TCAP Testing to Begin

DeKalb County students will be taking the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP, Achievement Tests starting April 29.
Students in grades 3-8 take the Achievement Test, and high school students take End of Course exams for various subjects. In addition DeKalb County will administer the Achievement Test to students in Kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 in the areas of reading/language arts, and math. TCAP is a set of statewide assessments given in Tennessee to measure students’ skills and progress.
The Achievement Test is a timed, multiple choice assessment that measures skills in Reading, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. “At present all of our schools are gearing up for our End of Year assessments. TCAP counts 20% toward the students final grade and End of Course for our high school students will count 25% of their final grade in that course. TCAP testing will continue through May 2 and End of Course will be May 5-9. Most of our teachers are already reviewing their students for these assessments,” said Lisa Cripps, Secondary Supervisor of Instruction for DeKalb County Schools.
“April 29 is the first day of testing, which will be our Reading/Language Arts test and on April 30 we will test math. May 1 will be Science and May 2 will finish testing with social studies. That is the 3-8 grade schedule. For kindergarten, first and second grade, the main focus of their testing will be the Reading/ Language Arts, and Math. The high school will take the following test on these days: May 5th Algebra I, and English III, May 6th Algebra II and English I, May 7th English II and US History, and May 8th Biology and Chemistry”, said Cripps
Cripps urges parents to make sure their children are well rested and get to school on time for the testing. “With all of these important assessments at hand, I’d like to encourage each student to get a good night’s sleep and be on time each day for testing. Our school nutrition department will be providing free breakfast for each day of testing other than on the makeup days,” she said.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby also asks parents to try and avoid any conflicts that would keep your children out of school this week. “During this week that we are giving TCAP tests, we would ask that parents don’t schedule any kind of appointments, such as dental visits. Please reschedule those to another time. Because if you come to school at 9:00 a.m. and want to check your child out of school, if the test is underway we cannot go in and disturb that classroom. We have to monitor that classroom and make sure that everyone in that classroom has a great opportunity to do well on the test,” said Willoughby.