Race to the Top News
A proposed high-tech Hamilton County high school could hold 300 students on the campus of Chattanooga State Community College. The county aims to apply for about $1.8 million in state grant funding to open a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, school here next fall. At a meeting Thursday night, organizers said they plan to put the new STEM school in part of the former Olan Mills building next to the Chattanooga State campus and bought by the school in 2010.
Hamilton County Schools improved its graduation rate, along with elementary test scores for reading, math, science and social studies, but high school test scores are down, according to the latest state report card. The county’s overall graduation rate increased to 81.7 percent, up from 80.2 percent in 2010 and 70.9 percent in 2009.
Gov. Bill Haslam says a goal to improve Tennessee students’ proficiency scores by 20 percent over the next five years would provide evidence that the state’s education overhaul is working. Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said at budget hearings in Knoxville last week that his agency wants to meet that goal.
Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, on the job for less than a year, is working diligently to improve the state’s struggling schools. The task, he candidly admits, is difficult. Success, he said at an editorial board meeting with the Chattanooga Times Free Press earlier this week, won’t come overnight. Initial efforts at reform do show promise, however, and should continue without undue interference from either politicians or educators motivated by self-serving considerations.
While seventh-graders stack pennies and make length estimates, one person in class is busy wandering the classroom, taking notes as she goes. Normal Park Museum Magnet School Principal Jill Levine spends only about 10 minutes in Matt Jorgensen’s class, but learns much. “I saw so many things in his classroom that other teachers could learn from,” she said.
Tennessee’s education chief has asked the federal government for reprieve from its No Child Left Behind law in favor of a more flexible state accountability system that focuses on overall school growth. Instead of the strict achievement targets in the federal law, Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman wants a system with “ambitious but achievable” goals that primarily target the students who are furthest behind in learning.
As Ohio begins bracing for another winter, the students at Dayton Regional STEM School have a plan for dealing with snow days—homework via iPad. Placing a 21st century device like the iPad in the hands of every student is a cool story, but what impressed Hamilton County Superintendent Rick Smith on a recent trip to the Ohio school was that students were doing more than just learning on digital tablets—they were learning about the science behind what made the devices work.
Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman is opposing calls by some teachers and state lawmakers to delay using new evaluation scores to gauge educators’ effectiveness. The skeptics say the annual evaluation system, especially its classroom observation component, is helping send educators’ morale crashing in a state that won a $500 million federal Race to the Top grant last year. They are asking for a year’s delay in any negative consequences for teachers who get low scores. In an interview Friday, Huffman said the system “isn’t perfect,” but that’s no reason not to move forward.
The State Board of Education has unanimously approved minor changes in the state’s new teacher evaluation program.
One change is aimed at streamlining time-constrained principals’ meetings with teachers both before and after they conduct multiple personal observations of educators’ classroom performance. Another seeks to ensure personal observation scores don’t get out of line with other evaluation components such as student achievement scores.
Other discussion sessions will take place Thursday and Oct. 18, 25 and 27 at 9:30 a.m. at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Business Development Center on Cherokee Boulevard.
Join the community conversation about Science Technology Engineering and Math! ...TSIN recently issued an RFP for an allotment of $1.85 million for the establishment of at least two East or West Tennessee STEM Hubs and Platform Schools. ...As a group, we want to design a rich, comprehensive STEM program serving the entire region, and for this we need your input.
Hamilton County will move forward with the grant application to open a new science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, school. But school board members caution that more details need to be ironed out before committing to the project. School board members met with district officials, business leaders and representatives of Chattanooga State Community College and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in a work session Thursday evening. Officials discussed an opportunity to receive a nearly $2 million grant for a STEM school with the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network.
Hamilton County School Board members are expected to discuss their plans for bringing a STEM school to the Chattanooga area in a specially called work session on Thursday night. While Superintendent Rick Smith declined to comment on the meeting—citing his desire to wait and discuss the topic with the board directly—his aspirations for bringing a school with a science, technology, engineering and math-based curriculum to the area are well documented.
Seeking to face down concerns from Tennessee educators and state lawmakers, Gov. Bill Haslam and state Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman are defending the state’s new teacher evaluation system but concede the controversial program is not without its flaws.
New teacher evaluation standards passed by the Tennessee Board of Education on Friday will weigh heavily on how well students perform in the classroom. Fifty percent of a teacher’s evaluation must be based on student performance, but there is some flexibility. The new requirements mandate that 35 of the 50 percent be linked directly to performance in the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, a statistical analysis that compares student test scores and determines what is considered normal yearly academic growth.
Tennessee’s new schools chief said getting the state off the bottom of lists that rank education boils down to two things — creativity and innovation. “I think when our schools are failing students, and failing poor students in particular, we shouldn’t take any option off the table,” Kevin Huffman, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education, said Friday. Huffman was in Chattanooga with his new boss, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam. They met with teachers at Hixson High School and Battle Academy in Chattanooga.
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) today released its annual State of Education in Tennessee report. SCORE Chairman and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist presented the report during SCORE’s quarterly Steering Committee meeting of major education stakeholders from across Tennessee.
With the recent release of Tennessee’s State Report Card, we learned that over half of elementary students in Hamilton County are not proficient in math or reading. We also learned that the district did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this year — that 37 percent of our schools are not meeting standards set by the federal government. As jarring as these statistics may be, they do not paint a complete picture of what is happening in our schools or provide productive insights into the realities of school performance.
Part of the recent legislation ushered in by Tennessee’s Race to the Top win included an overhaul of the state’s teacher evaluation system. Gone are the days when a tenured teacher was evaluated once every five years ... In their place is what many Hamilton County principals are saying is a much more streamlined process in which they evaluate each teacher every year through a series of 10 observations, each 10 minutes long.
...It seems counterintuitive to say that lower scores are a herald of a brighter future for Tennessee students. That, however, is the case. The 2010 TCAP results indicate exactly where state students rank on a national scale. The challenge now is to help students improve their numbers and to lift the state from the educational doldrums to one of respect among its peers.
Gov. Phil Bredesen issued a shock warning to parents Monday that the standardized test scores Tennessee students bring home over the next few weeks will be low. New, higher benchmarks for Tennessee’s standardized assessments mean “harder tests and lower test scores, there’s no getting around that,” Bredesen said.
By Vicky Gregg, President & CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee: In the next week or so, many Hamilton County parents may receive a shock in the mail when their children’s standardized academic test scores or “TCAPs” arrive. Student scores are likely to be lower than in previous years because Tennessee’s teachers and students are now aiming to achieve a much higher educational standard. In fact, Tennessee’s new academic benchmark is comparable to the standards required in America’s most competitive states. None of us wants to see a child’s test scores dip, even momentarily, but overcoming the challenge of this first year is a necessary step in making sure Tennessee students excel in the future.
A 15-member group responsible for reshaping the way Tennessee’s teachers are evaluated has submitted its suggestions to state officials. Among the potential changes: a new five-point teacher evaluation scale and twice-yearly observations for principals. “I think we have some strong recommendations,” said Jill Levine, principal of Normal Park Museum Magnet School in Chattanooga and a member of the statewide committee.
Tennessee has launched a new First to the Top website to help keep Tennesseans informed about the state’s Race to the Top program implementation. Located online at www.TN.gov/FirstToTheTop/, the site includes Tennessee’s application and related documents, resources for educators, school systems and vendors, and details about First to the Top programs and projects.
For education officials in Tennessee, the recent news of staggeringly low achievement on new state tests was all but surprising. For the public, however, Tennessee’s new curriculum standards are expected to make a tough introduction. And in the midst of new challenges and sweeping reforms, the transition into higher standards raises many hard questions about Tennessee's history of low expectations.
It might surprise many Tennesseans to know that across the nation, Tennessee has become a state to watch — and not for the usual music, barbecue or sports-teams reasons — but because in just a few short years, Tennessee has become a national leader in education reform.
Governor Phil Bredesen announced on Wednesday that Tennessee's nearly $501 million Race to the Top budget has been approved by the U.S. Department of Education, allowing the state and all 136 school districts to move forward in implementing comprehensive school reform plans over the next four years.
A sizable majority of Tennessee voters “strongly support” high academic standards in K-12 public schools despite expectations that raising the bar will lead to lower student test scores in the short term, according to the results of a new statewide
Once Tennessee secured $500 million in federal money to turn around its education system, it was up to individual school districts to decide how to spend their money.
Governor Phil Bredesen announced on Monday 14 appointments to the Tennessee First to the Top Advisory Council, a broad-based group of Tennesseans and national experts who will provide strategic guidance, direction, and thought leadership to state policymakers overseeing Tennessee's Race to the Top grant from the U.S. Department of Education. [Ed: including PEF President Dan Challener]
America's Choice, a nationally recognized educational solutions provider, has been approved by the Tennessee Department of Education to help transform Tennessee’s lowest performing schools.
School districts may get some say in how their teachers are evaluated as part of a new Tennessee law that requires educators to be graded partly on the success of their students...During a teleconference Monday, the 15-person committee appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen to figure out details of the new plan said that while another 35 percent will come from standardized tests showing how much a student progressed in one academic year, the remaining 15 percent is up for grabs.
Teachers who are eligible next year to receive tenure will not be judged under a new teacher evaluation program being piloted in Hamilton County, officials said Friday. ...School officials, principals, teachers and union officials discussed some particulars of the district’s new evaluation model during a workshop Friday at United Way of Greater Chattanooga.
Governor Phil Bredesen and Tennessee Education Commissioner Tim Webb led a Race to the Top Summit in Chattanooga on Friday. County Mayor Claude Ramsey, state and local elected officials and business and civic leaders joined with Hamilton County Department of Education Superintendent Dr. Jim Scales to "begin a community conversation on the benefits of Tennessee’s First to the Top law and new federal Race to the Top funding for Hamilton County schools."
The day after Tennessee public schools hit the $500 million jackpot, Hamilton County administrators began work on a pilot teacher evaluation system that could become a statewide model. Figuring out a way to evaluate teachers every year was one piece of legislation approved during a special General Assembly session in January.
...The fact that every district in the state agreed to participate is a big reason why Tennessee was awarded the $500 million for which officials applied, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Monday. “Tennessee’s plan truly is a statewide effort,” he said during a teleconference announcing Race to the Top winners. Tennessee shares the prize only with Delaware, which won about $100 million.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced today that Delaware and Tennessee have won grants in the first phase of the Race to the Top competition. “This is a landmark opportunity for Tennessee,” said Governor Phil Bredesen. “Our success in Race to the Top speaks to the commitment we’ve made to meaningful and significant improvement in public education, and the funds provided by the grant will carry us forward in a dramatic and positive direction.”
Hamilton County Schools officials already are plotting how the district might spend its share of federal Race to the Top money after Tennessee was announced as a finalist Thursday. Hamilton County Superintendent Jim Scales said he would like the system to look at a new assessment model for teachers, as well as programs aimed at recruiting and training quality educators. “We were pretty optimistic in our hope that Tennessee would be a finalist in the first round,” he said. “This gives us plenty of reason to start planning for if Tennessee is one of the winners.”
One legislative critic likened it to buying a “pig in a poke,” while even a supporter said he and fellow lawmakers were acting “somewhat on a wing and a prayer.” But with one eye fixed on the chance to win hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds and the other on the opportunity to make a difference in Tennessee’s quality of education, state lawmakers last week approved a sweeping education overhaul.
Hamilton County Schools system could see as much as $10.56 million if Tennessee wins its application for federal Race to the Top funds, according to preliminary state estimates. Other area systems also would get a share of the one time funding.
Gov. Phil Bredesen on Friday issued his official call for a special legislative session on K-12 and higher education reforms...“I look forward to working with you this session to capitalize on the unique opportunities that are in front of us in public education,” the governor said in his letter, dated Thursday. In his proclamation, Gov. Bredesen cited the history of K-12 education reform in Tennessee and noted that the state now is competing with other states for a piece of some $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.
... The groups will return to negotiations in early January after talks this week produced no agreement on how much weight student test scores should have when it comes to evaluating teacher job performance. That meeting comes just a week before Jan. 12, when Gov. Phil Bredesen wants to convene a special legislative session on education. He wants state lawmakers to change current laws that he says stand in the way of Tennessee, competing against other states for “hundreds of millions” in federal Race to the Top funds.
Gov. Phil Bredesen said Tuesday he will call the General Assembly into a special legislative session next month to enact far-reaching changes in how K-12 teachers and principals are evaluated and granted tenure. The governor said changes are necessary to help Tennessee qualify for federal Race to the Top funds.