Better Reporting And Accountability For School Leader Preparation Program
With the start of school in Tennessee only a few weeks away, many students are excited to meet their teachers for the new school year. Teachers are so important to students’ experiences and success in the classroom, but there are additional educators in the building who are also critical to setting a positive culture of support and high expectations: school leaders (Leithwood and Jantzi, 1990). The term “school leader” can include principals, assistant principals, and other educators who supervise instruction and support operations at the school level. School leaders are the second most important in-school factor contributing to student success, right behind teachers (Louis, et al., 2010).
Given the importance of this role, the Tennessee State Board of Education is updating its policies on leader preparation and working with the Tennessee Department of Education to improve reporting and accountability for leader preparation programs in Tennessee. At the July 27 meeting of the State Board, members will vote on several items on final reading:
• A new Educator Preparation Rule that specifies reporting and monitoring requirements for programs that prepare teachers, leaders, and other educators such as counselors.
• A revised Educator Preparation Policy that goes into greater details about the structure of preparation programs.
• The Tennessee Instructional Leadership Standards (TILS). These standards had been included in a broader policy on leader preparation and are being moved to a standalone policy for easier reference. The TILS address both leader preparation and expectations for practicing school leaders. [Read more at tnscore.org]
Mayor, community leaders applaud $800K donation from Dollar General for early literacy efforts
Nine months ago, a shocking state statistic inspired the Nashville Literacy Collaborative to create the Blueprint for Early Childhood Success, a citywide initiative to double the number of third-graders reading on grade level by 2025.
“To this day, I am shaken to the core by the statistic that less than one in three kids at the end of third grade reads on grade level,” said Shannon Hunt, CEO of the Nashville Public Education Foundation. “There’s no way you can hear that number and not sit up in your chair and think ‘Oh my goodness, what can we do?'”
Mayor David Briley and community leaders gathered Friday to discuss the blueprint’s progress, as well as celebrate an $800,000 investment by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
The grant includes an immediate $500,000 gift and an additional matching donation up to $300,000 that will be used to double future community giving. The money will be used to fund the first phase of the blueprint which provides activities through June 2019.
“Nashville’s plan is unique in that it is championed not just by one stakeholder, but by many,” said Denine Torr, senior director of community initiatives for Goodlettsville-based Dollar General. “It is exciting to see the way organizations across the city are already supporting this effort programatically and philanthropically, and we hope these funds will encourage others to step forward and continue the collaboration.”
The Nashville Literacy Collaborative — a working group of 20 organizations assembled by the mayor’s office, Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Nashville Public Education Foundation and the Nashville Public Library — released the blueprint last fall to address Nashville’s critical early literacy deficit, and its leaders say the city has already seen gains.
“We have also launched large-scale efforts to bolster summer reading programs; recruited nearly 200 partners as neighborhood reading champions; created the Jump In community literacy awareness campaign; and launched a six-school pilot to test new curriculum and other school based interventions,” Hunt said.
Metro schools saw a slight increase in early reading proficiency after TNReady scores were released July 19, with 26.7 percent of third through eighth grade students on track or higher in the subject, up from 25.4 percent in the 2016-17 school year.
“Improving early literacy remains one of the top priorities for the district,” Metro Schools Director Shawn Joseph said. “This is a citywide problem that requires a citywide effort.”
The Dollar General donation — combined with substantial donations from the Scarlett Foundation, the Dan and Margaret Maddox Charitable Fund, The Nashville Predators Foundation, Ingram Charities and several others — gets the Nashville Literacy Collaborative 75 percent of the funds needed for the initiative’s first phase.
Briley said there were many measures of success in Nashville right now — lowest unemployment ever, more wealth created everyday and better jobs than ever before — but one measure recently stood out to him that is problematic.
“It takes about $80,000 a year to live comfortably in our town and on average, people are making about $49,000, so there’s about a $30,000 gap,” Briley said.
“That gap is really evident when you talk to certain communities,” the mayor said. “It’s fundamentally a failure of the city in terms of workforce development, which is really about education.”
Community leaders say the Blueprint for Early Childhood Success will pay off.
“I see the impact reading has on children every single day,” Nashville Public Library director Kent Oliver said. “Strong reading skills can mean the difference between a child’s succeeding and a child’s dropping out of school.”
Members of the Blueprint Community Steering Committee include:
- Alignment Nashville (Melissa Jaggers)
- Center for Nonprofit Management (Samantha Wigand)
- Dollar General Literacy Foundation (Denine Torr)
- Mayor Briley’s office
- MNPS (Dr. Shawn Joseph and Dr. Monique Felder)
- Nashville Public Education Foundation (Shannon Hunt and Jennifer Hill)
- Nashville Public Library (Kent Oliver)
- Scarlett Foundation (Tara Scarlett)
- United Way of Metropolitan Nashville (Erica Mitchell)
To view the full Blueprint for Early Childhood Success or learn more, visit blueprintforearlychildhoodsuccess.com.
Letter From Jamie Woodson: Developing Principals Who Can Lead People And Drive Learning
Dear Friends,
“Great leaders create great school culture where students want to come to learn. One of the opportunities for growth for Tennessee education is to ensure that we have the correct leadership aligned to every school to make sure we have success in every school.” – Dexter Murphy, Upper School Dean, Emerald Academy Public Charter School, Knoxville
The quote above is one SCORE used in Excellence For All: How Tennessee Can Lift Our Students To Best In The Nation to help frame the priority of developing school leaders who are ready to lead learning and people. Research and the on-the-ground experience that Dexter Murphy articulates so well tell us that excellent teaching and great leadership are the most important drivers of student achievement inside a school. Excellence For All has set a vision to 2025 that elevates excellence in teaching and leadership in our state.
To improve student achievement, principals must prioritize instruction and the development of a team of highly effective educators. To do this, Tennessee must ensure that leader preparation programs are preparing and supporting principals for their roles as leaders of instruction and people, as well as the other diverse responsibilities inherent in school leadership.
This week the Tennessee State Board of Education votes on new policies that lay the ground work for improved data reporting on leadership preparation programs, a good first step. And, SCORE is focusing on the topic of school leadership this month in a series of blog posts on The SCORE Sheet that explore the many aspects and opportunities around school leadership in Tennessee. [Read More at SCORE]
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Nashville school board district data empowers local voters
Data empowers sound decision-making. That is true for parents, teachers, and school leaders, and importantly, elected officials. Even while a lot of media and attention is paid to state and federal races this election season, public engagement in local school board elections is just as significant. On August 2, along with the statewide primaries, Nashville will decide on four of the nine school board seats— Districts 2, 4, 6, and 8.
School board members have a major impact on education in Nashville, and this election will set the direction for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and the 85,000+ students it serves. And while voters should certainly learn about candidates for the Metro Nashville school board, they should also learn about the school district, the students served, and the teachers and principals it seeks to attract and retain.
The Scarlett Family Foundation is invested in helping more Middle Tennessee students get a quality education. There are many partners in this work, and we support school, nonprofit and community efforts focused on making improvements and increasing success at the K-12 level. When our middle Tennessee students are ready to go to college, we continue investing in them. The Scarlett Family Foundation has awarded over 500 scholarships to eligible students, helping them pursue a higher education and graduate towards good-paying jobs.
We are also focused on providing data resources to equip the Nashville community with important information as we work together to ensure every child receives a high-quality education.Approaching the August school board elections, we compiled data from the 2016-2017 school year to create a new community resource. Our School Board District Profiles give a clear picture of our education landscape at the most local level, and bring this data together to result in some important findings.
What the data says about the district
First, we need to understand the student population MNPS serves. Twenty percent of the student population qualify as English Language Learners— four times the state number. Additionally, half of the students are economically disadvantaged, compared to 35 percent statewide.
When looking at student and school culture data—important factors in the outcome of student achievement and growth– some concerning trends emerge. MNPS continues to have high chronic absenteeism, with 17 percent of students missing a tenth or more of a school year.
Diving into district-specific data, we even see places where that number tops 20 percent. This means almost one in five students are missing a large chunk of instruction every year.
Recruiting and retaining great teachers and school leaders is also a known challenge and the most recent data affirms it. The teacher retention rate over a two-year average was 76 percent for MNPS traditional schools and 75 percent for charter schools. The average principal has served in their role only four years.
Finally, while MNPS lags behind the state in student achievement, there is a difference in achievement levels for different types of schools. When comparing traditional MNPS schools to charter schools, charters show near equivalent or higher achievement scores and surpass the state in growth scores.
We have joined so many other community partners in taking responsibility to do all we can to help our students, education leaders, and schools be successful. In a couple weeks, all voters will have a chance to do their part. Good, bad, or ugly– the numbers matter. We urge every Nashvillian to learn about their local school board district, get to know the candidates for elected office, and be equipped and empowered to engage with key decision makers— including our Metro Nashville Board of Education. [See more at the Tennessean]
Read MoreMetro Schools Announce New Program
Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) has partnered with Nashville State Community College for the 2018-2019 school year with the inaugural launch of the Early College High School Program. Dr. Shawn Joseph, Director, of MNPS, shared this exclusive announcement with the Tennessee Tribune as he continues to remarkably exceed the expectations of the community and prepare today’s students to be the future leaders and change makers of Nashville. According to Dr. Joseph, “Effective immediately, every rising eighth grade student in Davidson County with at least a B-Average, who can pass the required state tests, they can now apply for the Early College High School Program and participate in a regular high school educational schedule and graduate with a tuition paid Associates’ Degree after four years.” These pre-requisites and application standards are no different than the application process for Magnet schools or schools such as Martin Luther King.
Dr. Joseph indicated that a version of this concept has existed in some format in Nashville for tenth grade and above, but not like this, not at this level and not at this magnitude There is no program in Davidson County where an eighth grade student can go to high school as part of a normal schedule and walk out the door in four years with a two-year degree in Business Administration, General Studies, Mechanical Engineering, Health Sciences, Computer Science, Music or Information Systems and be college ready to begin working on a Bachelors Degree or head into the work force prepared to be a contributor to Nashville’s thriving economy. With over 86,000 students, 167 schools and the 2nd largest school district in the state under his leadership, Dr. Joseph’s visionary efforts with this Davidson County initiative has gone above and beyond traditional ready-to-work, advanced academics and internship programs. Dr. Joseph indicated “this is a game changer for hundreds of families who do not have money for college because their child can now receive a free all expense paid Associate Degree across seven disciplines.” In other words, this is the high school version of the adult program Tennessee Promise. Whether a family has a child of one or a family with three, the children are all eligible to apply. All resources such as fees, lab related expenses and textbooks are provided in order to help the students achieve success. [Read More at The Tennessee Tribune]
Read MoreTNReady doesn’t count, but here’s what you can still learn about your school
The failures of TNReady testing this year infuriated parents, teachers and students who spent months preparing for the high-stakes exam.
Lawmakers were equally furious, and passed legislation to make sure no one would be negatively affected by the results.
But test results in Tennessee are used for a variety of purposes beyond students’ grades and teacher evaluations. Without that data, the Tennessee Department of Education, school leaders and parents have to look elsewhere to judge how a school is performing.
Luckily, the state was already planning to release a plethora of other data about schools this year, with additional context about what it all means.
As a result, state officials say they are not taking a year off from holding schools accountable. [Read more at The Commercial Appeal].
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Tennessee Data Show Strong Principals Keep Strong Teachers On Board
As I arrived to begin my first year as a ninth-grade English teacher, my principal spent an hour of his busy schedule bringing me on a campus tour. At the end of the tour, we stopped in front of the auditorium in the 60-year-old campus and he told me simply, “If you have any questions, let me know. My door is always open. I know the first year is hard.”
That comment was the first in a series of coaching conversations we had over the course of the year. At the end of that first year, noting my improvement, my principal asked me to stay on board for another. I stayed on for four more years, and his coaching was instrumental in helping me become and stay a highly effective teacher. [Read more at Tennessee Score].
Read MoreWhere do Tennessee’s candidates for governor stand on key issues?
The Tennessee gubernatorial forum at Lipscomb University featuring Republicans Randy Boyd, Beth Harwell and Bill Lee, and Democrats Karl Dean and Craig Fitzhugh Ayrika L Whitney, The Tennessean
What would be your top priority for education? How would you finance it?
Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black: “I will invest more in career and technical education (CTE) in high school and the higher education level. A traditional four-year college education is not for everyone, and we can’t let our kids be without a skill or a pathway. It’s time our state’s budget reflects that with meaningful investments in CTE.”
Republican Randy Boyd: “My top priority is completing the Drive to 55 by 2025. One key element in doing so is increasing opportunity for students to graduate with both a high school diploma and a job-ready credential at the same time. We can do this by re-prioritizing existing funding.”
Republican state Rep. Beth Harwell: “After the problems we’ve experienced over the last few school years, solving the issues with our testing program needs to be a high priority. We can’t track our students’ progress and make improvements if we can’t rely on our testing software to work properly.”
Republican Bill Lee: “We need real vocational, technical, and agricultural education in our public schools and we don’t need a massive, costly government project to do it. We have willing partners in the private sector. I know, because I’ve done it in my company, which employs hundreds of skilled tradesmen. We created our own technical school that led to great careers.”
Democrat Karl Dean: “We need to pay our teachers more by making education a priority in the budget every year. I’ve always worked on budgets the same way you would cut a pie. Your priorities get the largest piece and even in tough times you protect your priorities.”
Democrat state Rep. Craig Fitzhugh: “My top priority is to make sure children are reading at grade level by the third grade. Shortly behind that is increasing teacher pay and making sure students are ready for post-secondary education/training. Part of the funding could be obtained through the Education Endowment bill that I passed in the House.”
[Read more at The Tennessean]. Read More
Early voting begins Friday in Tennessee. Here’s where your candidates stand on education.
Tennesseans begin voting on Friday in dozens of crucial elections that will culminate on Aug. 2.
Democrats and Republicans will decide who will be their party’s gubernatorial nominee. Those two individuals will face off in November to replace outgoing Republican Gov. Bill Haslam. Tennessee’s next governor will significantly shape public education, and voters have told pollsters that they are looking for an education-minded leader to follow Haslam.
In Memphis, voters will have a chance to influence schools in two elections, one for school board and the other for county commission, the top local funder for schools, which holds the purse strings for schools.
To help you make more informed decisions, Chalkbeat asked candidates in these four races critical questions about public education. [Read More on Chalkbeat Tennessee]
Read MoreTNReady scores: See how your Middle Tennessee school district fared on standardized tests
Statewide TNReady scores released Thursday showed an overall drop in science proficiency for third- through 12th-grade students, and Middle Tennessee was not immune to the trend.
All Middle Tennessee districts, with the exception of high school students in Wilson and Dickson counties, saw a decrease in students who scored as on track or proficient in the subject, according to the Tennessee Department of Education. However, Wilson County was in the top 10 among the state’s districts for improvements to high school science scores. It also ranked in the top 10 for improvements to third through fifth grade reading scores.
Other districts who saw some of the state’s highest gains were Franklin Special School District for third through fifth grade English and Murfreesboro City Schools for sixth through eighth grade English. Williamson County Schools was the only district to remain in the top five for overall achievement in every grade and subject. Franklin Special School District ranked in the top 10 for its English, math and science scores. Wilson County ranked in the top 10 for third through fifth grade English scores. It is the third year of testing at the high school level, and the second year for third through eighth grades.
The spring 2017-18 testing season was marked by troubles after the state’s vendor made unauthorized changes to the TNReady’s text-to-speech function, according to Tennessee Department of Education officials. The change caused statewide slowdowns. After another year of issues with the tests, Tennessee lawmakers passed a measure allowing teachers, districts and students to include TNReady scores in evaluations only if the scores benefited them. [Read More about the 2017-18 results for Middle Tennessee at The Tennessean]
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