test time, instead of the normal hour and a half.
They fear low scores could lower the school’s and students’ ranking.
“It impacts the teacher because their pay is tied to the student’s score. They will not get their bonuses they will not get their state pay, their payments from the state for improvement, if the students do not improve,” said Williams. “So, it impugns a lot of people and most specifically the child. The children could be left with a lower GPA, a lower entrance college thing.”
Williams says the testing company doesn’t want to allow the students to resume the test.
“You could not have a standardized test and not have things in place to substitute for power failures. That’s just an act of God. You’d have no control over that. It happened in Knoxville last year and the students there were allowed to retest. What’s the difference?” he said.
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WREG reached out to the State Department of Education. They replied back with the following statement:
“Testing disruptions brought about by power loss, internet connectivity issues and other acts of nature are not isolated events and have occurred each year since Tennessee transitioned to online testing (including power outages in other districts besides MSCS during the current administration of state tests).
There are protocols in place to manage these issues that are applied uniformly across all Tennessee schools and districts. In the event that a disruption is brief, students can often resume testing the same day. In events where this is not the case, like the outage at Whitehaven, protocols to ensure test integrity preclude students from being able to start over and take the test again. We have been clear about that with district leadership. That said, there are options open to ensure no districts, schools, or students are negatively impacted.
The department has confirmed with MSCS Director of Schools Dr. Marie Feagins that none of the disrupted or incomplete test records will be factored into accountability determinations for the school if the district chooses to submit an appeal. This would mean that the MSCS has the option of moving forward in such a way as these scores would not, in any way, negatively impact student grades or GPA, something that’s critically important for students and their families.
After extensive communications with MSCS informing them of the options available to them, the final decision on how this will be handled and the impact it will have rests with MSCS.”
We also asked MSCS what they plan to do. They sent us a statement earlier this week.
“The power outage that affected some students at Havenview Middle and Whitehaven High, is an unfortunate situation beyond our control. However, we are actively seeking solutions.”
“The situation is beyond your control, but not the solution. Because you pay for this test,” said Williams in response to the statement from MSCS. “It is unfair. It is almost criminal to deprive children in this school system of the right to complete this all important exam.”
MSCS still has not told us exactly what it plans to do regarding the testing. Some state lawmakers are also weighing in since next week is the deadline for test scores.
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