Frist releases roadmap to improve education
10/23/2009
| Chattanooga Times Free Press
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By Kelli Gauthier kgauthier@timesfreepress.com
Former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist thinks Tennessee’s education can be No. 1 in the Southeast. And he says it can happen in five years.
For nearly a year, he’s been crisscrossing the state and meeting with principals, teachers, superintendents and business leaders to figure out what’s working well in Tennessee education and how to replicate it statewide.
And on Thursday, the State Collaborative on Reforming Education — or SCORE — released “A Roadmap to Success,” outlining four main goals and more than 60 recommendations for everyone from students to school boards.
“Every Tennessean has a role to play in improving our schools,” Dr. Frist said Thursday during a conference call. “The nation is hungry for models, statewide examples of successful education reform.”
Dr. Frist said making Tennessee No. 1 is possible through work on his four main recommendations: embracing high standards, cultivating strong leaders, ensuring excellent teachers and using data to enhance student learning.
“We’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve our schools. Is it hyperbole or an overstatement? I don’t think so,” he said. “For the first time, we have all the key stakeholders aligned around a bold education agenda.”
In his report, Dr. Frist points out that there are many ways to measure educational success, but no matter how you look at it, “Tennessee rarely ranks above the national average and frequently ranks in the bottom quarter of states.”
The five-year goal is for Tennessee’s average fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress to be higher than other states in the Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Tennessee now ranks 41st in fourth-grade reading and math scores and 40th in eighth-grade reading and math, behind states such as North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Saying state leaders are primed and ready to reform education, Dr. Frist pointed to the state’s new, more rigorous academic standards this school year and the alignment of postsecondary and work-force standards.
“We have a new sense of urgency among parents and educators around education,” he said.
Tom Kinser, the retired president of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and a member of the SCORE steering committee, said the consensus reached by business, education and political leaders involved in the project underscores its importance.
“If Tennessee wants to improve its education, it can and it must,” he said. “The issue is one of political will. Do we really want to dig in and do it? Because it’s going to take all of us on a sustained basis to make it work.”
Mr. Kinser said the panel talked with governors from Florida and North Carolina and met with successful educators from throughout the country to identify successful programs that could work in Tennessee.
“There has been a sense of despair and cynicism among some people, but I’m hoping that this report demonstrates that we can do better,” he said
Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales said he thought Dr. Frist was “right on target” with his report. But the No.-1-in-fiveyears goal is a bit lofty, Dr. Scales said, since presumably officials in other states also will be working to improve their educational systems.
“All of the other states will have initiatives as well, but we can’t afford to get further behind,” he said. “We have to put the pedal to the metal and make sure we’re speeding ahead.”
Hamilton County Board of Education member Jeffrey Wilson said the local school board already has started on several of Dr. Frist’s recommended initiatives, including creating a strategic plan and supporting the state’s new, higher standards.
The local board needs to be most diligent about creating policies to address Dr. Scales’ 2011 strategic plan, Mr. Wilson said.
“For example, how we handle certain disciplinary issues,” he said. “The board could probably lay down some policies to handle some of these problems.”
“I think we’d have better teacher morale,” Dr. Scales said. “Some of the morale issues we see lie in the fact that we have such varied policies from campus to campus.”
WHAT’S NEXT
At a meeting on Nov. 16, Dr. Frist will discuss how to implement the recommendations in his report over the next five years.