Tag Archives: Charles Corra

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Offered and Accepted

The MNPS School Board offered the position of Director of Schools to Shawn Joseph in a unanimous vote.

Within hours of the offer, Joseph accepted a four-year contract with a salary of $285,000 per year.

Charles Corra at Rocky Top Ed Talk thinks the offer is a good sign:

1. Many hot-button education issues create division among students, parents, and public officials in Nashville. A strong leader is needed to navigate these difficult obstacles and lead our schools in a pragmatic way.
2. A unified school board, and ultimately a community, is the best and most fruitful way to welcome a new superintendent into the school system, and to foster a unified approach to solving the district’s problems.
3. MNPS boasts a diverse community of students. Dr. Joseph would arrive at his job with MNPS coming from one of the more diverse communities in our country, and with the requisite experience to handle the complexities that Nashville presents.
4. Dr. Joseph’s impressive resume shows his lifelong experience in public education.

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

 

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Corra Channels Trump

Over at Rocky Top Ed Talk, Charles Corra tries his best to demonstrate what education policy might look like under a President Donald Trump.

Here’s his take on Trump and Common Core:

Common Core is a disaster. You know who likes Common Core? Jeb. Bush. Jeb. Bush. You know, low energy Jeb. Do we like Jeb? Of course not. His brother was a disaster. I was against the Iraq War back in 2003, I said it would destabilize the region. And speaking of destabilizing a region, Common Core has destabilized our government. Our kids are getting indoctrinated by politicians who want to make a quick buck off textbooks. The only two books you need are my two favorites, THE BIBLE!!! and the Art of the Deal. That is it. So we’re going to abolish Common Core, make our elementary schools more like the Wharton School of Business. I went to the Wharton School of Business. World class business school.

There’s more and it’s a pretty good look at what Trump might have in store for America’s schools.

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

 

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Is That Even Legal?

Charles Corra examines the potential legal issues with Tennessee’s charter schools in light of the Washington State Supreme Court ruling saying that state’s charter law was unconstitutional.

He starts with this note:

I recently tweeted about an article published in the Nashville Bar Journal called “Tennessee’s Waltz With Charter Schools,” which commented on the potential unconstitutionally of Tennessee’s charter school legislation.

Then adds:

Similar to Washington, Tennessee’s charter schools are also private entities that contract with a school board and cannot be managed by for-profit entities.  The author also points out the similarity with funding between Washington and Tennessee charter laws: that the money follows the student. What is important in the article is the discussion that follows regarding the variance in success rates between charter schools (i.e. some performed well while others did not), which could be attributed to the freedom that charter schools have with how they allocate resources. The takeaway here is that, based on a study the author delves into, there are inconsistencies in management, operation, funding, and student achievement among charter schools in Tennessee.

The points, as Corra makes it, is that because of the way Tennessee charter schools are operated and funded, they could be in violation of established precedent regarding equal educational opportunity. No challenge to this law has yet been made, but the issues raised in the Washington case may merit attention by Tennessee lawmakers.

Read Corra’s full analysis of this issue.

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

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Opting for Questions

Charles Corra over at Rocky Top Ed Talk has some questions about the Opt-out movement that appears to be gaining some traction in Tennessee:

To opt-out or to not opt-out? There seems to be an intense, festering degree of distrust with the state testing system in Tennessee (with good reason, based on how TNReady fared this year).  However, is that enough to justify a lack of no confidence?  Is testing essential to acquiring data and helping to properly identify the needs and focus areas of a school, of a particular student?

The article notes that students are refusing tests on a larger scale, though solid numbers are difficult to obtain. Perhaps the failures of TNReady have called attention to the testing challenges many schools and students face?

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

 

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Corra Talks Cash

Over at Rocky Top Ed Talk, Charles Corra talks about the importance of investment in schools, using the fairly extreme example of Detroit Public Schools as a cautionary tale.

Corra concludes:

DPS’s situation is certainly an extreme one, but clearly not unrealistic.  The legislature in Tennessee needs to look at DPS’s crisis as a warning  – school funding is critically important and should not be overlooked.  Yes, an entire state being underfunded by $500 million is certainly a big difference from a city school district being in debt $350 million, but the point still stands – funding matters, and its not a game.

While he notes that the DPS example is extreme, it is worth noting that the legislature is in the middle of some serious school funding games, with some lawmakers attempting to abdicate the state’s responsibility to fund schools.

Yes, school funding matters. And being $500 million behind as a state is problematic, especially during a growth period when we have a surplus of $1 billion.

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

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Is Jeb! TNReady?

Ok, we all know Jeb! already suspended his campaign, but he’ll still be on the ballot in Tennessee.

But, Charles Corra is comparing the TNReady rollout to the Jeb! campaign over at his blog:

The current TNReady debacle is much like Jeb! Bush’s campaign for President:  It was looked at as an inevitable success, generated a LOT of money in support of it, ended up crashing and burning, and ultimately took way too long to pull the plug.

Corra concludes:

Our teachers, students, and families deserve better.  If students are going to be tested with a rigorous, common core-aligned exam, then at least get the mechanics of the exam figured out beforehand.

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

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Corra and Weber Talk Vouchers

Legislation creating a school voucher program in Tennessee has been placed on the floor calendar of the House of Representatives for Monday, February 8th.

As the debate over whether to approve this proposal continues, bloggers Charles Corra and TC Weber weigh-in.

Corra offers two posts (so far), one dealing with the key players and the other beginning a conversation around possible constitutional issues.

Weber offers strong opposition to vouchers and notes:

Instead of adopting any of these ideas that are already proven to help children, we are choosing to adopt, at great expense, a plan that has been shown to hurt children. What a voucher program essentially does is ration high quality public education. Some children, namely those whose parents can navigate the system, will get a life boat to a potentially better situation. But what about those left behind? A vouchers plan does not offer a solution for those children. In fact, as blogger Steven Singer points out, it makes things worse.

More on School Vouchers:

What TN Can Learn from Louisiana on Vouchers

Voucher Week

The Price is Right

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

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Corra vs. Butt

Tennessee education blogging newcomer Charles Corra takes on anti-Islamic hysteria and State Rep. Sheila Butt in his latest post on Rocky Top Ed Talk:

I recently wrote about an implicitly anti-Islamic bill floating around the Tennessee legislature that sought to ban the teaching of “religious doctrine” until 10th grade.  While the bill does not explicitly mention Islam in its text, it was filed in wake of parental complaints regarding students learning about the five pillars of Islam and effectively seeks to prevent “religious indoctrination” in Tennessee public schools.

While some of us may have hoped this silly bill would simply wither away and die, it unfortunately has not.  Instead, it will be see some light of day in the Senate Education committee.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Sheila Butt (R-Columbia), is no stranger to asserting her religious beliefs. Rep. Butt has called for a Council on Christian Relations, Rep. Butt is a published Christian author, with such notable works as “Does God Love Michael’s Two Daddies?” and “Everyday Princess: Daughter of the King,” which contains some…questionable comments regarding interracial dating.

Corra correctly notes the bill will soon receive a hearing in a legislative committee.

Here’s more on efforts to stir anti-Muslim sentiment in Tennessee:

Financed by Fear

Sharing the Wealth

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

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New Kid on the Block

Charles Corra, an employee of RePublic Charter here in Nashville, has started a new blog on education policy and what he calls a “forum for ideas,” including ideas on charter schools.

In a post on charters, he says:

I look forward to a broad-based discussion of how charter schools impact Tennessee – whether it be negative, positive, or a little bit of both.

We’ll see how the discussion goes.

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