Author Archives: Andy Spears

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Shut It Down

The Tennessee Department of Education is holding a series of listening meetings about what to do with the troubled Achievement School District. One solution to the ongoing struggles would be to simply shut the district down. This would need to be done in a way that was not disruptive, but gradually turning the ASD schools back to district control could be the best solution in the long term.

An article in Chalkbeat sums up the problems with the district this way:

The achievement district was created seven years ago, and has struggled to turn its schools around. Its third leader left last summer, a study found the program has not improved student achievement, and no new schools will join the district this year school year.

One parent at the first listening session expressed the frustration felt by many who have watched the ASD over the years:

Marshaye Smith, a parent of five students at a state-run high school in Frayser, said it felt good to have a space to talk, but she was more interested in what the state does with the feedback.

“We’ve been hearing all this for years, and we’re saying our schools need more,” Smith said. “Are they actually going to use what they write down on paper?”

I’ve written and shared a lot about the ASD since it started, and Smith seems to nail the central issue: Will state leaders actually take the feedback and do anything? Again, one option would be to simply phase-out the ASD and provide districts additional support as they absorb students back into district schools.

In fact, if the state stopped ignoring key issues that contribute to the conditions that created the need for the ASD to begin with, perhaps students in ALL schools would see the benefit.

Back in 2015, I wrote about how the ASD had moved well beyond its original mission and noted that this expansion could be problematic. Now, it seems the problems are too great to ignore — or, at least great enough to cause state officials to hold “listening meetings” and write things down.

Imagine that instead of the sprawling state-run district with multiple charter operators functioning at varying degrees of efficacy, the state had collaborated with districts at persistently low-performing schools. Doing so would likely mean providing services beyond school for the students there. Focused intervention — meaning collaboration and support, not state takeover — could have changed the trajectory for kids in the schools targeted by the ASD.

Instead, we’re left with a struggling district that no one wants to run and a state listening tour where the greatest concern expressed is that nothing significant will actually change.

I say simply: Shut it down.

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Promises, Promises

A charter school in Memphis that makes big promises to students and parents is failing to deliver, according to a report from WMC-TV. Apparently, Southwest Early College High is on the verge of closing following the outcome of a district investigation into the school that found:

SCS posted the results of its investigation along with a presentation online, outlining why the school’s charter should be revoked immediately.

The district says SECH relied on unlicensed teachers in multiple classes; failed to provide proper services to special needs students; and lost its partnership with Southwest Tennessee Community College, where the school is located, because students weren’t receiving the academic and socio-emotional support needed. The presentation also said the school had “no institutional control.”

Now, students are left behind — victims of a market-based approach to education. This approach, advanced by conservatives and neo-liberals alike, is a distraction from the real challenges facing students. It’s easier for some adults to chase the shiny, new object than to actually dig in and make systemic change.

Governor Bill Lee, for example, is all-in on the voucher and charter agenda because that’s easier politically than tackling challenges like access to healthcare and generational poverty.

Solutions to these problems exist and they’d help kids and families get ahead. Instead of pursuing them, though, our policymakers and their privatizing friends keep making new promises.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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A Big Investment

While Tennessee languishes near the bottom of all states in school funding, one Presidential candidate is laying out a plan to make a massive federal investment in schools — especially those with high numbers of low income kids (like so many in Tennessee). Here’s more on Elizabeth Warren’s education funding plan:

Warren unveils education plan quadrupling federal funding for public schools. The Hill: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, is proposing a plan to quadruple federal funding for public schools with incentives for states to fund poor and rich schools more equally. Warren has often campaigned off her personal history as a public school teacher and the importance of reforming the system. Her education plan released Monday comes after much of the primary field has already released such proposals. Warren’s plan would quadruple Title I funding — equivalent to an additional $450 billion — over the next 10 years for pre-K-12 public schools. Warren also plans to invest an additional $100 billion over ten years in ‘excellence grants’ to public schools, and an additional $50 billion in repairing and upgrading school buildings. In an effort to incentivize states to fund schools more equally, the new Title I funding would be conditioned on states ‘chipping in more funding and adopting and implementing more progressive funding formulas, so that more resources go to the schools and students that really need them.’ The plan is financed by Warren’s signature wealth tax on net incomes over $50 million, as are many of her plans.”

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MNEA Backs Stacy

As Nashville’s Metro Council considers candidates to replace Will Pinkston on the School Board, the Metro Nashville Education Association has weighed-in in support of Kevin Stacy. Here’s their endorsement:

First, the MNEA PACE Council would like to state that the decision to endorse was very difficult based on the excellent qualities of two candidates. We feel that both Freda Player and Kevin Stacy would be strong advocates for MNPS employees and would use their votes and their voices to defend public education in our city. However, after much deliberation, the PACE Council voted to endorse Kevin Stacy for the position.

This decision was made based on a number of factors. First, one of Mr. Stacy’s top priorities is improving the culture of our working environment within MNPS, which we see as imperative if the district is to successfully attract and retain the professional educators it needs. Secondly, Mr. Stacy has worked as a teacher and understands the particular nuances of the struggles we face. Finally, in an area that has such a heavy concentration of EL students, we feel that Mr. Stacy’s proven experience as the Executive Director of MNPS EL Services will make him an excellent advocate for the families of District 7.

The MNEA PACE Council would like to thank both Freda Player and Kevin Stacy for their thoughtful responses to our questions and their hard work and commitment to making Nashville a better place. While the decision was difficult, we are hopeful that public school advocates may become the norm for local candidates going forward. Ultimately, it’s a good problem to have.

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Necessary

It looks like Nashville is finally getting serious about addressing their woefully inadequate teacher pay. Or, at least they are talking about it. The Tennessean reports that the Metro Nashville school board is taking up the issue of pay for teachers and all system staff.

Boosting the salaries of Nashville teachers to match the city’s median income would cost more than $100 million a year. 

Although just an example detailed in a pay study released by Metro Nashville Public Schools on Friday, it represents the high figure the district would need to fix a pay system educators say is flawed and causing teachers to leave.


For example, Majors presented a possible scenario in which the district would pay mid-career teachers about $64,000 a year — comparable to Nashville’s median income. The increase in salary for all teachers of all experience levels would mean an annual infusion of $100 million to fix the district’s pay schedule.

The discussion on teacher pay in MNPS is long overdue. Also long overdue: Actual action by the School Board and Metro Council to increase pay.

It’s been clear for some time now that teacher pay in Nashville is a crisis:

Attracting and retaining teachers will become increasingly more difficult if MNPS doesn’t do more to address the inadequacy of it’s salaries. The system was not paying competitively relative to its peers two years ago, and Nashville’s rapid growth has come with a rising cost of living. Does Nashville value it’s teachers enough to pay them a comfortable salary? Or, will Nashville let cities like Louisville continue to best them in teacher compensation?

That was written in 2017. The story notes a 2015 analysis of teacher pay in Nashville. That analysis found Nashville significantly behind similar urban districts in pay. The MNPS board and Metro Council did basically nothing with that information. We’ve seen Mayors Dean, Barry, and Briley barely touch the issue. We’ve yet to see Mayor Cooper talk about a plan to boost pay in a meaningful way.

IF the issue gets addressed in the upcoming budget cycle, it will be August of 2020 before Nashville teachers see a meaningful boost in their paychecks. That’s five years after teacher pay in Nashville was reported to be at near crisis levels. It’s after allowing things like this to happen:

Hundreds of parents with children in Metro Nashville Public Schools had letters sent home this week telling them that their kids were having to take online courses in the classroom due to a teacher shortage.

It’s after school districts like Williamson County have made consistent improvements to salary and districts like Sumner County have approved a big pay bump.

It’s great to see the district finally take a look at a problem they’ve known about for years. It’s absolutely necessary that instead of just talking about it, the School Board, Council, and Mayor actually do something.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Team Broad

Jeff Bryant has a great story about the Broad Academy — the story of one billionaire seeking to shape education policy by placing people in key roles. People like Knox County’s Jim McIntyre. Here’s more:


It’s rare when goings-on in Kansas City, Missouri schools make national headlines, but in 2011 the New York Times reported on the sudden departure of the district’s superintendent John Covington, who resigned unexpectedly with only a 30-day notice. The main reason Covington left Kansas City was not because he was pushed out by job stress or an obstinate resistance: He left because a rich man offered him a job. What caused Covington’s exit, Kansas City Star reporter Joe Robertson reported, was “a phone call from Spain.” That call brought a message from billionaire philanthropist and major charter school booster Eli Broad. “John,” Broad reportedly said, “I need you to go to Detroit.” It wasn’t the first time Covington, who was a 2008 graduate of a prestigious training academy funded through Broad’s foundation (the Broad Center), had come into contact with the billionaire’s name and clout. Broad was also the most significant private funder of the new Michigan program he summoned Covington to oversee, providing more than $6 million in funding from 2011 to 2013, according to the Detroit Free Press. But Covington’s story is more than a single instance of a school leader doing a billionaire’s bidding. It sheds light on how decades of a school reform movement, financed by Broad and other philanthropists and embraced by politicians and policymakers of all political stripes, have shaped school leadership nationwide.

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Inside Man

As more and more parents and teachers question the value of the state’s testing regimen, it’s important to examine how we got here. The short answer: Lots of money spent on lobbying by major testing companies like Pearson. The Tennessee-specific short answer: Chuck Cagle.

Over at Talking Points Memo, Owen Davis takes a deep dive into how Pearson and other testing giants made a killing on standardized testing. He points out that today’s students spend a lot of time taking standardized tests mandated by state governments (and even more time prepping for those tests):


The sense that students are over-tested is no illusion. A 2013 study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found the stakes attached to testing in the U.S. to be the highest in the developed world. One study of the 66 largest urban school districts found the average student took 112 standardized tests from kindergarten to graduation, spending an average 22 hours a year just taking the exams, let alone preparing for them.

This despite the fact that Tennessee teachers report the tests are of little value, in part because of all the inconsistencies with test administration:


The Cookeville Herald-Citizen reports on attitudes toward standardized testing (TNReady) among teachers in Putnam County and notes the results are similar statewide:

Most teachers in Putnam County say information received from statewide standardized exams is not worth the investment of time and effort.


The results come from the state’s 2019 Tennessee Educator Survey released Thursday.


The state Department of Education said more than 45,000 Tennessee educators completed this year’s survey, representing 62 percent of the state’s teachers — an all-time high response rate. In Putnam County, 80 percent of the teachers took the survey, as did 88 percent of administrators.


According to the results, 62 percent of Putnam teachers either disagreed or strongly disagreed that standardized testing was worth the effort. Statewide, that percentage was 63 percent.

Now to our friend and testing money-maker Chuck Cagle. Here’s what Davis notes about Cagle:


Pearson also lobbied shrewdly at the state level. In Tennessee, for instance, Pearson’s top lobbyist was Chuck Cagle, attorney and husband of a longtime Pearson account executive. Cagle’s other clients included a reform organization called Tennessee SCORE, as well as the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents and the Association of Independent and Municipal Schools—groups that exert substantial influence on district contracts. According to meeting minutes, Cagle gave Pearson-sponsored presentations and introduced Pearson executives to the school groups.

So, while TCAP was a key test in Tennessee, their top lobbyist was Chuck Cagle, who was also lobbying for groups representing school superintendents and school systems. The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance notes that Cagle was listed as a registered lobbyist for Pearson in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Then, as Tennessee transitioned to TNReady, Cagle pops up as the registered lobbyist for new testing vendor Measurement, Inc in 2015, 2016, and 2017. You might remember Measurement, Inc. as the company that hired test graders from Craigslist and also seriously botched the initial online rollout of TNReady.

So, in Tennessee, Chuck Cagle makes thousands of dollars each year representing school superintendents and school systems and also makes thousands of dollars each year helping testing companies secure lucrative contracts. According to Davis’s reporting, at least while working on behalf of Pearson, Cagle was extolling the virtues of that company to his school system clients.

According to his law firm bio:


Charles W. (Chuck) Cagle is a shareholder and chair of the Education Law and Government Relations Practice Group for the firm’s Nashville office. He oversees the firm’s representation of over 70 public boards of education, two private schools, two private universities, and a private medical school in a variety of legal matters…


His list of lobbying clients has included school superintendents, school employee professional organizations, school boards, private schools, and private universities

It’s no wonder a testing company seeking lucrative contracts would seek out a lobbyist like Cagle. Those boards, however, should be asking Cagle about his interest in promoting testing and products offered by Pearson and other companies he is representing or has represented.

Having been around the General Assembly for nearly 20 years now, I’ll say that Cagle is often called on by lawmakers (especially in committee meetings) to offer his expertise on education issues. It seems his range of interests includes ensuring the state continue requiring hours of testing with vendors he represents. No mention of whether or not Cagle believes these tests have any benefit for the students taking them. Certainly no mention of any advocacy for the type of systemic changes that would actually help kids.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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1200

Since 2013, more than 1200 posts have been published on Tennessee Education Report. This publication passed the 1200 post milestone late last week. The original idea: To provide in-depth coverage of education issues and accessible analysis of complex topics is still the driving force today.

So often, headlines in traditional news outlets tout test results or talking points rather than digging-in to the meat of education policy. As the publisher and primary writer here, I make every effort to offer unique analysis in a way that is digestible.

I’ve written about the NAEP and explained where Tennessee really stands.

I’ve written about Kindergarten portfolios and state policy failure.

Closeup portrait Angry young Boy, Blowing Steam coming out of ears, about have Nervous atomic breakdown, isolated grey background. Negative human emotions, Facial Expression, feeling attitude reaction

I’ve written about the efforts of privatizers like Betsy DeVos and Bill Lee.

I’ve written about the broken BEP and what it means for Tennessee students.

I’ve examined teacher pay, especially in and around Nashville.

Recently, I wrote a post on the importance of addressing poverty.

And, of course, there’s the ongoing TNReady saga.

All of this is fun for me, believe it or not. But it also takes time and energy and research.

Thankfully, a number of readers have stepped up to make monthly contributions to ensure publishing the site is a viable enterprise.

Still others make one-time gifts to show support.

Know that I write with the intent to inform… and to go deeper on a an issue that impacts every single Tennessean. Know that I appreciate ALL of you who read regularly and share these posts.

Education in Tennessee will only improve WHEN we ask the tough questions and challenge the prevailing paradigm.

Your support makes that possible.

Thank you!

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Testing Violence

Nashville teacher and education blogger Mary Holden has a new post out about testing. Here’s a bit of what she has to say:


Until we realize this – “Standardized testing is a vampire that sucks the lifeblood out of education” – and do this – “Put a stake in it” – by upturning state legislation that requires us to use standardized test scores to make high-stakes decisions, THERE WILL BE NO IMPROVEMENT. Nothing will change, nothing will get better, nothing will improve – our attitudes about public education, our students’ performance and desire to learn, NOTHING – until we do this


And if we can’t get rid of the tests, then there is something we can do. We can put these tests in their place. To do that, we must remove ALL the high stakes that are attached to them. That means teacher evaluations, student grades, grading schools and districts according to them, judging real estate markets on “good school” defined by them… ALL OF IT. All of the high-stakes decisions that are made because of test scores. If we truly do that, we will be left with a test that students take each year that simply give us a snapshot of how they are doing and nothing more.

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Holden seems to be echoing here some of the concerns raised in my recent post about testing and poverty.

It’s also worth noting that all that testing and the attendant “accountability” hasn’t really moved the needle. Here are some graphs from 2019 TNReady and ACT results.

It turns out, continuing to test and hold schools “accountable” doesn’t really do anything to change the results. Rather than using the tests to inform practice, as Holden notes, they are used for all sorts of things that make adults (particularly policymakers) feel like they are doing something. I’ll just go back to my post and end this right here:

A more cynical look at the policy reality would conclude that legislators simply don’t want to admit the real problem because dealing with it would be politically difficult.

Addressing poverty would mean providing access to jobs that pay a living wage as well as ensuring every Tennessean had access to health care. Our state leads the nation in number of people working at the minimum wage. We lead the nation in medical debt. We continue to refuse Medicaid expansion and most of our elected leaders at the federal level are resisting the push for Medicare for All.

Until we change the underlying systems that create wealth-based achievement gaps, we won’t meaningfully close those gaps. No amount of test-based accountability will change that reality.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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All the Money, None of the Work

Private school advocates attempting to secure public funding from Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) voucher scheme made clear this week they want taxpayer cash without any real accountability. Specifically, Chalkbeat reports these groups, including Betsy DeVos’s American Federation for Children, are resisting proposed rules requiring strict background checks on school employees.


Leaders of the Tennessee-based Beacon Center, the Florida-based ExcelinEd, and the Washington, D.C.-based American Federation for Children say the rule is unclear as written and could force private schools to run background checks that are far beyond the requirements for public schools. Such a mandate, they say, could place an “undue burden” on private schools wanting to participate in Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, as well as on their employees. 


Voucher supporters say they want participating private schools to face the same requirements as their public counterparts when it comes to employee background checks. At the same time, they don’t want private schools to be judged academically using the same state tests used by Tennessee public schools.

While voucher advocates, eager for taxpayer cash, expressed concern about having to follow the rules, a Department of Education representative indicated the rules are clear:


Deputy Education Commissioner Amity Schuyler, who is developing the program on behalf of her department, added that the state’s new law is clear that participating schools must conduct criminal background checks through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The resistance to employee background checks from voucher advocates comes just months after a horrifying story out of a Nashville charter school in which a student was in a class taught by a substitute teacher who was also the woman who killed that student’s brother:


But that feeling of safety was shattered Friday when the twins had a substitute teacher in their math class. It was Khadijah Griffis, the same woman who had shot and killed their older brother last month.

This incident happened at RePublic Charter School. The school was using a New Orleans-based firm to source substitute teachers.

Additionally, voucher proponents are attempting to avoid accountability when it comes to state tests:

On the testing issue, the proposed rules would allow either Tennessee’s standardized tests or “any nationally normed assessment” already in use when the state determines if a school will be suspended or terminated from the program for poor results by voucher students. The inclusion of national tests was a concession to private schools, which don’t administer state tests. Board member Wendy Tucker expressed concerns last month that the accommodation wasn’t in keeping with the spirit of new voucher law, which requires all voucher students to take annual state tests in math and English language arts to track student performance.

The voucher vultures are making it clear: They want Tennessee taxpayer dollars and they want minimal accountability. While Bill Lee attempts to fast-track this ill-conceived initiative, perhaps the antics of the money hungry DeVos devotees will boost the chances of a budding repeal movement.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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