The Tennessee State Board of Education (SBE) held a special meeting on Thursday to approve rules written by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) governing the state’s new third-grade retention law. However, the board voted to defer passage until the next board meeting.
The vote was 7-1 in favor of rejecting the proposed draft and requiring the TDOE to present rewritten rules at the next board meeting in May. Lillian Hargrove was the only board member to vote in opposition.
At the root of the board’s concerns was the TDOE’s failure to make adequate adjustments to the rules based on suggestions by the SBE. Chairman Robert Ely expressed being uncomfortable with the number of issues left unclear in the first reading of the rules while promising to fix them before the final reading. It was his opinion that there is already a great deal of confusion over the legislation and that the ambiguity of the proposed rules only added to that confusion. There were areas, in his opinion, where the proposed rules and the law did not align.
In calling for the question, Board Member Jordan Mollenhour echoed his concerns, “If we go back and listen to the last 45 minutes of this conversation today, I would say anywhere the response was we are going look at that between first and final reading and get back to you, would make the list. There are just too many of those on the list.”
He added, “The fact there are so many things on that list is evidence in itself that this is not ready for the board’s vote today.”
Board members were voiced concerns about measuring the progress of summer school students. The law, which mandates retention for third-grade students who fail to achieve “meets expectations” on the annual state standardized test, provides a provision to avoid retention by enrolling in summer school and maintaining a 90 percent attendance rate. It further calls for an assessment to be administered to students at the beginning and at the end of the summer session to ensure they were making adequate progress.
The TDOE proposed using the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test administered while students are still in school as the pre-test, followed by a post-test using questions from the TCAP answer bank.
But board members took issue with the proposal. Board member Ryan Holt said that while he felt the state agency’s proposal “made sense,” he said he thought it required a change in either the law or the rule.
Warren Wells, another board member, questioned whether the proposal allowed adequate time for districts to identify students slated for retention and provide opportunities for them to receive required resources in a timely fashion.
TDOE representative Dr. David Laird conceded that the timeline was “tight” but said he felt the department was creating a process that would allow districts to meet district and student needs.
Per TDOE Deputy Superintendent Eve Carney, districts were scheduled to receive raw scores from TCAP on May 19th. The retake window would open May 22 and would remain open until June 5th. Scores on the retest would be returned within 48 hours. She felt that this provided sufficient time for both districts and families to prepare for summer school.
Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn made a brief appearance at the end of the meeting to quell fears that the rules and the law did not align. She said that the rules had been vetted by the department’s legal counsel and found to be congruent. Her argument failed to sway board members from voting to have the department rewrite and resubmit rules for the first reading in May.
Writing rules to govern the law is a separate process from the General Assembly’s current consideration of amendments to the existing law. Any amendment would likely require an amending of the rules for next year.
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TC Weber is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. He also writes the blog Dad Gone Wild. Follow TC on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]. He’s the proud parent of two public school children and the spouse of a public school teacher.
Photo “Students” by Tima Miroshnichenko.
Spot on accurate Joe. Perhaps too, a standard for the teacher is needed. If the students under a specific teacher perform poorly that the teacher’s skill set and teaching abilities will be objectively tested. The majority of teachers are skilled and dedicated but make no mistake there are teachers who do not belong in the profession.
I would rewrite the law in one sentence so that even the SBE members could understand it. That sentence being –
Any Tennessee public school third grade student who does not meet the standards for third grade reading level as defined by Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test will be required to repeat a full year of third grade classroom teaching.
Notice that this statement implicitly declares that a student will be required to repeat the third grade class UNTIL that student achieves the required reading skills. Period!
Certainly nothing wrong with our education and legislative bodies continuing to screw up public education. A hearty well done to all concerned.