You Can Not Lose What You Don't Already Possess.
“But that was the trouble with children, Sir Stephen reflected. They were confoundedly liable to pattern themselves upon one’s conduct, when one would rather they simply did what they were told.”
― Zen Cho, Sorcerer to the Crown
Let's see if we can't catch up with everything that happened in the Tennessee education world this week, To put it mildly, folks packed a lot of living into 7 days.
Since all we ever seem to talk about anymore is vouchers, we'll have to touch on the subject but I'll try not to dwell.
One thing that became crystal clear as I watched the Tennessee House Education Committee meeting is that it's time for current Chairman Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) to give up the gavel. Despite his years of service, White can no longer preside over the increasingly contentious committee. Several times during Thursday's marathon session, he was unsure of how to proceed, and more notably, often choosing the wrong direction.
The most egregious moment came during a debate over adding an amendment. Earlier in the meeting, it had been agreed that all votes would be roll call votes. Instead of honoring that commitment, White held a voice vote.
Point of order was immediately called by Representative Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville), "Excuse me Mr Chairman, that was supposed to be a roll call vote."
White paused for a second before responding, "Already done."
McKenzie further objected, "Sir you created rules. You endorsed rules. You pushed rules." The Representative said, "If three members request a roll call vote it has to be honored. That is the rule. You can't just say, oh well too bad. Breaking of rules got 3 members kicked off this body."
After several minutes of fumbling around, and a brief recess, White ended up reversing himself, and a roll call vote was held.
It should have never gotten that far.
McKenzie was right, if you are going to frame yourself as the party of rules, you need to honor the rules as they apply to everyone. Failure to do so undermines credibility. In attempting to pass legislation of the stature that this body is trying to pass, credibility is everything.
White's failure to run a tight and orderly meeting undermines the hard work of everyone else. Next term, someone else should oversee that work.
Speaking of people who lack credibility and probably should be employed elsewhere, State Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds testified before the committee again on Thursday. I'd like to say that she was better this time than in the recent past, but that would be untrue.
I'm continually amazed that education appears to be the one discipline where nobody ever learns. We just do the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
Conventional wisdom would say that after her first appearance, and its disastrous after-effects, the Commissioner would do her homework before returning to chambers. Not so with Commissioner Reynolds, every appearance is a rinse, wash, repeat. With each appearance, her credibility further fades.
She appears unfamiliar with Tennessee law, history, and procedures. She fails to inspire or lead. I'm sure she's a wonderful lady, but anybody with eyes and ears can tell, this ain't the gig for her.
The fact that she's earning a quarter million dollars a year, while much more qualified people earn a fraction of that while doing 5 times the work is another strike against Governor Lee. But at this point, who is even keeping count anymore?
That said, one of my pet peeves is when people create sympathy toward someone where there should be none. That was what Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) accomplished on Thursday.
In the past, he's successfully exposed the Commissioner's weakness and lack of prep during questioning without being belligerent. Thursday he crossed over the line by repeatedly badgering Reynolds by asking for specifics on a law that is still a bill and could evolve before it becomes law. it was humiliating for the resident Texan, and I needed a shower after watching it.
We don't have to humiliate people once we've established their lack of credibility. Politics has increasingly become a blood sport at the cost of our humanity. I remain uncomfortable with that and will continue to push back against it. Warner is doing good work, in my opinion, he just went too far in this case.
Yesterday, I talked about the lack of a threat vouchers pose to rural schools. Most don't have private institutions available and are unlikely to see any additions in the near future.
Voucher opponents concede that it is Metro Nashville Public Schools and other urban districts that are more at risk. On reflection, I'm not sure that holds true.
MNPS has several academic magnet schools available for those seeking a non-traditional environment. Students can enroll in Hume-Fogg HS, MLK Middle and High School, Nashville School of Arts, Meigs Middle, or Valor Academy. All are nationally recognized as high performers and are part of the MNPS umbrella.
Some argue that enrollment in these schools is made difficult due to large demand. A look at the data doesn't support that assumption.
The waitlist for Meigs is the largest of the MNPS traditional schools, but it has dropped from 363 in the 2018/2019 school to 185 last year.
Head Magnet, which doesn't have an academic requirement for entry and is proposed as the new feeder school to MLK, dropped from 334 six years ago to 25 this year.
Rose Park Magnet, which is often touted by the district, went from 235 to zero.
Pre-pandemic MLK's 7th grade class saw 129 students on the waitlist. This year, it was 75. That 75 is still nearly twice as much as the 2018/2019 school year.
Hume-Fogg's waitlist for the current year was 117 and MLK's for 9th grade was 26. Numbers are not available for Valor.
The point is, that most of the candidates for enrollment in a private school that accepts vouchers are already being served by MNPS. Even if a private school got all of those kids on the waitlist, it wouldn't be enough to justify the school's costs. So which students is MNPS at risk of losing?
Some of you will leap to argue that this proves the voucher program will only benefit kids already enrolled in private school, and maybe it will, but that's a different argument.
In the case of MNPS losing resources, this is a case much like that of learning loss, you can't lose that which you don't possess.
Unless of course you get stubborn and insist on making changes to schools that are drawing waitlists through success, forcing parents to choose outside of district offerings. But that's a different argument as well.
In talking with several lawmakers, all expressed confidence in the bill's passage. None expressed any surprise at the week's events, but all expressed some concern over what reconciliation would look like.
The two-state governing bodies are so far apart, and so set in their demands, that compromise is hard to envision. That doesn't mean it won't happen, it just means it is going to be difficult.
From the onset of this year's session, I said that to pass this bill in the House, proponents would have to shift from a philosophical conversation to a policy conversation. I'd argue to this point, they ain't been able to accomplish that.
The debate this week has been firmly rooted in the philosophical, with little focus on the potential benefits. It's become clear to me that bill sponsors could add an amendment guaranteeing every Tennessean a million dollars, and it wouldn't appease critics.
As a result. the Senate could argue that the enticements ain't enticing so strip them out. I don't believe that idea would be embraced by House leadership, who have repeatedly publicly stated their commitment to holding the current bill together.
We shall see. I predict more drama on the horizon.
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Yesterday, two of Tennessee's lawmakers got their ties stuck together and required the assistance of fellow lawmakers to get them untangled. Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) and Representative John Clemmons (D-Nashville) became entangled while discussing a proposed resolution by the latter.
Clemmons wanted to celebrate recent accolades afforded MNPS and Cepicky recognizing those accolades for what they were, pointed it out to Clemmons, using language I frequently use, but he probably shouldn't.
I did find it interesting that on social media, one commenter felt compelled to make the observation that Clemmons was lucky that the "bulkier" Cepicky didn't fall on him. I thought body shaming had fallen out of fashion, but what do I know.
A quick note on that study touting the growth of MNPS. It was crafted by the folks at Harvard and Stanford. If you remember they are the ones that initially pushed the "learning loss" narrative. A narrative that I still dispute. As aforementioned, you can't lose something you never had.
Now they crafted accolades for combatting a problem that they identified. It's the ultimate creation of a problem so you can look like a hero by solving a problem. It's disingenuous and the resolution would have served no purpose other than to reinforce a false narrative.
In the wake of yesterday's near tragedy, I'd advise both lawmakers to quit wearing clip-ops ties.
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The State Board of Education met in a special meeting this week. The board passed a resolution asking Tennessee lawmakers to consider shifting the state's reading and retention law to focus on students in kindergarten through third grade.
Really that's what we want to do? Shift the pressure of high-stakes testing onto the shoulders of kids who haven't even learned how to do school yet.
I can promise you that this will only increase the frequency of testing between the grades of k-2 and increase the necessity of pre-K, where we will ultimately shift the level of assessment.
Don't believe me, read the resolution.
"The data from these reading screeners can be utilized to trigger key supports, interventions, and retention decisions earlier in the student’s academic career."
Everybody likes to tout Finland for its exemplary education system, except when they don't support our suppositions.
"Central to early years education in Finland is a “late” start to schooling. At Franzenia, as in all Finnish daycare centres, the emphasis is not on maths, reading or writing (children receive no formal instruction in these until they are seven and in primary school) but creative play.
No evidence shows a correlation between the age a student begins to read and future success.
The reason that third grade is deemed so important is because that is the age when students in America start the shift from learning to read, to reading to learn.
I always say, beware of the well-intentioned man. Often in their quest to rush and solve a problem, they create a larger problem.
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Let's talk about Priority Schools. We don't do that nearly enough anymore.
Many of you may suffer under the illusion that "priority" is a state designation. It's not, it's a Federal designation.
Some of you may think that since the Achievement School District is fading away, we don't have to be as concerned as in the past. Wrong.
About two months ago, the TDOE quietly made the list of Tennessee's priority schools available to the public.
Priority schools are consistently low-performing schools based on multiple years of TCAP assessment data (bottom 5%) or have less than a 67% graduation rate during the most recent school year. Priority schools are also known as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Schools as they are eligible for additional federal funding and are supported by the department in developing an evidence-based school improvement plan.
MNPS is home to 18 of them. Add in the schools listed as targeted for Support and Improvement and you have 22 schools - including one recently celebrated for winning the state football championship. That is up from 16 in 2021-22.
Something that the MNPS Board of Education has yet to publicly discuss or acknowledge. Maybe it's because the list didn't come from Harvard or Stanford.
So I gotta ask, what's the support plan, and when will it be shared?
Granted, priority schools are a sticky wicket and not easily addressed. Heck, they led to the demise of Virginia's current State Superintendent when she served in MNPS. But there still has to be a plan - one that is communicated and transparent.
These schools are eligible for federal funding that should supplement, but not supplant. In other words, the district can't just substitute federal funds for local funds. But I'm not sure that's the current case.
My children attended Tusculum Elementary School when the school sat just outside of priority status. For the last two years, the school was a designated Reward School.
How'd they get there? I'd argue leadership and teacher stability. Shout out to Dr. Allison McMahan for overseeing the transition as principal.
Yet, several priority school principals have remained in their positions even though they have failed to move their schools out of priority status through multiple designation cycles (6 years and counting in some cases). One school even has an outside agency, EdDirection, supporting them, and they still have failed to exit priority status. Several of the schools rank among the highest for teacher turnover rates in the district.
I started all of this because of Priority Schools. It may be time to revisit the subject again.
I'm heartened by the recent primary victory of Robert Taylor to represent District 1 on the MNPS School Board.
Having known Taylor for years, I feel confident that he will force MNPS to address the harder subjects instead of merely clapping themselves on the back.
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As always, I need to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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