The 2013 Tennessee Teacher of the Year Wanda Lacy argued for more incorporation of Common Core standards on standardized tests. Credit: Emily R. West.
Anti-Common Core protesters rallied outside of Governor Bill Haslam’s invitation-only summit on education Thursday. Inside, the governor attempted to quiet critics of the education standards and other recent reforms.
The agenda was tightly guarded prior to the event, and presenters were friendly to the administration’s position on education. But Haslam did invite participants who’ve done battle with his administration.
Around the table were superintendents who’ve expressed a lack of confidence in Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, the teachers union which is suing over the use of student test data in evaluations and conservative lawmakers like state Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) who’ve argued against Common Core.
“There’s disagreement in this room, and that’s ok. We knew that when we pulled this group together,” Haslam said.
While the governor didn’t float any policy changes, he asked everyone to be open to reforms that may surface in the upcoming legislative session.
“I want that to be the way that we have discussion about education in Tennessee, that we’re not afraid to say what’s working and what’s not,” Haslam said near the end of the four-hour meeting.
Haslam is trying to head off another year of wrestling with the General Assembly over Common Core, textbooks, teacher evaluations, charter school expansion and starting a private school voucher program.
Department of Education officials gave presentations about Common Core and the related testing, which was delayed by the legislature this year. Currently, an education official said Tennessee has five companies vying to rework the state’s standardized testing.
Teacher evaluations generated the most chatter among the panel, which included Tennessee’s teacher of the year and a representative from the Tennessee Education Association.
One business leader said he wanted to hold teachers accountable for educating the workforce.
“If our schools are not producing a quality product and an on time budget, then we are failing,” said Ken Gough of Accurate Machine Products in Johnson City. “I don’t care about the assessments. Are schools giving a good product? Are they getting the education they need? As a parent, I can’t see teachers’ scores, but if teachers don’t improve, they need to leave.”
TEA responded immediately. Union vice president Beth Brown, who is also a teacher in Grundy County, said parents don’t need to see teacher’s evaluation scores. In fact, she doesn’t think it would be all that helpful.
“My score can change over the years after a student leaves,” Browns said. “It’s not always a reliable measure.”
To wrap up the discussion on evaluations, House Speaker Beth Harwell flatly stated the legislature will not walk back the current evaluation model.
On charter schools and school vouchers, the presentation was more nuanced and touched on both the pros and the cons of what’s broadly described as “school choice.”
Right now, 75 charter schools operate in Tennessee, primarily in Memphis and Nashville, and have about 19,000 students.
Haslam brought in professor Ron Zimmer of Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, who has done extensive research on choice.
As Zimmer pointed out, advocates for charter schools are hoping to see better test scores emerge through competition with traditional schools and flexibility given to the privately-run, publicly-funded charters. The data – over all – doesn’t show a big difference, he said.
“If school choice is the silver bullet for test scores, it’s not meeting its goal,” Zimmer said.
Blake Farmer contributed to this report.
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