The Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS) released a letter yesterday urging the General Assembly to support the Common Core State Standards as they are rather than delaying their full implementation and developing new standards.
Legislation has been filed that would lead to the creation of new Tennessee Standards and delay testing aligned to those standards until the 2017-2018 academic year.
Here’s the text of the news release from TOSS and a list of the signers:
The Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS) today released a letter to all members of the General Assembly signed by 114 Tennessee superintendents and school district directors who are asking lawmakers not to change the state’s academic standards during this legislative session.
The leaders who signed the letter represent school districts that are educating more than 850,000 students, or nearly 86 percent of public school students in Tennessee. The letter points out that in the past seven years Tennessee’s K12 education system has undergone significant changes that have led to unprecedented progress in the quality of education that students receive.
Another major change will occur in the spring of 2016, when TNready, a new
statewide assessment aligned to Tennessee’s State Standards, is introduced.
“This work is paying off,” said TOSS Board Chairman Randy Frazier, Director of Weakley County Schools. “Tennessee has received national attention for historic gains in student achievement. That’s why we say to the
General Assembly, please do not derail this momentum. We are asking the members to make no adjustments to Tennessee’s State Standards before we have the results of the public review process set up by the Governor and the
State Board of Education. We also are asking that the implementation of TNready be allowed to proceed with no delays.”
The public review process allows Tennessee residents to review each standard for math and English language arts, to recommend whether the standard should be retained or changed, and to explain why.
“There has been unprecedented participation in the review process, especially by Tennessee teachers,” the TOSS letter says. “We ask that their input be valued and that we move forward with efforts to improve and enhance our
current standards and truly make them our own, while also giving educators and students the stability they desire and deserve.”
“The superintendents who signed these letters believe the input from those closest to the classroom should be valued and more of it should be gathered through the online review,” Kingsport City Schools Superintendent Dr.
Lyle Ailshie said. “We also believe that our teachers, principals, and students deserve some much-needed stability. For those reasons, we urge the General Assembly to allow the review to continue and to refrain from passing
legislation this year that disrupts standards or assessment.”
TOSS represents the state’s superintendents and directors of schools and is the leading advocate organization for public education in the state of Tennessee. The TOSS mission encompasses advancing public education, promoting
the work and interest of the superintendency, gathering and circulating information on general school matters, and providing pertinent information on sound education legislation to the General Assembly. TOSS also proposes and analyzes legislation that impacts local school systems.
These school district leaders signed the letter to the General Assembly:
Brian Bell, Alcoa City Schools
Larry Foster, Anderson County Schools
Robert Greene, Athens City Schools
Don Embry, Bedford County Schools
Mark Florence, Benton County Schools
Jennifer Terry, Bledsoe County Schools
Rob Britt, Blount County Schools
Dan Black, Bradford Special District
Gary Lilly, Bristol City Schools
Barbara Parker, Cannon County Schools
Johnny McAdams, Carroll County Schools
Kevin Ward, Carter County Schools
Stan Curtis, Cheatham County Schools
Troy Kilzer, Chester County Schools
Connie Holdway, Claiborne County Schools
B.J. Worthington, Clarksville-Montgomery
County Schools
Jerry Strong, Clay County Schools
Martin Ringstaff, Cleveland City Schools
Vicki Violette, Clinton City Schools
Manney Moore, Cocke County Schools
LaDonna McFall, Coffee County Schools
Robert Mullins, Crockett County Schools
Donald Andrews, Cumberland County
Schools
Mike Latham, Dayton City Schools
Mark Willoughby, DeKalb County Schools
Danny Weeks, Dickson County Schools
Dwight L. Hedge, Dyer County Schools
Neel Durbin, Dyersburg City Schools
Cory Gardenhour, Elizabethton City Schools
James Teague, Fayette County Schools
Janine Wilson, Fayetteville City Schools
Mike Jones, Fentress County Schools
Rebecca Sharber, Franklin County Schools
David L. Snowden, Franklin Special School
District
Eddie Pruett, Gibson County Special District
J.B. Smith, Giles County Schools
Edwin Jarnagin, Grainger County Schools
Vicki Kirk, Greene County Schools
Linda Stroud, Greeneville City Schools
David Dickerson, Grundy County Schools
Dale P. Lynch, Hamblen County Schools
Rick Smith, Hamilton County Schools
Troy Seal, Hancock County Schools
Warner Ross, Hardeman County Schools
Michael Davis, Hardin County Schools
Steve Starnes, Hawkins County Schools
Teresa Russell, Haywood County Schools
Steve Wilkinson, Henderson County Schools
Sam Miles, Henry County Schools
Jerry W. Nash, Hickman County Schools
Cathy Harvey, Houston County Schools
Versie Ray Hamlett, Humboldt City Schools
James L. (Jimmy) Long, Humphreys County
Schools
Pat Dillahunty, Huntingdon Special District
Joe Barlow, Jackson County Schools
Verna Ruffin, Jackson-Madison Co. Schools
Charles Edmonds, Jefferson County Schools
Mischelle Simcox, Johnson County Schools
Lyle Ailshie, Kingsport City Schools
James McIntyre, Knox County Schools
Sherry Darnell, Lake County Schools
Shawn Kimble, Lauderdale County Schools
Bill Heath, Lawrence County Schools
Scott Benson, Lebanon Special District
Jeanne Barker, Lenoir City Schools
Susan Bunch, Lexington City Schools
Wanda Shelton, Lincoln County Schools
Jason Vance, Loudon County Schools
Mark Griffith, Marion County Schools
Mike Winstead, Maryville City Schools
Edward (Eddie) Hickman, Maury County
Schools
Lynn Watkins, McKenzie Special District
Mickey Blevins, McMinn County Schools
John Prince, McNairy County Schools
Don Roberts, Meigs County Schools
Jesse Register, Metropolitan Nashville Public
Schools
Mary Reel, Milan Special School District
Tim Blankenship, Monroe County Schools
Chad Moorehead, Moore County Schools
Edd Diden, Morgan County Schools
Linda Arms Gilbert, Murfreesboro City
Schools
Steve Thompson, Newport City Schools
Bruce Borchers, Oak Ridge City Schools
Russ Davis, Obion County Schools
Ann Sexton, Oneida Special School District
Mike Brown, Paris Special School District
Eric Lomax, Perry County Schools
Diane Elder, Pickett County Schools
Jerry Boyd, Putnam County Schools
Jerry Levengood, Rhea County Schools
Cindy Blevins, Richard City Special District
Gary Aytes, Roane County Schools
Mike Davis, Robertson County Schools
Rebecca C. Isaacs, Rogersville City Schools
Don Odom, Rutherford County Schools
Bill Hall, Scott County Schools
Johnny G. Cordell, Sequatchie County
Schools
Jack A. (Jackie) Parton, Sevier County Schools
Dorsey Hopson, Shelby Unified County
Schools
Tony Tucker, South Carroll Special District
Jubal Yennie, Sullivan County Schools
Beth Litz, Sweetwater City Schools
Sandra Harper, Trenton Special School
District
Clint Satterfield, Trousdale County Schools
Denise H. Brown, Unicoi County Schools
Jimmy Carter, Union County Schools
Cheryl Cole, Van Buren County Schools
John R. (Bobby) Cox, Warren County Schools
Ron Dykes, Washington County Schools
Gailand Grinder, Wayne County Schools
Randy Frazier, Weakley County Schools
Eric D. Williams, West Carroll Special District
Sandra Crouch,White County Schools
Donna Wright, Wilson County Schools
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Which Supers/Directors didn’t sign the letter?
What a bunch of sheep. It is so much easier to conform than to think independently for oneself. I wonder how many of these people have recent classroom experience.
Governor Haslam’s review team is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Measurement Inc the company hired to created the new standards has contracted with AIR/Smarter Balance and AIR is leasing the Common Core aligned assessment questions they created for Utah for Tennessee. So what that says is the new standards are already being developed…..you don’t lease assessment questions without already knowing what the standards will look like. AIR and Smarter Balance are behavioral testing organizations and the tests will be based on measuring attitudes and values not academic achievement. Great achievement……I don’t consider a 2.2% improvement in 2013 NAEP results over 2011 a great achievement. We might have moved up 20 places but the overall improvement was 2.2% and our achievement gap grew in 3 out of 4 categories and stayed the same in the 4th category. And the small improvement had nothing to do with Common Core. Common Core was not even implemented in 4th and 8th grade when the test was given. So it appears to me the people that signed this letter signed it because they were told to sign it or they are just a pack of sheep following the rest of the flock. Your letter is not based in fact. Why would we subject our children to an experiment. Common Core standards were never tested or researched. This entire scheme is to collect MASSIVE amounts of data on our children from the day they are born to the day they die including data on the family as well. You are buying into a system that will eventually tell our children what job they will be trained to do not the job they select.