diff --git a/awx/main/tests/conftest.py b/awx/main/tests/conftest.py
index 4cf63bc8ad..ed4acd4b48 100644
--- a/awx/main/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/awx/main/tests/conftest.py
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ from awx.main.tests.factories import (
     create_workflow_job_template,
 )
 
+from django.core.cache import cache
+
 
 def pytest_addoption(parser):
     parser.addoption(
@@ -130,3 +132,10 @@ def mock_cache():
 
     return MockCache()
 
+
+def pytest_runtest_teardown(item, nextitem):
+    # clear Django cache at the end of every test ran
+    # NOTE: this should not be memcache, see test_cache in test_env.py
+    # this is a local test cache, so we want every test to start with empty cache
+    cache.clear()
+
diff --git a/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_settings.py b/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_settings.py
index e21f0a9a06..de38f3ce54 100644
--- a/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_settings.py
+++ b/awx/main/tests/functional/api/test_settings.py
@@ -75,9 +75,11 @@ def test_awx_task_env_validity(get, patch, admin, value, expected):
     url = reverse('api:setting_singleton_detail', kwargs={'category_slug': 'jobs'})
     patch(url, user=admin, data={'AWX_TASK_ENV': value}, expect=expected)
 
+    resp = get(url, user=admin)
     if expected == 200:
-        resp = get(url, user=admin)
         assert resp.data['AWX_TASK_ENV'] == dict((k, str(v)) for k, v in value.items())
+    else:
+        assert resp.data['AWX_TASK_ENV'] == dict()
 
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db