I had a great visit to Chattanooga and met many dedicated, civic-minded people. I was invited to visit by the Benwood Foundation, which has done an amazing job helping local public schools and supporting environmental improvement.
Chattanooga is a beautiful city of about 170,000 people. It has a lovely, historic central city. Everything is within walking distance or a short ride.
First, I met the local editorial board and had a spirited conversation with them. They literally had a columnist on the left (who sat to my left) and a columnist on the right (who sat to my right). We had a great conversation about what is happening nationally and in Tennessee.
Then I talked to civic and business leaders, and we had a good question-and-answer session about the ingredients needed for a community to improve its schools and how the business community could play a constructive role. I talked about the need for collaboration around children and families; the importance of prenatal care for every woman; early childhood education; the arts in every school; and how vital it is to treasure our educators. I hope that conversations like this will encourage people to ignore those who disrespect and demean educators. Our public schools are vital community institutions. I think the people of Chattanooga understand that.
Before my lecture, there was a reception where I met some old friends that I did not anticipate. One was Henry Shulson, the director of the Chattanooga Children’s Museum. I knew him when he lived next door and was about 8 years old. That was about 50 years ago!
At the same reception, I met a local state senator who told me that Michelle Rhee has been pouring lots of money into political campaigns in Tennessee. Most of the candidates she supports are Republicans, he said. But she pumped $105,000 into a Democratic primary fight. On one side was a liberal Democrat who supports public education; on the other was a very conservative Democrat who wants vouchers. She supported the latter, who won. He said to me, “You have to understand that legislators will work hard to raise $1,000. Can you imagine what it means to have someone give you $105,000?” He said she is going from state to state, knocking off good people who care about public education and support her Republican views.
The lecture went really well. The room at the University of Tennessee was animated. What amazed me was that on several occasions I made statements that caused the audience literally to gasp. I recall saying that states should never cut education to give tax breaks to corporation–which seems like a truism to me–and I heard an audible gasp. Tennessee has been so eager to lure corporations to the state that I think what I said was heresy, yet music to the ears of educated people.
Chattanooga is a city that has enormous potential. There is a real hunger to build a community, to have a city that takes care of its own. That’s a great beginning for the revitalization of public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We don’t do a very good job of planning for unintended consequences. On the surface of it, trying to encourage corporations to locate in your city by giving tax incentives seems logical. Think of all the jobs! However, we now have the evidence to show what it can do to a city’s ability to provide services. I’m glad you got to speak somewhere they haven’t sold their souls yet.
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Video anywhere?
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Not yet, but there will be.
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And there are probably 10,000+ communities who will be gasping when they realize what has or will be happening to them. Perhaps you’ve helped save Chattanooga. Unfortunately Kevin Huffman is wondering and throwing his weight around down there.
One other thing I find amusing. Most corporations seek a workforce talent pool that is well educated. Is that what they think they’ll get in Tennessee or anyplace that subscribes to RttT, NCLB and/or the TEST? Or will they be re-educating their workers since they unable to work together, think, problem solve and heaven forbid- be creative? Since these skills aren’t tested, chances are they aren’t being taught, developed or nurtured.
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Thanks for the visit. It sparked much needed conversation around these issues. The South seems so willing to sell out to invading corporate giants…perhaps b/c of our long history of poverty. Last to industrialize, means last to unionize, means furtile ground for the invaders. We are the third world the Romneys used to have to go abroad to find and exploit. But, as the Chicago strike indicates, we are not alone in the fight to protect our basic negotiation rights. Unfortunately, I fear that we in the south will be dependent upon the outrage of our northern counterparts who have historically had more practice protesting against those who would sell our souls to the company store. The Rhees of the world will have more traction here for all the reasons the now insulted 47% here still vote Republican: poverty, ignorance, and prejudice. However, nothing feuled the privatization of education in the south like desegregation. As a teacher here for the last twenty-five years, I can attest it is still the prime mover. I’m pretty sure this is true nationally. NCLB is just a clever way to come into this effort through the back door…undetected apparently even by our first black president.
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I was fortunate enough to get to hear you speak in Chattanooga. Please keep your message in front of the public. It is so good to hear someone with your background verify what many of us have thought for years, test scores aren’t an accurate way to measure teacher effectiveness and it causes problems that further hurt the most vulnerable students.
Our state school board is catering to commissioner Kevin Huffman’s every whim. In their most recent meeting they adopted an acceptable range policy for teacher observation scores. The TEAM evaluation scores teachers on a 5 point scale with 1 being significantly below expectation. It bases (or I should did base) 50% of a teacher’s evaluation on classroom observation (TAP rubric) and a professionalism score, 35% on student growth, and 15% on student academic achievement. Now the state board is saying that the teacher observation score has to be within one point of the VAAS score for that teacher.
Here’s the link to the state guidance: http://team-tn.org/assets/misc/E%20-%20Acceptable%20Range_FINAL.pdf
Now teachers who teach high needs students or students who test poorly are automatically set up to score low on their evaluation.
I know of an urban Pre-K school that serves the most impoverished students where experienced teachers with excellent observation scores were made to take a district wide 3 year average score of 1 on student growth and achievement which brought many of their final evaluation scores down to 2 or 3. While a new teacher who struggled and had low observations scores was assigned a system wide single year score of 5 which brought her final evaluation score up above her colleagues. How’s that for accurately measuring teacher performance?
Our commissioner wants to base teacher pay on TEAM scores and we will likely see legislation to do away with our state minimum salary schedule, so the money can be redistributed to pay “effective” teachers. Our teachers have got to stand up and say enough. It is ludicrous!
I keep hoping that when the $500 million RTT money is gone the rats will leave TN, but how much damage can they do prior to that?
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If your state commissioner had spent more than 2 years as a TFA teachers, he might understand the profession better and be less enamored of testing.
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