Lizzette Reynolds’ tenure as Commissioner of Education marked with many mistakes
Tennessee’s Education Commissioner is having a rough go.
From not having the required teaching credentials when she started the job to getting caught claiming a tuition waiver she didn’t qualify for to some seriously disastrous legislative hearings, Reynolds is struggling.
What signal does it send that the governor is willing to hire somebody who is completely unqualified, who would misrepresent something on a state application and seek a tuition waiver from a state university just to get on the job training. This is all completely humiliating,” Representative Clemmons emphasized.
The land of make believe is apparently where Gov. Bill Lee and his team go to find justification for their bad public policy. WMC-TV out of Memphis has the story about how the Lee Administration is using old data from a study based on projections to justify a demand that schools return to in-person learning.
Here’s more:
Despite new data suggesting COVID-19 learning loss wasn’t as severe as predicted, state leaders continue to use old data, which some have called misleading, to pressure school districts like Shelby County Schools to reopen for in-person classes.
The ACTUAL data from students suggests any “loss” of ground due to the pandemic is relatively minimal. Lending credence to claims made by Nashville blogger TC Weber and others that the entire concept of “learning loss” is pretty much ridiculous.
For example:
Shelby County Schools also released its own data in November, showing that while learning loss did occur in reading and math, it wasn’t as bad as predicted.
For instance, 28% of students placed below grade level in reading compared to 27% historically.
In math, 29% of students placed below grade level compared to 23% historically.
Despite the newer data, the governor and his administration continue to use projections from the April NWEA study to pressure school districts like SCS to reopen to in-person classes.
Calling out hypocrisy
Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray noted that while calling for students to return to in-person learning, Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn appeared via video to legislators:
“Watching state leaders call for in-person learning on the state legislature’s virtual video meeting today sends a mixed and hypocritical message. We invite state leaders to step away from privileged podiums and try to understand the many concerns of our students, parents, and teachers,” Ray said.
Whether it is Bill Haslam’s Commissioner of Education telling tales about TNReady or Bill Lee’s Commissioner appearing virtually using make believe data to push for in-person learning, Tennessee’s recent history indicates education policy is made independent of actual facts.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Your support – $5 or more – makes publishing education news possible.
So, the General Assembly has passed a bill essentially creating mandatory retention for third grade students who fail to meet certain benchmarks on TNReady tests.
Here’s the key text from HB 7004, that passed overwhelmingly in both chambers:
(1) Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, a student in the third grade shall not be promoted to the next grade level unless the student is determined to be proficient in English language arts (ELA) based on the student’s achieving a performance level rating of “on track” or “mastered” on the ELA portion of the student’s most recent Tennessee comprehensive assessment program (TCAP) test.
The bill outlines a series of potential ways a student may ultimately be promoted even if they fall into this category. Attending a summer “mini-camp,” for example.
But, as Senator Jeff Yarbro points out, 62% of third graders currently fall into the category where retention is the default action. And, students who are retained at this age end up more likely to not complete school or graduate from high school. There’s definitely mixed data on the benefits and drawbacks to retention.
There’s a lot to read in that article by Paul Thomas, but here are some key points regarding third grade retention:
But Mississippi has taken the concept further than others, with a retention rate higher than any other state. In 2018–19, according to state department of education reports, 8 percent of all Mississippi K–3 students were held back (up from 6.6 percent the prior year). This implies that over the four grades, as many as 32 percent of all Mississippi students are held back; a more reasonable estimate is closer to 20 to 25 percent, allowing for some to be held back twice. (Mississippi’s Department of Education does not report how many students are retained more than once.)
Thomas adds:
This last concern means that significant numbers of students in states with 3rd-grade retention based on reading achievement and test scores are biologically 5th-graders being held to 4th-grade proficiency levels. Grade retention is not only correlated with many negative outcomes (dropping out, for example), but also likely associated with “false positives” on testing; as well, most states seeing bumps in 4th-grade test scores also show that those gains disappear by middle and high school.
So, we’ve adopted as the official policy of the state of Tennessee a policy that Mississippi used to create a mirage of educational improvement while changing precious little in terms of actual investment in kids.
It seems Tennessee policymakers are once again looking for some sort of “fastest improving” press release instead of looking for meaningful policy change.
Oh, and here’s another interesting note. The test being used to determine retention is the TNReady test. Yes, that one. Yes, THAT one.
While the tests were ultimately suspended last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are currently envisioned as being delivered on pencil-and-paper, the goal is to return to online testing. However, that return is fraught with potential problems. Not least of which is the fact that our state has had some . . . uh, trouble, with administering an online test.
Here’s how one national expert described Tennessee’s experience with online testing:
“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.
Of course, those third graders also need to watch out for hackers and dump trucks, because we all know those two things can really foul up a test!
Here’s Sen. Yarbro explaining the problems with this bill:
"We are creating a high stakes test for 8-year-olds."
"We are extending a 6 week period for every district & we are not sending anywhere near the resources to pay for it."
Tennessee is making some lists in the education world, and where we fall is disappointing, if not surprising. While Tennessee is among the states with the lowest investment in public schools, we are also one of the worst states to be a teacher. Here’s more from HeyTutor and Business Insider:
Tennessee is near the bottom in investment in public schools, according to data published here:
Tennessee
Total spending per student: $9,184
Instructional spending per student: $5,584
Support services spending per student: $3,090
Total spending: $9.27 billion
Average teacher salary: $48,456
Graduation rate: 89.8%
Academic performance: Below average
Tennessee is also one of the worst places in the country to be a teacher, according to Business Insider:
Tennessee: One-third of teachers in the state would leave the profession for something with higher pay, a 2019 survey found.
And, here’s a friendly reminder:
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Your support helps make publishing education news possible.
In March of 2013, I wrote about a possible education agenda for Tennessee. It was a plan based on issues I felt were not receiving adequate attention at the time. Each was chosen for the potential to have a measurable impact on outcomes.
Now, with a new governor and General Assembly, it seems a good time to check-in on these proposals and see where Tennessee stands.
The items I included were: Pre-K, new teacher mentoring, BEP funding improvements, and a significant increase in teacher pay.
Specifically:
We should expand the Pre-K program to serve all at-risk four-year-olds by 2017.
Ok, it’s 2019 and we’re still not there. This despite clear evidence (especially in Nashville) that quality early education works. Instead, the previous Lt. Governor worked hard to keep the Pre-K program from expanding.
Tennessee policy-makers should build and launch a new BEP formula in time for the 2015-16 academic year.
This hasn’t happened. In fact, Governor Haslam froze BEP 2.0 and created a system where per pupil spending was essentially flat during his time in office. You can’t move forward by standing in place. We need an investment of between $500 million and $1 billion to adequately fund our state’s schools.
Tennessee policy-makers should build a new teacher mentoring program and ensure every new teacher has a trained mentor by the 2016-17 academic year.
No, this hasn’t been done. Hasn’t been seriously talked about. Not on the horizon. Investing in early career support and development for teachers is not yet a priority of our state’s policymakers.
Tennessee policy-makers should raise the starting pay for all teachers to $40,000 and adjust the pay scale to improve overall compensation by the 2015-16 academic year.
It is 2019 and we are still not there. Many teachers in our state start teaching at salaries below $40,000 and many will teach a full career and never see a salary above $60,000. This is an unsustainable model and is already having an impact in districts across the state.
So, I still think these four items make up a solid education policy agenda for our state. What do you think? Teachers, what are your policy goals?
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
