The Students May Be Gone, But the Adults Still Play.
“Finally, after years of study and watching, I realized our teachers were not just teaching steps or imparting technical knowledge, they were giving us their culture and their tradition. “Why” was not the point and the steps were not just steps; they were living, breathing evidence of a lost (to us) past—of what their dances were like but also of what they, as artists and people, believed in.”
― Jennifer Homans, Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet
June often qualifies as the "silly season", in terms of education policy. The kids are out of the picture, leaving the adults to pitch and spin all kinds of nonsense, And pitch and spin they do.
Now is the time that the state typically releases the first round of Standardized test results, and true to form, those results were released yesterday. At first glance, they feel like cause for optimism. Scores, for the most part, have returned to pre-pandemic levels, and in some cases, have exceeded those past results. Which I admittedly didn't anticipate.
Hat's off to the educators and students that worked in tandem to make this happen. Don't let anybody tell you that these results if they hold up to scrutiny, came about because of tutoring, summer school, high-quality curriculum, or any other recycled initiative. They came about due to good old fashion sweat and tears from teachers and students.
There is a caveat here. The results released on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday are only the state-level results. A couple weeks from now, we'll have the district-level numbers and know a little more. So for now, props and let's get started on the holiday.
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Before we go any further, I think it's important to take a second and point out that Sam Pearcy has done an admirable job as interim-state education commissioner. June saw regular communications from the Tennessee Department of Communication, and he navigated the whole third-grade retention implementation about as well as could be expected.
June 30th marked his last day as Commissioner. Tomorrow, Governor Lee's appointee, Lizzette Gonzales Reynolds, takes the helm. At this juncture, no one knows what to expect as the native Texan has yet to share her vision with the general public.
Pure supposition here, but I suspect what will happen going forward is that Pearcy will continue to focus on the department's day-to-day operations, leaving Reynolds to focus on the Governor's agenda. What that agenda is, I have no idea. Near as I can tell, she's been focused on personal issues and has shown little urgency in taking the helm. She'll get to it when she gets to it.
Speculation swirls that her primary focus will be on growing choice, and that's as good a supposition as any. Me I'm waiting to see. We tend to fill straw men with our own fears and anxieties, so I'm waiting until we get more concrete evidence of what she plans to pursue before writing the gospel.
That said, don't think for one second that I'll be joining the chorus singing from the "give her a chance" hymnal. Been there, done that, with Candice McQueen. There is no way that a lifelong Texan who has never taught in a classroom knows what is best for Tennessee students. We've already seen how fast a native Californian distances herself from the state's children once they are no longer useful for feeding her bank account. Don't need a second example.
Arguably, based on this month's performance, Tennessee doesn't need another import. Pearcy is doing just fine, thank you.
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Nothing heightens the silly season like a mayoral race, and Nashville is right in the midst of one as we speak.
Many of the candidates are taking a populist position. Trying to secure votes by distancing themselves from the tourists and the stadium. They are forgetting something though.
Nashville was built on tourism, and somebody is filling that stadium every weekend.
Nashville has a long history of taking tourists' money while complaining about them. Those of us who have been here a minute or two can remember the annual complaint fest during Fan Fair. While thousands flocked here from around the country, filling bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops, we printed bumper stickers saying, "Welcome to Fan Fair, now go home".
Currently, it's the bachelorettes and the annoyance they bring earning her ire. No different than how the city once felt about Fan Fairians. Last I checked, they weren't coming to town without their wallets.
For a city built on tourism, the city has always hated tourists. But we sure do love their money.
We forget, that they provide jobs and income for thousands of Nashvillians. Without the numbers that tourism brings, it's unlikely that your favorite restaurant would be here. What, do you think they can make it on your once-a-month visit? No, they need the seats filled when you are not dining out. The same holds true for other amenities.
As the Tennessean points out, the $3.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 is 6.2% larger than last year's budget, mostly thanks to a projected increase in sales tax revenue. The new budget does this while maintaining Nashville's current combined property tax rate of $3.254 per $100 of assessed value.
Now I know some of you are all about increased property taxes. Me, I'll keep them low and take a little bachelorette annoyance instead.
It's a trade-off and one that takes concessions from both sides.
When it comes to the new stadium, as I've stated before, that decision was made a decade ago.
The cranes outside building new hotels aren't being built to house people looking to see a game at a second-hand stadium patched together by good intentions. They are investing in drawing bigger numbers with bigger wallets who are looking to attend bigger events. Unfortunately at this juncture, you don't get to step off the bus and say, "Yea, nah, this is all too much. We'd like to restore our sleepy little hamlet to its previous state."
The die is cast and an object in motion stays in motion until it meets an immovable force. And that we ain't seen that force yet.
If you are a council member running for mayor, you might want to acknowledge that the city reached its current status on your watch. We didn't just magically turn into the South's version of Vegas, it happened with the guidance and assistance of those serving on the council - for better or for worse.
Do I prefer the Nashville of 20 years ago? Absolutely, but hey, if went back to that time, most of you would still be in California or Michigan, so I guess that's not really an option. Looking back, ain't going to change anything. Focusing on the future might be a better use of time.
Last night we had another storm. Nashville gets more than a few of these summer storms, so we should be prepared. Yet, over the last several years, a slight increase in wind or rain translates into massive power outages. Why? I've yet to hear a single candidate talk about a solution for this increasingly frequent occurrence.
Instead, it's the same old about the same old.
Unsurprisingly, the mayoral race has produced a lot of chatter about schools. This comes despite the mayor's influence being limited. The framers of the city charter were very deliberate in creating a separation between the governance of schools and the governance of the city.
Sure, they can threaten to limit funding, but I doubt you'll find a politician willing to play that game of chicken.
So when Freddy O'Connell talks about changing start times for schools, don't expect that to happen on day 15. He can suggest. MNPS Superintendent Dr. Battle can study and consider. In the end, it will come down to what it always comes down to money and the school board.
A few weeks ago candidate Alice Rolli stated that if the school board didn't do its job, she'd be open to taking steps to bring control of the schools under the mayor's office. People wrung their hands like she'd said she was going to abolish kittens.
The reality, is every mayor for the past decade has wrestled with how to get more control of schools. I get it. Schools make up the largest portion of the budget. Mayors are graded on how they perform. Yet they have limited say. Nobody would like to be graded on something they have little control over. But fortunately, seizing control is not an easy process.
Initially, MNPS board members were appointed by the mayor. In the late 70s, there was a referendum, and the city's people decided they wanted to elect them. The only way that changes is with a referendum and a change in state law. Good luck with that.
Recently, candidates were asked about who they think should control the city schools. It might be the most depressing thing I've read in months.
One suggests increasing the bureaucracy, one talks about being a better salesman, one talks about writing a 5-year plan when the mayor's term is four years, one declares that the mayor should be the leader on education in the city, and another talks about creating aftercare opportunities. The last is a nice idea, but not an education issue.
None of them talk about listening to either the board or the superintendent to determine what they need. None talk about asking why enrollment continues to shrink while the budget continues to grow. None talk about a commitment to kids learning to read and write. None of them talk about easing the burden on schools by transferring social responsibilities to the city, where it belongs.
I'll be honest with you, none of them are exactly inspiring me.
I'm going to say it again, equity doesn't come about by lowering the bar. Equity comes about by making sure that everybody is capable of kicking the door open when given a crack.
Till we do that, it's all a bunch of talk.
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For about a decade now, I've been writing about the growing staffing issues with k-12 schools. Invariably somebody tells me, there's no looming teacher shortage. It's all hype. Or, that my view is solely based on anecdotal evidence, and statistics don't support my argument.
Yet every year the shortages grow. To the point where it is getting harder to ignore.
Last week, the TDOE released results from their recently concluded Teacher Retention Listening Tour. While it makes interesting reading, don't get too excited, they didn't talk to everybody.
The press release uses some crafty language to employ a vision of openness, "Using a random sampling method to pull a representative group of 100 teachers to participate in ten cohorts, the department had representation from each CORE region, grade level, district and school type, years of experience, and more."
That's followed by a Pearcy quote that should bring forth a chuckle, "“We are thankful for the over 1,000 teachers who expressed interest in participating in the listening tour and to all of the participants who took time out of their busy schedules to have very honest and transparent conversations with the department over the past several months."
Not thanking 1000 teachers for sharing, just for being willing to. Bit of a difference there, but a sleight of hand by the TDOE is nothing new.
Chalkbeat revisited the issue on a national scale later in the week.
The online education news magazine writes, "Dire warnings of teacher shortages are nothing new, especially during the pandemic, and are sometimes overblown. But a confluence of warning signs suggests that the country is at a post-pandemic inflection point."
They go on to quote Matthew Kraft, a Brown University researcher who co-authored a recent study titled “The Rise and Fall of the Teaching Profession.”, “We are in an acutely serious and severe moment for the health of the teaching profession. The study showed that across an array of metrics, the profession was “at or near its lowest levels in 50 years.”
Chalkbeat goes on to note that as people are leaving, fewer are pursuing teaching as a career.
"Since 2006, the number of people earning a teaching license has plummeted — from over 320,000 to 215,000, according to an analysis of federal data by Kraft and Melissa Arnold Lyon, a professor at University at Albany. A separate analysisshowed that the number of people training to become teachers has fallen from a peak of 700,000 in 2009 to just over 400,000 in 2020."
Unfortunately, recognition doesn't equal fresh solutions. in a separate article, Chalkbeat suggests 9 things districts can do to retain more teachers. If you've been paying any attention over the last 5 years, you'll recognize everything on the list - pay more money, pay more for hard-to-fill spots, create apprenticeships, etc. You get the picture.
I guess they should probably get some credit for not including increased PD which frequently appears on these lists. Because that's what a drowning person wants, more swim lessons. But I digress.
There are a couple that should probably get more attention, but inexplicably don't - support handling discipline issues and ease the teacher certification bureaucracy. The money shot in this piece is in relation to the former," Research does not provide simple solutions to this challenge — neither school suspensions nor an alternative of restorative justice has a proven track record, according to existing studies." Finally some acknowledgment.
Then we get to the ones attached to personal agendas, like recruiting more teachers of color. This one is a head-scratcher. Is it a viable approach, the job sucks, so get the minorities to do it? If we get more people of color to teach is the job miraculously going to stop sucking?
Has anybody thought that the fact that we've made the job untenable has impacted diversity hiring? That candidates of color who are evaluating their career options can't read the writing on the wall?
Yes, recruiting a diverse workforce is a desirable goal, but the path to attainment lies in making the job more desirable, not increased recruitment.
Along those lines, but equally seriously misguided is the strategy of providing curriculum.
"Teachers have many responsibilities — often including cobbling together their own lessons and curriculum. Schools could help ease teacher workload by providing quality curriculum and lesson materials that ensure teachers are not creating their own from scratch. One study found that simply providing middle-school math teachers with access to off-the-shelf lessons boosted student learning."
Notice the study talks, student learning, and not teacher satisfaction?
I've yet to run into a profession where making the job less creative results in making it more appealing. Yet, that's the plan, more detailed scripts, and expect satisfaction to soar. Raise your hand if you think that's a pathway to success.
Chalkbeat does acknowledge "teachers have many responsibilities", yet they seem unwilling to consider removing any of those responsibilities.
Might be something we want to talk about.
But hey, at least someone is starting to recognize there is a problem.
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On Thursday, a panel of judges temporarily blocked a law slated to go into effect today that bans a professional organization that advocates for teachers in the state from deducting membership dues from those educators’ paychecks.
Per the AP, the three state trial court judges wrote that in granting the temporary restraining order requested by the Tennessee Education Association they were making ”no determination as to the merits” of the plaintiff’s claims, and they scheduled a July 13 hearing in the case.
The ending of payroll deduction is connected to a law that also gradually raises the minimum teacher salary up to $50,000 for the 2026-27 school year.
Amanda Chaney, the spokesperson for the Tennessee Education Association, contends that the ruling “in no way blocks the pay raise” because the lawsuit only challenges the dues deduction ban.
Might want to look at that a little closer. The law contains no severability clause. This means if one part of the law is inadmissible, it all has to be repealed. Which pushes back the implementation of increased teacher salaries.
Really makes me wonder whose interest TEA is protecting.
And yes, we are a union family.
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