Is Memphis pulling too many students with disabilities from taking state standardized tests?

“Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Tennessee education leaders say too many Memphis-Shelby County students with disabilities are being opted out of taking state standardized tests each year, stripping them of the ability to earn traditional high school diplomas. Disability advocates caution that the increasing number of alternate test-takers is lowering expectations and future opportunities for students with disabilities. It also jeopardizes federal funding to Tennessee, which can trickle down to local districts. Only students with “the most significant cognitive disabilities” are meant to take alternate versions of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP, according to the state department of education. The federal government sets a cap for alternate tests at 1% of students in each state . But MSCS leaders say the federal cap ignores difficult realities faced by the district. In Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the figure of alternate test-takers is close to 2.4% – meaning just over 2,500 students take the modified test each year. That’s 1,500 more students than it should be, according to the federal cap. MSCS Superintendent Roderick Richmond said the district is being “scrutinized” by the state for that discrepancy. “People feel like disproportionately we have too many students being identified as having special needs,” he said in a district budget meeting earlier this month. Tennessee education leaders can’t require local school districts to hit the 1% threshold. But when the state average exceeds that, the U.S. Department of Education can reject a state waiver and put conditions on Title I funding as it has for Tennessee in the past three years. The state’s percentage of alternate test-takers has hovered around 1.4% since 2017. If Tennessee’s waiver keeps getting denied, there could be harsher funding consequences that would impact local districts, the Tennessee Department of Education said. Plus, taking alternate state tests comes with significant consequences for students. They are taught a more limited curriculum , and can’t earn a traditional high school diploma , which stifles future job opportunities. Karen Harrison, executive director of disability nonprofit TNSTEP, said over-identifying alternate test-takers sets up a “parallel system with lower expectations and fewer opportunities” for an already vulnerable population of students. “What may begin as an attempt to support a student can, if misapplied, unintentionally restrict that student’s academic growth and future pathways,” Harrison said in an emailed statement. That’s why districts need to be extra vigilant in following the qualification criteria, said Alison Gauld, manager of disabilities for the Tennessee Department of Education. Students who take alternate tests must have support needs that are “dramatically different” from their peers, she said in a 2024 presentation. Richmond and other local officials argue that they are following state standards for identifying alternative test-takers. As the largest urban school district in the state, MSCS has high levels of students living in poverty and Black students, who are disproportionately diagnosed with disabilities. “We’re being penalized for something that we can’t help,” said Shaunta Broadway, the district’s director of student support services, in the early March meeting. “If [students] are coming to us and they have to take the alternative assessment where they are, it’s going to be hard for us to get down to just 1% when they’re coming in at a rate faster than that.” In an emailed statement, MSCS said its disability education staff meet with TDOE representatives every month to review progress in reducing the alternate test-taking numbers. The district’s Department of Exceptional Education has also expanded training for all special education teachers and relevant administrators, who make the yearly assessments for who takes the alternative tests. “Our goal is to increase students participating in the general education curriculum more than 80% of the school day and working toward a general education diploma,” the statement said. The percentage of MSCS students taking the modified state tests increased from 1.9% in 2020 to 2.4% in the 2023-24 school year. It stayed steady in 2024-25, MSCS said in a statement. The district did not answer questions about what caused that increase. But Angela Whitelaw, the district’s chief academic officer, said in the March meeting that she expects the percentage to increase this year. “While our numbers aren’t extremely high, they’re much higher than the federal and state want them to be,” she said. Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org .

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