The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) has named Terrance Gibson its new Executive Director.

Here’s the press release:

The Tennessee Education Association has named Terrance J. Gibson as its new executive director effective immediately. Gibson has been serving as interim-executive director since March of 2020.

“Terrance has spent his entire career in service to Tennessee students and educators,” said TEA President Beth Brown. “The TEA Board of Directors and I are confident he will be a dedicated and effective leader as TEA continues our fight for the students, educators and public schools of Tennessee.”

Gibson, a Memphis native, has worked for TEA for more than 20 years supporting thousands of teachers, school administrators, education support professionals, and students. He has worked at all levels of the association from a student campus president, to coordinating instructional and professional development models, to more recently serving as Assistant Executive Director. Prior to his work with the association, Gibson was a classroom teacher in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

“My commitment to the success of the Tennessee Education Association has been unwavering for more than two decades and will continue as I take on the role of executive director,” said TEA Executive Director Terrance Gibson. “I am proud of the hard work our members and leaders are doing during unique and unprecedented times. Through collaboration with the TEA Board and staff, we will continue to work in the best interest of our members and students. I am committed to ensuring that TEA is on a path toward protecting and advocating for students, the teaching profession, and our members. We will promote, advocate and lead the profession!”

In addition to his work in public education, Gibson has worked with non-profit organizations such as 100 Black Men, and holds professional memberships in Phi Delta Kappa, National Staff Association for the Improvement of Instruction (NSAII), ASCD, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), The Legacy Education Foundation (501c3) and the National Education Association. He also belongs to Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, Golden Key Honor Society, and is a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.

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In response to legislation passed during Gov. Bill Lee’s not so special session on education, the Germantown Board of Education is making a request for immediate corrective action. That is, the Board wants the legislature to remedy harms (unintended?) caused by the bills the Lee Administration pushed.

Regarding the TCAP/TNReady testing legislation, the Board has the following response:

Regarding the ill-advised third grade retention bill, the Board says:

Here’s the deal: These pieces of legislation are bad news for districts and for the students they serve. Had Gov. Lee consulted actual school board members or educators, he would know this. He did not. He routinely ignores the concerns of teachers and the needs of students in order to serve an agenda dictated by an overwhelming urge to privatize. That at least one school district is speaking up is important. I would expect more will do the same.

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Chalkbeat is tracking requests from school districts to waive various state mandates for the upcoming school year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s more:

Wanting flexibility for a school year of uncertainty, more than half of Tennessee districts have asked for one-year waivers to state mandates ranging from duty-free lunch periods for teachers to new physical education requirements for students.

Hundreds of waiver requests have already been submitted by 79 school systems to the Tennessee Department of Education. More are expected in the coming months as schools reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.

The first round of requests will be considered on Friday by the state Board of Education. That vote will offer an early glimpse of how far Tennessee will go to help schools navigate COVID-19 at the expense of statewide policies aimed at improving the quality of public education.

It seems worth noting that of the requests on the agenda Friday, only one includes TNReady testing. The recommendation of State Board of Education staff is to deny that request. Some districts, like Williamson County, have appealed directly to Gov. Bill Lee for relief on the testing front.

Here’s the rest of the Chalkbeat story>

https://tn.chalkbeat.org/2020/7/21/21333088/tennessee-school-systems-seek-hundreds-of-waivers-from-state-mandates-amid-covid

Here’s a breakdown of requests and State Board staff recommendations:

https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/stateboardofeducation/documents/2020-sbe-meetings/july-24%2c-2020-sbe-meeting/7-24-20%20IV%20M%20COVID-19%20Additional%20LEA%20Waivers%20Attachment%20Public.pdf

Tennessee’s largest organization representing teachers is calling on all school districts to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) if or when schools resume operation. Here’s more:

TEA calls on every Tennessee school district to provide personal protective equipment, all necessary sanitation supplies, and enough support professionals necessary for maintaining the safest possible teaching environments if or when students and educators return to public schools. 

The move comes just weeks before school is slated to start in many Tennessee districts. It also comes amid a continued spike in cases of COVID-19 in the state.

Jeff Bryant writes about how the COVID-19 pandemic is waking America up to the reality that schools are, in fact, essential. To everything.

Here’s a bit of what he has to say:

In May, as the pandemic was just about to explode from hotspots in the Northeast to a nationwide contagion, Forbes contributor Nick Morrison argued, “Until children go back to school, parents will have to remain at home looking after them, and it will be impossible to fully restart the economy.”

New York Times op-ed writer Spencer Bokat-Lindell, marveling at how European countries were able to reopen schools, wrote, “Restarting classes is essential not only to parents’ mental health and children’s development, but also to reviving the economy.”

“We cannot have a functioning economy, or any hope of reducing economic inequalities, without a functioning educational system,” wrote Paul Starr for the American Prospect in June.

“A consensus is emerging among top economists and business leaders,” reported Heather Long for the Washington Post in July, “that getting kids back into day cares and schools is critical to getting the economy back to normal.” She quoted chief executive of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon saying, “If schools don’t open, a lot of people can’t go back to work.” Those pronouncements on the need to reopen schools in order to save the economy have turned into a drumbeat in the halls of government.

At a June hearing on Capitol Hill, senators and federal health officials called for “schools to resume some form of normal operations in the upcoming academic year, due in part to concerns about a weakened economy and the long-term welfare of children and families,” according to Education Week

MORE>

Turns out, we need schools. It also turns out that YEARS of chronic underfunding of public schools means… well, we’re not quite ready for what’s next.

Do we value kids? Families? Our investment (or serious lack thereof) in schools tells the real story.

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

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