Will We Ever Develop A Stomach For Honest Conversation?
“Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do,' Arkadian Porpirych says. 'What statistic allows one to identify the nations where literature enjoys true consideration better than the sums appropriated for controlling it and suppressing it? Where it is the object of such attentions, literature gains an extraordinary authority, inconceivable in countries where it is allowed to vegetate as an innocuous pastime, without risks.”
― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Of late, my time has been spent engrossed in a pursuit that a decade ago I'd never envisioned - I've been touring private schools.
I know, who'd have thunk it.
My son is approaching that threshold between middle school and high school and it's time to weigh the options. He's an exceptional athlete with dreams of playing at the next level, and we need to figure out how best to get there.
While I'm well aware of the odds and the number of young men who share his dreams, I owe it to him to explore all options, using that information to offer him the best pathway to success.
Some have taken exception to my investigating other options.
"You have just as much opportunity at a public school. Look at Brandon Miller."
"Leaving to go private takes money from our public schools which undermines the system."
"Private schools have the same problems as public schools, they just hide it better."
And the arguments only grow from there.
Over the years, I've bought into those arguments, probably even shared a few with friends who themselves were exploring their family's options. Let's just say, I'm not as quick to cling to them as I once was.
As I tour these schools, I get a sense of being duped. Not by the people offering the tour, but by people who have argued the the sanctity of public schools. It's kinda like the marijuana myth I was fed as a teenager. We were told as teenagers that smoking pot would kill us instantly or leave us brain-dead for life. When we tried it and those warnings didn't come true...we ignored other warnings that ran truer.
Don't get me wrong, pot is plenty dangerous and it's definitely a gateway drug. As a lifelong addict, I hold a particular disdain for marijuana. My point is, that the dangers of simple usage were hyper-inflated and only served to prevent real conversations at the expense of lives.
Nobody likes it when I say it about private schools, but I'm going to say it anyway.
Private schools provide opportunities that can not be matched by public schools. Anybody who argues differently is either lying or disingenuous.
In addition, I've come to realize that many of the people arguing the sanctity of public schools, are themselves taking advantage of the offerings of the private sector.
I can name at least a dozen elected official who espouse the value of the public school system while their children have never set foot in one, nor will they ever.
I know several public school advocates who regularly rail against the evils of magnet schools, yet their children are alumni of the local offerings.
It begs the question, why must my child be the one to line up and serve on the bulwarks of the battle for the public system?
Once again, wars are being fought on the backs of the poor.
Though they are always quick to play the victim, the public school system itself holds a fair amount of blame for enrollment declines.
We talk endlessly about the needs of the marginalized, and the lowest-performing students, when was the last time we had a conversation centered around ensuring that the needs of the high performers and those hungry for opportunity?
Instead, high-performing students are framed as being products of privilege, and their needs are dismissed. The assumption is, that we can do the bare minimum for them and they'll be fine.
New Flash! My promise to my child was not to ensure that they simply enter adulthood as, "fine". It was for them to have every opportunity possible to excel.
Here's another caveat to think about, the percentage of students who regularly disrupt class and underperform is likely similar to the size of those looking for greater academic rigor and are very rarely disruptive, yet the system is designed to meet the needs of the former at the expense of the latter. As a parent, I'm expected to just accept that. But why?
Here's another inconvenient truth, classrooms are regularly used as tools of social change. Through the increased promotion of social-emotional learning, children are used as tools to shape our future society. That's a quantitative statement, not a qualitative statement.
You can protest all you want, but the fact remains. Public education options were expanded to a wave of immigrants hitting the shores in the early 20th century. Schools were seen as a way to "Americanize" immigrants. In the 70's the country saw a shift to multiculturalism, with schools once again used as agents of change.
Some of what's transpired over the past decades has led to beneficial social change. Arguably we are more open with each other, and our awareness of mental illness and its effects has grown tremendously. That is all good.
However, on the flip side, I have long argued that the strategies we've employed to increase equity have done more to divide us than they have to unite us. By focusing on our differences, while downplaying our similarities, we've made it increasingly difficult to see each other as three-dimensional individuals as opposed to caricatures shaped by identity politics.
Though I haven't heard as much about it lately, schools were once seen as a place to develop critical thinkers. A concept I fully support. The problem is, that critical thinkers periodically reach conclusions in opposition to general thought. For some people that's a problem.
If we truly valued critical thinkers, we could debate the merits of policy on an individual policy basis. That's no longer a luxury we are afforded. You either buy the whole package or you get credit for none, Reject a single tenet of the package, and you are instantly labeled as one of them.
Try to take elements from both packages and it becomes even worse - you are labeled as a detested "both-sider". A creature that ranks upper there with Medusa, the Minotaur, and Jack the Ripper.
We bemoan a lack of true statesmen in today's world, yet we quickly throw lawmakers from both sides into as small a box as possible. A box so small it makes it impossible to reach across the aisle even if the desire was present. Public schools have become a continuum of those boxes.
Yet we are shocked when parents, choose to look for alternative options that more closely resemble their family values. For some reason, we've grown to equate wanting something different, to opposing the current. That is false equivocation.
Here's a telling indicator, I labored over that last sentence for 20 minutes, searching for a way to say it in a manner that couldn't be dismissed as "code-talk". Sadly, despite my best efforts, I likely failed.
The idea that social mores automatically be adopted because they have become the national norm, smacks of "Americanization" even if the tropes are different.
That's not a good place to live and is illustrative of the lack of trust permeating our society. A lack of trust fostered, by a lack of honesty in our public conversations.
I'll be visiting more schools in the coming months. Not all of them will provide equal opportunity, some will be better suited to other kids and other families with other objectives.
This shouldn't be considered a rejection of the public school system, or a failure to acknowledge the great work being done win our public schools.
At the end of the day, we may enroll in our local high school of cost, or we discover that they can provide what we need.
And you know, there ain't wrong with any of that.
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We've spent a lot of time this month talking about Tennessee's initiative to modify its school accountability model. Unfortunately, we are going to talk more about it today.
Last Friday, the working group appointed by Tennessee Commissioner Reynolds completed their assigned task, to offer recommendations on the best way for the state to measure schools.
Typically when a working group gets together in order to evaluate and recommend, the last meeting is spent evaluating findings and producing some actual recommendations.
Unless of course the true purpose of the group is not to solicit advice, but rather to present the argument that you solicited opinion. You know, a box-checking action.
In this case, there were no concrete recommendations.
The 50-member working group was split into several smaller committees, and each of those committees presented its thoughts to the rest of the group, sans any unifying recommendation.
Afterward, Commissioner Reynolds offered her appreciation and vowed to include their thoughts in the final product when results were released in two weeks.
Worth noting here, on Thursday, a Travis County district judge granted a temporary injunction order, blocking the Texas Education Agency from releasing updated accountability ratings — which assign an A-F letter grade — to districts and schools. According to the Austin Statesman,
In her decision, Judge Catherine Mauzy of the 419th District Court said the potential harm to districts of releasing the updated grades outweighs any possible detriment to the TEA of delaying their release.
Several Texas school districts had filed a lawsuit claiming the agency had unfairly recalibrated the rubric for the ratings, waited too long to communicate those changes, and that those changes would result in lower scores for many districts.
Sounds familiar no. But I digress.
Central to the conversation for each of the committees was an inclusion of Annual Measured Objectives (AMO). Under the current system, the state uses both true achievement, based on the annual TCAP tests, and AMOs to achieve a growth score. That growth score counts for 40% while growth, as calculated by TVAAS, represents an additional 40%. The remaining 20% is calculated by using "other measurements" - attendance rates, English Learner growth, Ready to Graduate, and graduation rates.
The AMOs are designed to level the playing field a bit, by providing schools, which for various reasons, mostly tied to socioeconomic elements, struggle with high rates of achievement, an opportunity to still be recognized for their work.
AMOs are further viewed as a vehicle to increase achievement. The thought is that if a school hits its AMOs with regularity, high achievement scores will follow because as they reach each goal, the next year becomes higher.
Critics and proponents of AMOs recognize that without their inclusion, there are schools that will never be able to achieve a high grade. This has been admitted by the Tennessee Department of Education at various points during the just concluded working group meetings.
Commissioner Reynolds sees it differently.
Reynolds has told group members that for too long schools have used AMOs to cover up low achievement scores, and it's time to end the practice.
“What I envision when this is put into practice is three factors - achievement, growth, and other indicators. Achievement will be based on achievement, no best of.”
Some group members pushed back on her argument.
Throughout the meetings, Eddie Pruett, Gibson County Special School District director has argued the importance of growth, “Really almost everybody said growth has to be a component, has to be an important component equal to or more than achievement just because of the ability for any school to get a good score from growth. It measures the impact of what your teachers are doing,”
On Friday, he told the commissioner that he wanted to go on record as objecting to the proceeding because by Reynolds taking AMOs off the table, she had limited conversation on best practices. Pruitt conceded that group members may come to the same conclusion as she, but we'll never know, because that option has been taken away.
The Commissioner did not mince words in her response.
“If you want to talk about the inclusion of AMOs in achievement, I can't prevent that. Have at it." Reynolds responded, "But I have been very clear in discussions with all of you. When I'm talking about achievement, achievement is achievement.”
So with AMOs now off the table, so is the opportunity for all schools to earn an "A".
Per usual with education policy discussions, this process is being painted by opponents as yet another opportunity to attack public education, with the end goal of dismantling the system.
Mike Winstead, Superintendent of Maryville schools, out near Knoxville is one of the most thoughtful superintendents in the state. He told ChalkbeatTN, “This is going to demoralize a lot of school communities,” he said, “teachers, kids, and parents — folks who have done incredible things to move kids forward.”
Meh... respectfully I disagree. If anything this shows the huge chasm that runs between the boardroom and the classroom. What makes anybody assume that parents have sitting around waiting for the state to craft its rating system, and once delivered, what makes you believe that'll it supersede the unofficial one already in place?
I'm pretty sure that if you crafted a Venn diagram of what parents use to evaluate schools and what the state is proposing, that shared space would be minimal. Arts offerings, teacher retention, and safety are among the elements proposed by board members and summarily dismissed by the TDOE.
Let's not even begin to consider transportation costs, alignment with work requirements, attendance by neighbors, or the other multitude of concerns parents might have.
Nowhere in the discussion was the capacity of the local district outside of the public school system considered.
Cleveland Tennessee has one private school in the district. What happens if all the public schools get a "D".
Is that private school suddenly going to be overwhelmed with enrollments by dissatisfied parents?
Are a dozen pop-up charter schools going to magically appear?
Is the TDOE going to withhold funds until improvement sets in?
Are "for sale" signs going to suddenly populate neighborhood lawns, as residents rush to sell their homes and move to Maryville?
All very unlikely, and I doubt the TDOE has the stomach to hold anybody's money. At most, the superintendent might come under a little pressure, and businesses looking to move to Cleveland may take a closer glance before relocating.
Former superintendent Joey Hassel does raise some salient points when he says, "This rewrite will negatively impact ALL communities in our state with community development, economic development, and workforce development."
At the very least Hassel's argument serves as further evidence of why crafting this model with less than 3 months of work, is a terrible idea
Still, I can't help but think, that for a state that prides itself on being anti-government, Tennessee sure does ascribe a lot of influence to our state government.
I suspect parental reaction, will be somewhat akin to what transpired in response to the Grinch stealing all the Whoville presents in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". People will go about their business, still with joy in their hearts, holding the same opinion of their schools as they did prior to grades being issued.
The next step for Commissioner Reynold's master plan will transpire at next week's state board of education meeting.
There is some expectation that Reynolds will finally provide details on the final formula, but it's equally likely that she'll limit her sharing to the recommendations of the working group.
Either way, despite outward appearances, Tennesseans need to recognize that this is something being done to them, and not with them.
Better yet, it is done by those who don't even reside in Tennessee.
- - -
In Tennessee, we have a habit of responding to challenges in education after the fact as opposed to prior to implementation. Third-grade retention, TISA, or, the charter school commission, none of these items were fought well before implementation, only after they were arguably a foregone conclusion.
This Spring, look for that trend to continue as people wake up to the fact that the third-grade retention law was never a third-grade retention law, but rather a third-grade promotion bill with a fourth-grade retention bill attached.
A provision of the law requires those students who received tutoring, received an exemption, or participated in summer school, to make adequate progress in fourth grade, or they will be retained. It's a feature unique to Tennessee.
This could translate into as many as 4K fourth-graders being retained.
Just when parents thought it was safe to go back in the water.
The State Board of Education is expected to define adequate growth in the near future, but as of now, there are just proposals.
The third-grade retention law appears to be a two-pronged attack. In third grade parents and schools are woken up, and in fourth grade, the punishment takes place if they don't stay woke.
This is an election year, so I think it is safe to say there will be flurry of bills proposed to mitigate retention threats. But is there time for them to be successful?
- - -
One last subject to touch upon. Teacher attrition continues to be a crisis. District leaders will continue to point out that statistics don't support that crisis. They'll point to the number of recent hires as evidence of a lack of a teacher shortage.
But here is a statistic they never share, how many of the teachers leaving are rated as level fives, and how many new teachers share that rating?
I suspect there are more of the former and less of the latter. That constitutes a crisis.
We'll revisit this subject in the near future.
- - - -
Time to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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