The Insanity of Doing the Same Things Repeatedly and Expecting Different Outcomes
“The most important part of an introduction always occurs in one's absence.”
― Kate Zambreno, Green Girl
Before we get rolling, let me apologize to Greeneville, Tennessee. Inadvertently, I misspelled the district name in last week's blog post. As former Greeneville educator Robbie Mitchell pointed out, details matter and I got that one wrong. I will strive to do better.
This week saw the continuation of the Tennessee Department of Education's listening tour dedicated to A-F school letter grades. I keep watching these so you don't have to. They are painful, and the true goal remains elusive.
Previously I thought the intent was to collect citizen input to justify not releasing grades, and then proceed with changing the state's accountability system. After watching Tuesday's town hall, I've got more questions than answers.
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Tuesday's event took place at the Bartlett High School, just outside of Memphis. Once again TDOE Chief of Staff Chelsea Crawford hosted the affair, and once again it was sparsely attended - roughly 30 people.
I think part of the attendance challenge comes from the fact that nobody is asking for the TDOE to either release the grades or redefine the process. It's a big nothing burger, parents have waiting around for 7 years, what's another 10? Does anybody really think that parents will see their school get a "C" and think, "Oh no, I'm sure my kid's school is a "B"? This all reads like a thought exercise conducted by people hopelessly out of touch with the public and public schools.
But back to the video Jim.
Crawford continues to solicit input from those in attendance but provides little background information. She fails to describe the current accountability model and how it plays into conversations. There is no historical context provided, nor explanation of what the department intends to do with the information gathered.
it's kind of like holding a town hall on cats and asking people to come share their opinions about cats. Well, I like their tails, and I hate how they always meow for food first thing in the morning.
One thing that Crawford continues to say, bears correcting. She has repeatedly said that the law requires proficiency, growth, and other indicators. She punctuates the last element with air quotes.
For the record, despite Crawford's repeated insistence, the actual statute does not require proficiency. Here's the actual wording of the statute..
The Department of Education shall develop a school grading system that annually assigns A, B, C, D, and F letter grades to schools based on:
Student performance on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests or end-of-course exams;
Student growth as indicated by Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) data or data from other measures of student growth; and
Other outcome indicators of student achievement that the department finds to be reliable measures of school performance.
We can argue intent, but nowhere is proficiency mentioned in the statute. I refer you back to my opening apology to Mitchell's earlier correction of a previous post. She wasn't wrong. details matter.
After sorta of explaining the parameters for the town hall, the Chief of Staff opens the floor for comments. As in last week's meeting, the comments are slow to come.
Barrett Schools superintendent David Stephens takes to the mic to explain the inherent danger in assigning a singular grade to schools. He further points out the futility of including elements in the process that schools have no control over. In this case, chronic absenteeism.
Stephens relates that his own child missed 19 days this year due to health-related issues. Since the current accountability model does not differentiate between "excused" and "unexcused" absences, all of these count against the school.
Do you know what I count as an "excused absence"?When I say it's okay, and sometimes I say it's okay for us to take off an afternoon and go to the movies.
After a lengthy silence, Brad Ratliff, teaching minister at New Hope Christian Church, asks the million-dollar question, "Is there a consequence for a school scoring an F?"
This prompts new Tennessee Commissioner of Education Lizette Reynolds to jump in, saying, "I've been chomping at the bit here."
An interesting interjection, seeing as she is the new head of the TDOE and should arguably be hosting these affairs. if she did that, she wouldn't have to do any bit chomping. She could introduce herself to Tennesseans while gathering their feedback. But for whatever reason, she's elected to have Crawford lead this exercise while missing the first two events.
Keep in mind, Reynolds comes to Tennessee from the education policy non-profit ExcellinEd. The new commissioner spent the last 7 years serving as the foundation's Vice President of Policy. One of the core policy initiatives of ExcelinEd is the issuance of A-F letter grades for schools. I would think Ms. Reynold is quite fluent in the benefits of the policy and she'd be a great resource on how it should be structured. So why not use this opportunity to share that knowledge?
Instead, she sidesteps, Ratliff's question and proceeds to describe the conversation as being about nomenclature. Interesting way to describe the work you've spent significant time pursuing.
As a side note, yes there is a penalty for scoring an "F" - you become a "state-priority" school and are subject to the rigorous oversight that goes with it. Reynolds might describe that as a reward since those schools receive additional funding and support. but I doubt those schools currently on the state's priority list would share her enthusiasm.
The commissioner then waxes eloquently about the desire and need to paint a clear picture for parents. Again, as a parent, I can testify that in 5 years, I've never had a single conversation about the state's rating of a school and its impact on my desire to send my child there. In fact, we enrolled both of my children in Tusculum Elementary even as they were firmly on the radar of Tennessee's Achievement School district. A decision we've never regretted.
Interestingly enough, several studies have shown that the primary usage of school ratings by parents is a little different than intended.
“People often use these ratings as a way to justify the preferences they already have coming into making school choices,” said Chantal Hailey, a University of Texas at Austin. “They already have preconceived notions of which schools are quality schools based upon the demographics.”
In a recent article, Chalkbeat cites a survey-based experiment, where White, Asian, and Hispanic parents in New York City were all much less likely to say they would send their children to a high school with mostly Black students compared to one with fewer Black students. White and Asian parents were also less likely to select a predominantly Hispanic school than a racially mixed or mostly white school.
Commissioner Reynolds's remarks show her as a strong proponent for the increased use of proficiency rates in calculating grades, even as studies show the fallacy of doing so. Again from Chalkbeat,
Using data from middle schools in Denver and New York City, the researchers compare the components of GreatSchools’ ratings to their own statistically sophisticated measurements of school performance. (The researchers look only at test scores, mirroring how GreatSchools rates middle schools.)
They find that the part of a school’s 1-10 rating that is based on students’ proficiency on state exams is particularly off base, and is strongly skewed in ways that hurt schools with more students of color.
Another part of the rating, the academic “growth” score, is much less biased and a strong gauge of how much a school contributes to student learning, the researchers conclude.
Yet here we go.
Yesterday Hamilton County and Memphis schools issued press releases celebrating their status as level 5 TVAAS districts. Metro Nashville Public Schools joined the party today. So three of the state's most challenged districts are now considered top-tier schools.
First, let me say congratulations to MNPS. Second. But, it never ceases to amaze me that test scores never seem to matter, until they matter. The same people celebrating results today will be dismissing them tomorrow when they tell a different story.
I'm taking MNPS's word on the matter because their press release comes with no supporting data, and the TDOE has yet to officially issue results, but it seems to me that based on these results there should be a whole lot of "A" schools in Nashville. So why are we waiting till November to hand out those report cards?
Quick side note. Didn't the TDOE used to release results, and then districts offered celebratory press releases? And where is the information on priority schools?
Here's the thing to consider. Who's paying for these town halls? I'm betting it's an outside private education non-profit seeking to benefit from them. The word on the street is that it is ExcelinEd. if so, then perhaps all of this is nothing more than Tennessee once again being used as a laboritory for outside private interests.
I wonder if we'll ever get tired of that.
I tried following up on Commissioner Reynolds's invitation to email her that she extended at the Barlett town hall. But when I go to the website and hit the contact button...I get a 404 error.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
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Tennessee has rolled out a new platform for tracking students with unique learning needs. The new platform, Tennessee Plans for Learning Success and Excellence, or TN Pulse, is free for school districts, public charter schools, and state-operated programs (SOPs).
The rollout, which started on July 1, provides a standardized web-based platform for student learning plans, including Individual Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 plans for students with disabilities, Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) for English learners, and ILP-D plans for students with characteristics of dyslexia.
TN Pulse replaces the existing state-provided platform, EasyIEP. Tennessee aligned the expanded platform with the formulas embedded in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act (TISA). This alignment will serve to ease the state’s local district funding calculations. In addition, it will allow the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to track state and federal compliance.
Unfortunately, the rollout ain't going as planned. Superintendents across the state are hollering about the glitches, lack of training, and the compressed timeline.
The initial contract for EasyIEP, administered by the Public Consulting Group (PCG), was scheduled to end in 2022. Work on transitioning to a new system began in 2020. Staffing turnover and dysfunction in the procurement department led to planning being put on hold until 2021. The contract with PCG had to be extended by one year to allow time for the execution of an RFP. That process ended with PCG remaining the vendor due to its unique capacity to meet all of Tennessee’s requirements.
So all of this would just fall under the category of yet another Schwinigan if it weren't for the serious potentially negative implications.
Under Tennessee’s new school funding model, all students receive a base amount of educational funding. ELL students, students with characteristics of dyslexia, and students with disabilities receive additional funding through a series of weights. Through those weights, qualifying students may receive between 15 to 150 percent of the base in additional funding. These funds allow districts to supply required educational opportunities.
Without a properly functioning platform, ensuring the accuracy of student funding calculations becomes impossible. This puts not just students with disabilities at risk but also those who are ELL and students with characteristics of dyslexia.
If not fixed quickly, this could have some serious financial ramifications for students and districts.
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This week, prior to the start of early voting the MNPS School Board has issued a joint announcement of a unanimous endorsement of Freddy O'Connell as mayor. It was only 5 years ago that Director Shawn Joseph took heat for a perceived intervention in a school board race. Now the board just openly endorses.
It was even less time ago that board chair Rachael Elrod was bemoaning the interjection of partisanship into local elections.
Once again, it's only a problem when it is a problem.
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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Tennessee's Special Session of the State General Assembly. Suffice it to say it's the shit show I anticipated, and most predicted. But I think staging a circus was always a primary priority. When you can't win on policy points you turn to trying to use humiliation and shame.
I watch all of this unfold and I just hold my head to keep it from splitting wide open. When will we learn that you can't use shame and humiliation as a means to change behavior. It doesn't work, all it does is create resentment, which leads to people hardening their positions and behaviors. We continue to strive to win the war without any consideration of winning the peace.
Republican leadership continually demonstrates their ineptitude at navigating the challenges presented by members determined to act as agitators, while Democrats continually overplay their hand. Surely there is a teacher or two out there that could offer some tips on classroom management. Because these guys are repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot.
The goal should be to increase seats, how does calling Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) a racist serve that purpose?
Nobody has been more critical of White over the last decade, but to call him a racist from the board floor is just not productive, nor effective.
A sitting House member joining protestors yelling at House leadership in the hallway is not effective government. If you want to be a protestor, be a protestor. But if you want to be a legislator, be a legislator. Both are honorable roles, but you can't effectively do both.
Both sides purport that they are doing the people's business. Well, I can tell you, they ain't doing this person's business. If I wanted tickets to the circus, I'd wait until the Shriners came to town in January. All of this is just public posturing by a collection of individuals looking to build their brand.
Diversity is like test scores and political interjection, It's always important until it's not. Look at pictures of the gallery at committee meetings, and you see a sea of white. Normally this would bother folks, but not when they are on our team.
How is showing up and protesting at a kabuki theater while the rest of the world goes to work, not the ultimate expression of privilege?
Yes, I know many of these women are mothers at Covenant School and my heart aches for them. What they've experienced should never be experienced by any parent or anyone for that matter. We can agree on that while we disagree on how to proceed.
That also doesn't grant them immunity when they enter the political arena. Because they've survived, and continue to deal with repercussions from a horrific atrocity, does not grant them special insight into public policy. Nor should we be crafting policy to placate them, their voices should carry equal weight as those not in attendance.
people's experience shape them and their outlook. No one's experience should trump anyone else's. That's a democracy, we all get to weigh in equally. You don't get extra weight for the color of your skin, your sex, being a mom, or surviving a tragedy.
This means that I can welcome their passion, grieve for their loss, and still disagree with them about policy. It doesn't make me unsympathetic, nor does it rob them of their identity. While it's impossible to imagine that they'll ever stop being impacted by that fateful day, I pray to god that they never allow themselves to become identified by that tragedy.
Instead of arguing about signs, I wish we were talking more about bills to address fire alarm protocol. How many of you know one of the children at Covenant died because they were following fire alarm protocol?
The alarm was ringing and the class thought it was a drill. The young man was exercising his role in leading the class out, while the teacher brought up the rear, making sure none were left behind. only this time it wasn't a drill, and the student leader walked directly into the sights of the gunman. We have the ability to make sure that is never repeated again.
last year there were 19 guns confiscated in Metro schools. How many were automatic weapons? How many of the plans being pushed would address that danger? I've actually had people discard that danger, admitting that handguns are off the table, but automatic weapons...
How many discussions have you heard around "ghost guns"? The threat from guns manufactured at home using a 3D printer is growing exponentially, and the conversation is failing to grow with it.
Meanwhile, has anybody Governor Lee seems to have booked a flight on former commissioner Schwinn's flight to the land of the unseen. He started this circus, the least he can do is own it.
The danger in all of this is the unintended consequences. We could be stuck with laws we don't want due to a rush to action and a lack of vetting.
This may cost incumbents their seats in the next election, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll lose them to the opposition party.
if we were serious about any of this, a summer study session instead of a special session would have been called. An opportunity for everybody to weigh in would have been offered.
It's amazing to me that the TDOE can travel the state holding a hypothetical conversation about a meaningless subject, while legislators can't schedule a series of town halls that affect all of us.
Fucking ridiculous. We spend so much time trying to ridicule and humiliate our perceived political enemies that we lose sight of the fact that we are all Tennesseans.
Water bottles were confiscated this week because House leadership was concerned that they would potentially be filled with ice and hurled from the gallery at lawmakers. One irate Republican lawmaker told me, "If that's what you think of your fellow citizens, then we've got a much bigger problem."
After a week of stupidity and waste, the only thing clear to me is that Speaker Sexton doesn't deserve the title. And the Democrats have little alternative to offer.
But carry on. I'm sure we'll do this again in the Spring.
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Time to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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