Education Week reports that Tennessee’s Education Commissioner, Candice McQueen, has joined education reform group Chiefs for Change. Her predecessor, Kevin Huffman, was also a member of the group that has advocated for expanding charter schools and using value-added data in teacher evaluations.
Here’s more:
Chiefs for Change, once part of the former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and comprised solely of state education chiefs, has spun off as an independent organization.
And on the addition of McQueen among the group’s four new members:
The lone state chief in the group is Candice McQueen, Tennessee’s commissioner of education.
While McQueen has been Tennessee’s Education Commissioner for three years now, she is new to Chiefs for Change.
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I am very disaappointed that Commissioner McQueen has joined this group. Huffman’s tenure in the top position in Tennessee education was horrific, and I don’t want to go through that experience again. McQueen should know that we (educators) feel as if we are being fired upon by all sides, and we certainly don’t need it from her as well. It has been a welcome relief to know our commissioner has outstanding credentials, extensive experience in actual teaching, and some common sense. I hope that common sense and maybe even a sense of loyalty to Tennessee’s educators would make her rethink the decision to join Chiefs.