FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Williamson County Schools Director Dr. Mike Looney has bowed to state pressure and will move ahead with state academic assessment tests for the county’s high school students next week.
WTVF-TV reports that after the State of Tennessee last week canceled a mor than $107 million contract with a testing firm for the development of new student assessment tests, Looney announced that all state testing in Williamson County Schools would be canceled.
But Looney told county School Board members that he then received word from State Education Commissioner Candice McQueen that testing had only been suspended for students in grades three through eighth grades and that Williamson County did not have the authority to cancel all testing unilaterally.
Failure to conduct the testing could have cost Williamson County millions of dollars in state education funding.
Looney says he protested the state’s position, but told McQueen that he would comply. The county’s high school students will now have to prepare for testing scheduled for this coming Monday.