KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Students at a Knoxville elementary school will need to retake the English Language Arts portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program exam, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.
Knox County Schools said a class at Rocky Hill Elementary had a "testing irregularity" this week, which invalidated the students' tests. A spokesperson said KCS leadership reached out to the state education department to make a plan to let students retake the test in the coming days.
TDOE said students will be able to retake the test after April 30. If students do not at least meet expectations on the exam, they will still be able to take the test again during a retake window in late May, TDOE said.
The full statement from TDOE is available below.
"The school where this occurred is Rocky Hill Elementary School. Once the TCAP testing window closes on April 30, the class that was affected will take a new administration of the third grade ELA portion of the TCAP. If the students do not score 'meets' or 'exceeds' expectations on the assessment, they will have the same opportunities as all other 3rd grade students in the state to retake the ELA portion of the 3rd grade TCAP during the retake window in the latter part of May. This would mean that, other than taking third grade ELA portion of the TCAP at a later date, nothing would change as to their opportunities for advancement into the fourth grade."
KCS said all impacted families have been told that students would need to retake the exam.
"Unfortunately, testing abnormalities do occur from time to time," a KCS spokesperson said.