EduShyster here describes Kevin
Huffman’s relentless campaign to demoralize Tennessee
teachers and make Tenessee the worst state to be a teacher. She
suggests that the time is soon coming when Huffman will be held
accountable. Not by the state board, which rubber stamps his bad
ideas even when they aren’t informed of the details. No, he will
face the accountability of angry parents, teachers, and other
citizens who have grown tired of his destructive tactics. That day
will come, rest assured. Even his membership in Jeb Bush’s Chiefs
for Change won’t save him from the wrath of
Tennessee’s Angry Moms</a, who created their own Facebook
page.
Archives for category: Tennessee
This is a great letter from a teacher to the state board of education on Tennessee:
“Dr. Nixon,
Speaking from 32 years of experience in education–both public and private–I beg you, implore you–yes, perhaps even grovel to you–to do your best to put to rest the issue of tying license renewal to student test scores. As I have never contacted the State Board of Education since I moved to Tennessee in 1988, I hope you will give me the courtesy of three minutes to hear me out.
“I have no problem with Common Core. I have no problem with the TEAM evaluation tool. I have no problem with eliminating poor teachers. I do, however, have a problem with the too rapid implementation of these initiatives. Common Core implementation should take three to five years. (I read the manual.) Tennessee has attempted to do it in 18 months. TEAM is an excellent tool when used for the purpose that it was developed, the growth of teachers, but not when it is used as a stick to turn observations into Whack-a-Mole to see how many rubrics a teacher can hit in order to get a score to keep a job.
This final move to tie the ability to continue in one’s profession to a growth outcome based on a matrix that no one can adequately explain smacks of yet another attempt to paint teachers as the problem with education. In the dark of the confessional, both you and I know that this is egregiously untrue. The demoralizing effect this potential act can have on our teachers is one growth measure I feel I can adequately explain. In recent weeks I have listened to gifted teachers—yes, GIFTED teachers–who are talking of exiting the profession early. To quote one teacher, “I’m just so tired. If they would just leave me alone and let me teach the kids, I can do that.” This is a math teacher, an area Tennessee certainly cannot afford to drive away.
“I am not sure when it became a badge of shame to be a “professional educator.” Based on what we have seen in education in Tennessee in the last three years, I seriously look for the eradication of of colleges of education at our universities. We could certainly save money as a state, and if the present leadership in the Department of Education is any indication, a teaching degree is not necessary to teach; anyone can do it. Following this train of thought, I’ve been to a doctor’s office. I know what happens in a doctor’s office. I think I’ll practice medicine for a couple of years when I retire. Maybe I’ll even teach in a medical school and train doctors.
“As a former English teacher, a Tennessee citizen, a voter, a taxpayer, and one who is passionate about seeing children have opportunities to improve their lives through education, I pray fervently that you and the entire Board will bring this runaway train to a screeching halt and vote down this measure.
“Sincerely,
“[A Tennessee educator]”
This comes from Jennifer Croslin Smith, a Tennessee parent and a founder of http://stoptntesting.com/. No more bake sales or raising money for school uniforms. Nope:
“We were just told tonight at our Back to School night that our PTO is foregoing raising money for iPads this year so we can instead purchase computers for Common Core testing which will begin in 2014-2015. We are lucky if we raise $20,000/year at ______–yet all of that money (from what I understand) is going to fund computers for standardized testing. The state mandated the adoption of Common Core so, as far as I am concerned, they can pay for the computers we need to take these tests. It is not fair that parents should pay for something that the state should be providing for already. What about those schools that don’t have parents wealthy enough to cover this unfunded mandate? What are they supposed to do? This makes me sick.”
Rightwing groups have targeted Tennessee as ripe for privatization on next year’s election.
Last election, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst pumped more than $200,000 into Tennessee races, mostly to Republicans but also to a pro-voucher Democratic legislator.
The pro-privatization groups Democrats for Education Reform and Stand on Children are also likely to add funding to candidates who oppose public education.
These groups want to solidify the control of far-right Governor Haslam and a legislature that is hostile to public schools and professional teachers.
Big corporate and rightwing money can be defeated by an informed public.
A group of Tennessee moms created a brilliant Facebook page calling for the removal of Kevin Huffman, the state education commissioner.
The site is vivid, graphic, and highly charged with the fury of really angry moms.
One entry points out that Huffman likes to say that Kentucky does better than Tennessee, even though both have the same level of poverty. So the moms produced a comparison graph showing that Kentucky has no vouchers, no charters, and spends more per pupil than Tennessee.
Another entry posts the contract that Huffman awarded to his former employer, Teach for America. Thanks to Huffman’s largesse, TFA will pick up $7 million to send in ill-trained youngsters to teach in Tennessee’s neediest schools.
There is no power so great as the power of outraged moms. They are stronger than the Koch brothers, stronger than the Walton Family Foundation, stronger even than Bill Gates. When the lives of their children are at risk, they are a mighty and unstoppable force.
A blogger in Tennessee notes that Rand Paul of Kentucky is excited about what is happening in Tennessee.
He wants Kentucky to follow Tennessee’s lead.
But this is very odd because by almost every measure, Kentucky is more successful in education than Tennessee.
Unlike Tennessee, Kentucky has no charter schools. It does not aspire to enact vouchers. It is doing none of what the corporate reformers love.
And yet, having not followed the reform path to privatization, this is what Kentucky does have:
– Higher scores on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) than Tennessee in seven out of eight categories.
– A higher ACT composite average than Tennessee
– A larger percentage of its population with 4-year college degrees than Tennessee
– A lower unemployment rate than Tennessee
Please ask Senator Rand Paul why Kentucky should copy Tennessee.
Plain logic suggests that Tennessee should strive to be like Kentucky.
Kevin Huffman, Tennessee state education commissioner, has decided that children with disabilities need to take the same standardized state tests as other children.
For many years, children with severe disabilities took an alternative test, but Huffman wants to put an end to that.
He says it is time to stop lying to these children.
“For years, the state has been hiding children with disabilities by giving them them the alternative test instead of the TCAP, Huffman said.
“They didn’t perform well on their first TCAP test, but “it’s important that we’re stopping the lying,” he said.
Please, dear readers, help me understand the mind of someone who thinks he is helping children with severe disabilities by requiring them to take a standardized test that many cannot read.
Is he launching a research project?
He certainly does not display any knowledge of the reasons for IEPs, so perhaps he acts from ignorance.
He must know that many severely disabled children will fail and feel deep anguish. So is he acting maliciously? Or, knowing the distress he will cause so many severely disabled children, is it sadism?
Whatever it is, it is not equity, it is not in the best interest of these children, and it is not reform.
Why not give them the same care provided by Harpeth Hall, a private school in Nashville where one of Huffman’s daughters is a student? Harpeth Hall does not give standardized tests. If Huffman is right, the school is hiding something and “lying” to their students by not testing them.
This notice went to first- and second-grade teachers across the state of Tennessee. The state made a little error. This little error will count for 35-50% of each teacher’s evaluation.
My first thought when I read it was that I was appalled that teachers of first and second grade are being evaluated by the test scores of their students.
My next thought was to wonder whether anyone in the Tennessee Department of Education would be held accountable for this error.
And then I remembered that accountability is not for those in charge, only for those in the schools.
Subject: Important Notice Regarding Your 2013 TVAAS Teacher Report
1st and 2nd grade teachers:
The department has discovered an issue that required us to recalculate TVAAS teacher-effect scores for all 1st and 2nd grade teachers. We learned that, due to incorrect labeling by our external vendor within the SAT-10 claiming file, teachers who taught Mathematics during the 2012-2013 school year received Language teacher-effect scores for their Mathematics students, and vice versa. The issue did not involve the TVAAS model itself, nor the EdTools claiming process.
Many of the teacher-effect scores for 1st and 2nd grade will look very similar, especially for teachers that taught all of the same students in all subjects. However, some teachers may have only taught Mathematics or Language and they would have received a report that was for the wrong subject. Due to these changes, many of the teachers in Mathematics and Language will see shifts in their index measures in grades 1 and 2.
If you are receiving this email, your TVAAS Evaluation Composite Score (Level 1-5 scores) was not impacted. However, you may see slight revisions to your previously reported index scores (used to determine level 1-5 scores). For this reason, we do recommend that every teacher visit the TVAAS website using the username and password already provided by SAS to view updated information.
Please note that this situation will not impact school or district level scores in any capacity. The issue is strictly limited to individual teacher-effect scores for 1st and 2nd grade teachers and affects around three percent of those teachers’ TVAAS Evaluation Composite Scores (Level 1-5 scores).
We apologize for the inconvenience this situation has created. However, we want to ensure that teachers receive scores that accurately reflect their students’ progress during the 2012-2013 school year.
Please e-mail team.questions@tn.gov with any questions (replies to this message are not monitored).
To access the TVAAS reports go to
Tennessee state superintendent Kevin Huffman expects to get great teachers by cutting the salaries of those with advanced degrees and experience. Wonder where he learned that formula? And of course, he will evaluate teachers by test scores, aka junk science. This is supposed to improve education because the top graduates of the nation’s universities will rush to teach in a state where advanced degrees and experience don’t matter. They will, won’t they?
Here is a comment by a Tennessee teacher, who teaches Spanish:
“I’m another teacher in TN…. I love to teach, and I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life, but it’s getting harder and harder to pay the bills. Many of us, including me, have to work multiple jobs at this point, despite our degrees, training, and professional expertise.
“Among other ludicrous things, in my evaluations, I have been critiqued for my students speaking Spanish during class because “it wasn’t listed on the board as an objective” (yes, for a Spanish CLASS), and I’ve been told to “speak less Spanish when I teach” during evaluations, because my evaluators do not know Spanish. In other words, I’m supposed to teach less, so that people who do not know my content area can evaluate the quality of my teaching.
“It’s very difficult to hang in there right now.”
In The New Republic, Jeff Guo writes about Michelle Rhee’s brazen attempt to buy the Tennessee legislature. In the last election cycle, she supported hard-right Republicans except for one Democtatic legislator who supports vouchers. This renegade also supported the notorious “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which sought to prevent teachers from discussing homosexuality. (Rhee’s StudentsFirst named the author of the “Don’t Say Gay” as its “Reformer of the Year.)
Guo tries hard to understand how a “reformer” parrots the same education agenda as the far right, ALEC, and others who despise public education and unions. He doesn’t get the connection among Rhee and other corporatist organizations like TFA and Stand on Children.
The grand deception: Using progressive rhetoric, even appropriating the language of the civil rights movement, to advance reactionary goals and privatize public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 