NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Education is launching a nationwide search to replace two testing officials.
Department spokeswoman Kelli Gauthier said Monday that the executive service appointments of Dan Long and Stan Curtis ended last week.
She said an interim director has been appointed “to ensure the ongoing success of the department’s work in data and assessments.”
Long headed the Assessment, Evaluation and Research Division, which administers the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP, achievement tests, and Curtis served as assistant director.
The departures come less than a month after the state asked the federal government for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, saying its revamped education standards should be appropriate for measuring schools.
Recent results show only about half of Tennessee’s schools have met the federal law’s standards.
UPDATE: Department officials wouldn’t tell Andrea Zelinski why the two men departed, but did say what the reason was n’t. Or something like that.
The state Department of Education says the resignation of two testing division officials is “completely separate” from a mistake the department made in downgrading two school districts four years ago.