Tennessee’s Achievement School District continues to struggle even as a new leader pushes for more accountability.
Chalkbeat has the story of Sharon Griffin seeking greater control over day-to-day operations in light of consistently poor performance among ASD schools.
The district promised to raise the state’s lowest performing schools into the top 25% percent academically within five years. But the district hasn’t produced large academic gains. It’s struggling to attract students and retain high-quality teachers. And the local districts in Nashville and Memphis, where the schools are located, historically haven’t collaborated well with the achievement district because it took over their schools without local permission.
In English and math exams taken in 2017, not a single Achievement School District elementary, middle, or high school had more than 20% of students scoring on grade level, according to Tennessee school-level test data released last summer. Not one of the six high schools in the achievement district had more than 7% of students scoring on grade level.
The ongoing challenges faced by the ASD could be a result of mission creep or simply a lack of any real accountability.
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Nashville Mayoral candidate and current state representative John Ray Clemmons took the time to answer some questions about how he views the Mayor’s Office as it relates to education in Nashville. Here are his responses:
What are your top priorities for MNPS?
Increase school funding to: increase pay for our teachers and para-professionals; fill vacancies with high-quality teachers; hire counselors, ELL specialists and a community partnership coordinator for every school; purchase new textbooks and classroom resources; and, fund our schools at the recommended level of $15,000 per student per year.
Build a strong partnership with MNPS leadership to provide full Metro support to achieve a shared vision and create an environment more conducive to stability and longevity in the Director of Schools’ office.
Take more responsibility for the direct impact Metro has on student performance inside the classroom by working to address significant challenges facing students outside of our schools (adverse childhood experiences, hunger, homelessness/housing instability, access to transportation, traumatic events, etc.).
Facilitate more budgetary transparency.
Increase socio-economic diversity in our schools.
Work to increase parental involvement and private partnerships.
As a public school
parent of three young boys and elected official, I have had the opportunity to
observe amazing things happening in schools across our city, and I cannot wait
to see what our educators will accomplish with our full support and adequate
resources.
What is your plan for addressing the teacher shortage in Nashville? I would like to first review all school-based budgets submitted by the schools to gain a better understanding of and evaluate the biggest areas of need. Next, I would follow up by communicating with educators and administrators to create a priority list. Then, I would work with MNPS to draft a strategic recruitment plan and create a realistic budget to execute the plan.
I fully recognize that our pay must be more competitive to attract high-quality teachers.
I also recognize that every school faces its own
unique challenges and has varying needs. Those challenges need to be reflected
in the way we budget more responsibly.
What can be done to address chronic underfunding
of Nashville schools?
First, we should start by making public
education our number one priority and using clear, reliable data to demonstrate
the real need for more funds in our school system. While there are
various factors limiting the pool of available revenues to invest in education,
we must start by protecting our property tax base and restoring Metro’s fiscal
integrity. We should also ask more of our entire community via public/private
partnerships, technology/resource exchanges, volunteerism, and other means.
Everyone is impacted by the quality of our public school system, either
directly or indirectly. I would also tap MNPS employees, including
unions, to provide much-needed perspective and help with issues concerning pay
competitiveness, training, and recruitment.
What role can the Mayor’s Office play in shaping state education policy? Nashville is the economic engine of the state and produces a larger
percentage of our workforce than any other city. The mayor has the ability to
use these facts as leverage to advocate for policy, as well as fight state
overreach and ensure that Nashville gets its fair share of state resources.
Unlike the current mayor who remained completely silent on Gov. Lee’s voucher
bill, Nashville’s mayor has a large platform that can and should be used when
appropriate to demonstrate the problems with ill-conceived state policy.
Nashville needs and deserves a mayor who will not hesitate to act in the
best interests of Nashville and fight to protect those interests.
How do you envision the relationship between the Mayor and the MNPS school
board? As mayor, I will work to build a strong partnership with MNPS leadership to
provide full Metro support to achieve a shared vision and create an environment
more conducive to stability and longevity in the Director of Schools’ office.
Rather than threaten to take over the schools or continue the finger
pointing, I would seek to serve as a partner with the school board and the
director of schools to ensure that all stakeholders are working toward the same
goal. We would maintain an open door policy with school officials and maintain
an open line of communication to stay apprised of how we can collaborate to
achieve strategic objectives and improve student performance. I would
also like to appoint someone from the public or private sector with relevant
expertise or knowledge to each school board committee to simply act as a
subject-matter resource for board members. Ultimately, we must work together to
bridge divides, build trust, and maintain mutual respect to ensure that our
educators and students succeed.
If you are elected, what message would you send to MNPS teachers and staff?
I am in awe of your commitment to our children,
and I am always available to listen and learn how I can help. No one has a more
direct impact on the future of this city than our educators and staff, and I
openly recognize that. I have your back.
What would you tell families moving to Nashville about MNPS?
I would tell them that I believe in MNPS so strongly that I proudly send my own children to an MNPS school every day with total confidence that they are receiving a quality education. I would then encourage them to get engaged and stay engaged in their child’s school. The diversity, educational opportunities, students and educators in MNPS make it truly special.
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On Monday, Tennessee a group of Tennessee teachers gathered in Lebanon to grade Pre-k and K portfolios. The process didn’t go all that well last year, and this year, it was more of the same.
Now, the founder of Portfolium has responded in the comments on this blog. I’m publishing his response here for all to see:
As the founder of Portfolium, I sincerely apologize that several technical issues caused the problems reported in this article and that it created such a challenge for this first day of the statewide portfolio scoring event. We need to, and will, continue to improve to ensure that our customers and partners don’t experience this again. We have since fixed the issue that caused the interruption. We have heard your feedback and welcome more of it. Please email support@portfolium.com with your feedback and ideas. I’m happy to also connect live with the team that was leading the event. Best, Adam Markowitz
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Today and tomorrow, the Wilson County Expo Center in Lebanon is hosting the statewide Pre-K/Kindergarten portfolio scoring event.
Well, they were. That is, until 350 teachers who were also trained peer reviewers showed up and the Internet didn’t work. At all.
Teachers present reported that some were able to access the Internet via cell phone hotspots. But … Then, the Portfolium platform didn’t work. At all.
Teachers who had traveled to Lebanon from outside middle Tennessee were advised to return to their hotel rooms and use hotel WiFi to attempt to access the evaluation platform. That also didn’t work.
Finally, teachers were advised they could just return home and attempt to assess portfolios. Or, they could spend another night in a hotel and return to Lebanon tomorrow. All at state expense.
Teachers who chose to be evaluators were told they would receive $750 stipends PLUS reimbursement from travel expenses for the statewide scoring event.
An email sent to teachers after today’s event indicated that teachers now MUST complete assessment of at least 10 collections by June 10th in order for the first wave of funds ($300) is released to districts. Upon final completion of 40 collections (roughly 60 hours of work), the final payment will be issued. So, to be clear, evaluators are paid a paltry $12.50 an hour to do this work.
Readers may recall that a similar scoring event in Lebanon last year was also met with problems.
It’s also worth noting that Portfolium has an interesting background:
Portfolium is a startup company designed to provide college students with a way to highlight accomplishments and work samples for future employers. Yes, you read that right: The new evaluation platform is a startup company that was founded in 2013 and just three years ago, began raising a small amount of capital to launch:
Portfolium, a Web-based social network for students preparing to start their careers, said it has closed on $1.2 million in new venture funding, bringing its total funding to $2.1 million since 2013, when the San Diego-based startup was founded.
It’s nice to know that even with a new vendor and a new Education Commissioner, the same rank incompetence can be expected from TDOE.
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The Tennessean has the story of a Nashville charter school facing turmoil amid financial challenges created by poor management and lax oversight.
Knowledge Academies charter school has operated with a large deficit, occasionally failed to pay teachers on time and slipped into financial turmoil while its CEO ran side businesses out of its Antioch school building.
Understaffing at the school forced teachers to regularly take on extra students, while long-term substitutes without teaching licenses filled in as if they were full-time staff.
Teachers say the staffing, financial problems and cavalcade of issues centering around school leadership created a culture of disorganization and made classroom instruction extremely difficult.
The news about Knowledge Academies comes after a state legislative session which saw Governor Bill Lee win approval of a new, statewide charter authorizer.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Teachers are some of the most admired people in our world. Teachers are role models. They inspire us and are admired for the skills they possess in helping others learn. Teachers are also normal people, who often get held to higher standards than politicians or even ministers. Like all of us, teachers make mistakes. However, no other group of professionals is as quick to give up on its members as public education administration when effective counseling would probably take care of the problem.
We know there is no magic fairy dust that is sprinkled on someone to make them an effective teacher. There is no genetic marker that an educator is born with that gives him or her a special skill. There is no Branch of Military Service equivalent that someone can join, like the Marine Corps, for example, that gives an individual training in moral, mental and physical strength needed to be successful in the education field. I would argue it is a lot of trial by error, support from colleagues and the prerequisite leadership in our schools that can shape the success or failure of an individual teacher.
I was blessed to have some extraordinary school leaders like Doyle Harmon in Meigs County, Tennessee and Ed Howard in Bradley County, Tennessee to really help guide me. However, one administrator, Ron Chastain, at Trewhitt Junior High School, really became a mentor, whether that was his goal or not. From him, I learned much about student discipline. I learned consistency mattered. I also learned that we needed to be empathetic, but also willing to be tough. He brought the right balance to the job.
Chastain, who still remains a friend, understood adolescent behavior better than anyone I have ever met. He understood that in order to teach, a classroom had to be orderly. In order to create a safe school for all students, discipline was required. I learned much more from Ron than I ever learned in my coursework in my undergrad and/or graduate work.
My question to policymakers: where can we find high-quality mentors for teachers and administrators? We take our new teachers and often toss them into the most difficult assignments like lambs to a slaughter. Then we wonder why discipline suffers and our teachers experience burnout and fatigue, ultimately leaving the profession. Administrators are often in the same boat. Sadly, we are missing that ingredient of mentorship in our schools today.
Our suggestion is to ensure that money is included in the future Basic Education Program (BEP) to allow for mentorship to occur, either by utilizing highly effective retired educators or granting stipends to experienced classroom teachers with a proven track record in classroom management. This strategy will likely impact teacher retention efforts in a positive fashion and create a better school environment with more consistent discipline and student behavior.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
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Tennessee Education Report has been around since January of 2013. Before Chalkbeat found Tennessee. After most local newspapers stopped focusing so much on education issues.
As of this week, I’ve written 1000 stories that have appeared on this blog. More precisely, YOU have written those stories. I’ve heard from teachers and parents and policymakers over this time. I’ve conducted interviews and taken phone calls and read emails.
YOU make Tennessee Education Report possible.
When it started in 2013, it was not clear there’d be an audience. Sure, there were issue to be covered, but who would read stories day after day about education issues in Tennessee?
Turns out, lots of you.
So, thank you!
Thank you for reading about an education agenda for our state that STILL has yet to be realized.
Thank you for reading analysis about NAEP scores. And about TNReady quick scores.
Thank you for reading about a failed portfolio evaluation process in both Kindergarten and Related Arts.
And of course, this year has been all about Bill Lee and his dangerous voucher scheme.
YOU make it possible to report education news day after day, week after week, year after year.
Thank you!
Your support — your monthly donation or one-time contribution — makes it possible for me to generate 1000 stories about education policy in our state. YOU write the stories!
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
So, Nashville is now Tennessee’s largest city. In fact, it is one of the fastest-growing cities in America. Nashville is hotter than the Hot Chicken the city is known for. It’s the “It City.”
Of course, that means teachers in Nashville are earning top dollar to live in this highly desirable, rapidly growing urban mecca, right? Nope. In fact, Nashville teachers earn significantly less than their counterparts in similar cities. The Nashville School Board and Metro Council have known this for YEARS now and done nothing about it. At all. It’s not like the MNPS School Board was consistently proposing significant raises for Nashville teachers. They weren’t. They haven’t been. They’ve seen (and ignored) the data since at least 2015.
Teachers in Nashville start at $42,100 with a bachelor’s degree. In Louisville, they start at $42,700. So, starting pay in Nashville is competitive. But, let’s look longer term. That same teacher after 10 years in Nashville will earn $47,000. In Louisville, it’s $54,974.
Oh, and let me note this: The salary to live comfortably in Louisville is $49,000. Teachers in Louisville hit that pay rate by year 5. A teacher in Nashville isn’t making $49,000 even after 10 years of experience. The pay scale in Nashville simply isn’t moving up quickly enough.
So, what about after 20 years? A Nashville teacher with a bachelor’s degree and 20 years experience makes $56,000. In Louisville, that teacher makes $71,000. A teacher working in Louisville with 20 years experience earns $22,000 more a year than that city’s “comfortable living” salary. In fact, they earn more than Nashville’s “comfortable” salary.
So, what’s up? Why aren’t MNPS teachers earning the salaries they deserve? Well, SEIU Local 205 offers this handy explainer relative to the Metro budget:
The job of the mayor and council is to decide what property tax rate generates enough revenue to fund the city. In both 2009 and 2017, Mayor Dean and then Mayor Barry accepted the tax rate that kept revenues neutral without debating the impact on the city budget. Both times, the Metro Council agreed. Our elected officials collectively refused to make the politically difficult decisions we need them to make as leaders of our city. They made an irresponsible choice to lower the rate, which cost our city vital revenues and disproportionately benefited developers and commercial properties. This broke the budget. In 2010, the Dean administration restructured the city debt, pushing payments into the future. Much of our budget is paying for that debt now instead of our schools and other public institutions.
Another way to think about this is that Mayor Barry proposed a $394 million/year tax cut, and the Council accepted. Technically we did not “lose” revenues because the appraisal has to be revenue neutral, but we did lose out on $1.5 billion in potential revenue over 4 years.
So, if you wonder why all those teachers are wearing “Red for Ed” or were staging “walk-ins” this year or even engaging in sick-outs in some cases, now you know. In fact, it’s amazing to me that these teachers even show up at all. Will the current Mayor and Metro Council address the glaring needs of Metro Schools OR will Nashville need to elect a new Mayor and different members of Metro Council in order to claim “It City”-level funding for schools and teachers?
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Much has been made about this year’s TNReady administration, which appeared to happen without any problems. In fact, Chalkbeatreports:
While education vouchers consumed the headlines this spring, Tennessee students in grades 3-11 were quietly taking their annual TNReady tests. The month-long testing window ended last week with about 2 million tests completed, a third of which were submitted online. While Tennessee had scaled back computer-based testing after last year’s technical problems, this year’s successful online administration for high schoolers still marked an important milestone in the TNReady era.
To be clear, Tennessee students (and teachers and parents) have become accustomed to a failed test administration and/or delayed results.
So, for the first time in 5 years, the TNReady test “worked.” It worked because it was mostly administered using old technology. Pencil, paper, a bubble sheet. Miraculously, the vendor was even able to return “quick scores” to districts in a timely fashion.
Not solved: The immense amount of time students spend in test prep and the lost instructional time during the “testing window.” Also not solved: Tennessee remains one of the few states still unable to successfully administer an online test and return the results in a timely fashion. In fact, we may be unique among states in the level of difficulty we’ve experienced:
“I’m not aware of a state that has had a more troubled transition” to online testing, said Douglas A. Levin of the consulting group EdTech Strategies.
The reality is that Tennessee’s online-testing mess has left everyone in a difficult position, said Chad Aldeman, a principal at Bellwether Education Partners, a consulting organization.
“The state has not [made] stability a key priority in their testing vendors,” Aldeman said.
So, Tennessee has the distinction of being the only state in America NOT able to effectively transition to an online testing platform that works. What separates Tennessee from these other states? Competent leadership in the Department of Education. That is, Tennessee’s DOE is unique in the level of incompetence consistently demonstrated.
For those interested in how this impacts TVAAS, it is highly problematic in terms of reliability. We’ve had failed TNReady, pencil and paper TNReady, hacker and dump truck TNReady, and another round of pencil and paper. It is IMPOSSIBLE to have consistent, reliable growth data based on these results. Still, teachers are evaluated on these results. Schools are held accountable for these results. Principals are told these results are key to their jobs.
Next year, TNReady will be administered by a new vendor on pencil and paper.
So, in 2020, Tennessee students will be using Stone Age technology to complete a tests kids in almost every other state are taking online. Nice to know Fred Flintsone runs our DOE.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
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As Governor Bill Lee signed controversial voucher legislation into law this past week, revelations emerged that the FBI is investigating potentially illegal campaign activity by the Senate sponsor of Lee’s plan.
The Daily Memphianreports Senator Brian Kelsey’s failed 2016 congressional campaign faces an investigation into illegal use of state campaign funds for a federal race.
The Tennessee Journal is reporting the Department of Justice talked recently to state lawmakers about alleged “straw donations” into state Sen. Brian Kelsey’s 2016 congressional campaign.
Kelsey, a Germantown Republican who represents East Memphis and Cordova, came in fourth in the Republican primary three years ago. But reports have raised questions about whether money was funneled from his state accounts into his congressional fund, which is illegal.
During the 2016 campaign, his state political action committee, Red State PAC, contributed about $20,000 to state legislators who then gave funds to his congressional race, according to the Tennessee Journal article.
The FBI is also investigating the House vote on voucher legislation to determine if any improper benefits were offered in exchange for votes in favor of the bill.
All of this comes amid the controversy surrounding soon-to-be former House Speaker Glen Casada, who will resign from his leadership role following a months-long scandal which began with the framing of an African-American political activist and included Casada’s appointment of an admitted sex offender to a key leadership role.
Just to be clear: Governor Bill Lee signed a bill that is currently facing an FBI investigation due to alleged impropriety in securing votes. The lead sponsor of that bill in the Senate is ALSO under an FBI investigation.
Rather than wait for the outcome of these investigations, Lee moved forward and signed the bill into law. Lee is so determined to privatize our state’s public schools that he partnered with the nefarious Glen Casada, ignored a potentially illegal vote, and relied on a Senate sponsor who seems to have displayed blatant disregard for campaign finance law.
Make no mistake: Lee is a win at all costs governor. His prize: Taxpayer dollars funneled to private entities with a record of failing to achieve results.
The losers in Lee’s dangerous, morally bankrupt game are the citizens of Tennessee and especially the students and families impacted by a voucher scheme that both fails to help kids and also sucks money from our chronically under-funded public school system.
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