Charles Lampkin with parent group Memphis LIFT addresses school board members Monday with criticisms of its superintendent search process. He was supported by a coalition of others calling on the board to rebuild trust. credit: Laura Testino / Chalkbeat
Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members decided Monday to keep their search for a new superintendent on pause while they try to reach consensus on what they want for the district and its next leader.
The search came to an abrupt halt after an April 15th meeting where some board members signaled their dissatisfaction with the outside search firm that selected three finalists for the job. Board members sought to clarify future steps during a special called meeting on Monday.
The board dismissed a motion to fire the search firm, appearing instead to accept responsibility for regaining the community’s trust in the search process.
Rather than saying, “Oh well, let’s do something different,” the board should “stick our hands together … . come up with a better plan and move forward,” said board vice chair Sheleah Harris, who has emerged as a leading critic of the search process so far.
Members voted unanimously to reconvene at some point within two weeks for a nonvoting meeting. A key issue they’ll still have to resolve is how strictly to apply a board policy on the minimum requirements for a superintendent. The search firm that recruited candidates for the job, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, said it didn’t enforce a board policy requiring 10 years of in-school experience when it screened applicants.
Harris wants the board to adhere to that policy in its final selection, which could be a deciding factor for finalist Toni Williams, the interim superintendent, whose public school experience is in finance, not academics.
Several of the two dozen public commenters at Monday’s meeting urged the board to enforce the policy as a way of restoring transparency to the search process. Others, though, said the district could benefit from a business-minded leader like Williams who looked to others for academic direction.
Kevin Woods reiterated Monday that the board controls the policy and the process, and ought to determine what type of leader it wants, whether that’s an experienced chief financial officer or a career educator.
“I think the candidates brought forth by the search firm allow you to make that decision through your up or down vote,” Woods said. “But if the community believes that it’s important for us to review our policy and clearly articulate what that looks like, then we can do that also. But it’s okay to own that.”
But Woods cautioned the board against becoming a “de facto search firm” that would adjudicate applicants itself, and argued for keeping Hazard Young.
Harris and board member Amber Huett-Garcia agreed that the firm did what it was asked, but said it did not act on input from all board members.
Still, Huett-Garcia said her constituents faulted the board, not the candidates, for the muddled outcome. “It is the way that we handled it,” Huett-Garcia said. “It feels, whether that’s true or not, that we did this in the dark.” Huett-Garcia called for new leadership in the search process, which has been led so far by board chair Althea Greene.
In its evaluation process, Hazard Young scored candidates who met the board’s minimum requirements — which include professional academic experiences — higher than those who did not. But it did not exclude candidates who didn’t meet them, search firm president Max McGee explained in a voice call to board members during the meeting.
Williams, the interim superintendent and former district CFO, said in a statement that she was proud of the “proven track record” of her interim superintendency. While she didn’t plan to seek the permanent role, she said, she did so after board members and other community leaders supported her application.
Williams is alongside two other top contenders, both career educators: Carlton Jenkins, superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, and Angela Whitelaw, Memphis’ top academic official. Four other high-scoring candidates have withdrawn from the process.
Said Harris after the meeting: “I would encourage all current applicants, if they look at board policy as it exists right now and they know that they qualify, I would strongly encourage them to stay in the race.”
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
A 2020 event at Hanley High School celebrating Journey Community Schools’ takeover of four charter schools. Hanley is shifting now to Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ control as it exits the state’s Achievement School District. Photo credit: Caroline Bauman / Chalkbeat
For the first time, a charter school in Tennessee’s turnaround district will exit the state program and return to the Memphis district’s management, Memphis-Shelby County Schools announced last week.
Hanley School, a K-8 school in Orange Mound, was taken over by the state and placed in the Achievement School District a decade ago to be run by a charter operator. This fall, it will be part of the Memphis district’s turnaround model, known as the iZone.
The move marks a setback for the school’s charter operator, and another twist in the chaotic unwinding of the Achievement School District, which has been rocked by leadership turnover and turmoil.
The state district began operating in 2012 and was designed to elevate some of Tennessee’s lowest performing schools by turning them over to charter operators under 10-year management contracts. The schools were to exit the ASD once their performance improved and return to their home districts — either Memphis, home to all but two of the schools, or Nashville.
But state leaders have acknowledged for years that the turnaround effort had failed in its mission. And as some of the 10-year management contracts near expiration, they have scrambled in recent years to figure out how to move schools out of the faltering ASD and get them on a path to improvement.
The current state policy describes several pathways for an ASD school to leave the district, including some options to stay open as a charter. The policy stresses “school specific” plans to account for each school’s “unique” situations.
In the case of Hanley, the policy resulted in the current operator, Journey Community Schools, not being able to keep the school under its network, and the transition to MSCS began over the last few months.
As other ASD schools creep up on their final years, Memphis could see a wave of school closures if MSCS doesn’t bring those schools back into the district.
Nickalous Manning, executive director of Journey Community Schools, denounced the way Hanley’s transition is being handled.
“The children and families in Orange Mound and at Hanley deserve a voice and a say in their children’s education,” Manning told Chalkbeat Wednesday, echoing a common complaint in Memphis that state leaders make decisions and policies affecting local families — like creating the ASD — without their input.
Manning accused state officials of not communicating an impending deadline for Hanley to apply to remain open as a charter school, and faulted them for not holding more public meetings with families. The exit process was unclear, Journey wrote in a letter to the state asking for a waiver of laws that prevent Journey from continuing to operate the school.
The state’s education commissioner, Penny Schwinn, cited state law and rules in denying the waiver. MSCS shared copies of the letters between Manning and the state with Chalkbeat to explain why the district won’t consider Journey’s charter application for Hanley.
The Tennessee Department of Education, where the ASD is housed, told Chalkbeat that all ASD charter operators received information about transition plans in 2020. ASD leaders meet monthly with the charter operators to review school status, department spokesperson Victoria Robinson said.
Robinson supplied a list of meetings scheduled over the last academic year with Hanley officials about the transition. Parents received a letter about the plans in January, Robinson said, and were invited to a meeting early last week.
Manning, who grew up in Orange Mound, said Journey plans to keep trying to hang on to Hanley.
Hanley will be the first charter school in the ASD to return to MSCS as a traditional public school. Four other ASD schools in Memphis were never operated as charter schools, and transitioned to MSCS operations this school year, also as part of the district’s iZone program.
Others have followed different pathways as dictated by the state policy, which takes into account the school’s test scores, the local district’s test scores, and how many years are left in the charter contract.
That option wasn’t available for Hanley. Available school testing data shows Hanley’s students haven’t noticeably improved during the state takeover, much like other schools in the ASD.
Hanley’s reading scores, for instance, are nearly on par with the ASD average this year, and lower than a nearby MSCS elementary school, Dunbar. Neither school had more than 12% of students meeting reading benchmarks.
Toni Williams, interim superintendent of Memphis-Shelby Country Schools, used an annual state-of-the-district address Tuesday to review the results of her six months leading the district and to outline a vision for the future of the district. (Laura Testino / Chalkbeat)
In a speech reflecting on the recent school year and teasing budget priorities for the coming one, interim Memphis schools leader Toni Williams described a district on the rise, with big decisions ahead about improving facilities, literacy, and safety.
The school board, working with a national search firm, has been soliciting applicants for that post since March 1st, and is in the process of narrowing its list of candidates to a small group of finalists. The search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, will interview 12 candidates by Thursday afternoon and is expected to deliver a slate of three finalists to the school board in April. Finalists will be interviewed publicly on April 21st and 22nd.
Williams used the annual state-of-the-district address Tuesday to review the results of her six months leading the district, following the departure of Superintendent Joris Ray, and to outline a vision for the future of the district.
In the months after she was appointed, Williams appeared to soften her stance against seeking the permanent job. After her address today, she demurred when Chalkbeat asked whether she had applied or been interviewed for the role.
“I don’t want today to be about me,” Williams said. “I want to just stay focused on, you know, really today’s message.”
She added: “But there will be other opportunities to answer that question.”
Williams’ theme for the address was “triumphant together,” a nod to the district’s calls for community members to help remove the often poverty-related barriers Memphis students and families face outside school. Rather than “Reimagining 901,” a tagline Ray used to describe a facilities and academics plan, Williams spoke of “transforming the 901.”
“What transforming the 901 is about is a long term, thoughtful, shared vision for rebuilding this community, including wraparound services, community schools, expanding pre-K and after-school programs … . It has to be a community effort,” Williams said.
Williams’ speech at the district’s Teaching and Learning Academy auditorium had the feel of an elevated school assembly, unlike the more lavish hotel ballroom addresses of Ray’s tenure. The house lights stayed on, and attendees went home with stationery sets featuring student artwork.
The setting was meant to show that the district could be a “good steward of the resources that we already have,” Cathryn Stout, the district’s chief of communications, explained during a preview of the address.
Williams spent much of the 90-minute address explaining district plans for issues of interest to key constituencies in the district, in the business community and among Shelby County and City of Memphis leadership. (You can watch the full address online here.)
For teachers, the district plans to invest $27 million in teacher pay, a move that will bump up starting salaries.
Williams confirmed a new 10-year facilities plan. The district released a plan two years ago, but Williams had told the Shelby County Commission, which funds capital projects for the district, that the district would provide a new plan when requesting funds for a new Cordova high school.
She touted new state investments into district career and technical education that would appeal to the business community.
To improve attendance rates, Williams said, the district has upgraded communication to families about student absences. That includes referrals to community resources. The steps follow a rise in tensions between the district and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, who in the fall claimed concerning crime rates were linked to low school attendance.
With a few months to go in the current fiscal year, district officials still have to prepare and present a budget for next year, which will be the first time the district sees a boost of recurring funds through a new state funding formula, called Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, or TISA. The funds could ease the transition out of programs funded by one-time federal pandemic funds, but the district will have to assess which programs remain.
An ongoing review of academic programming funded by the millions of dollars in federal aid will help inform which programming makes the cut. Tuesday, Williams pointed to $30 million annually toward “specialized education assistants” in lower elementary grade classrooms and $42 million annually toward reading and math tutoring as successful programming funded by the federal cash influx.
Williams also said the district is looking to scale a piloted school safety program across all district middle and high schools at a cost of $50 million. The technology, according to a video played during Tuesday’s program, sounds alarms at school entrances that aren’t designated for student or staff use. Improvements also would speed up student weapon searches at the start of the school day.
Williams also announced the finalists for the teacher, principal and supervisor of the year:
Supervisor of the year finalists:
Brian Ingram, Human Resources
Sunya Payne, Student, Family and Community Engagement
Reggie Jackson, School Operations
Principal of the year finalists:
Keyundah Coleman, John P. Freeman Optional School
Renee Meeks, Sea Isle Elementary School
James Suggs, G.W. Carver High School
Teacher of the year finalists:
Thomas Denson, White Station Elementary School
Tishsha Hopson, Hickory Ridge Middle School
Ollie Liddell, Central High School
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach her at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The Tennessee Senate approved two bills Monday to change or clarify policies for private school vouchers and charter schools. Photo: Larry McCormack for Chalkbeat
The Tennessee Senate on Monday approved two Republican-sponsored bills that would expand and clarify eligibility for students to receive private school vouchers or enroll in charter schools.
Both measures passed 27-5 along partisan lines and now await action in House committees.
Sen. Jon Lundsberg, of Bristol, sponsored the bill to expand eligibility for Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program to students who attended private or home schools during the last three school years. The current law says a student must move directly from a public to private school to be eligible for the program, which launched last fall in Memphis and Nashville.
A second bill, sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga and Rep. Charlie Baum of Murfreesboro, would cap enrollment at charter schools — which are publicly funded but independently operated — at 25 percent for students who live outside the school district that authorized the charter. The House is scheduled to take up that bill on Tuesday in its K-12 subcommittee.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Cameron Sexton filed legislation that would let the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission approve charter schools to serve home school students, as well as residential boarding schools that are charters. Those charter applicants could apply directly to the state-appointed commission for authorization, without having to go through local school boards.
All measures seek to continue the Republican governor’s push to expand education choices for families. But critics say vouchers and charter schools are vehicles to privatize education at the expense of traditional public schools, which operate under stricter regulations, provide more transparency through their locally elected school boards, and serve the bulk of students who are disadvantaged or have special needs.
Under the education savings account bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Todd of Madison County, voucher eligibility would be extended to students who did not complete a full year in public school after 2019, when the legislature approved the voucher law.
“The reason we’re doing this is because that legislation was locked up in the courts for a couple of years,” Lundberg said about ongoing litigation that halted the voucher program’s planned 2020 launch before a 2022 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling upheld the law.
Last week, Lundberg told the Senate Education Committee the change would open eligibility to many students who have applied to receive education savings accounts but were denied because they weren’t moving directly from public to private schools. So far, the state has approved 643 out of 1,273 applications, he said.
The voucher program, which provides taxpayer money for families to use toward private school tuition, is open to students in Memphis and Nashville but could be expanded to Chattanooga-based Hamilton County Schools under legislation approved by the Senate last week. That bill is scheduled for its first vote in a House subcommittee on Tuesday.
The charter school bill approved on Monday is backed by the Tennessee Charter School Center, an advocacy organization funded by pro-charter groups.
Currently in Tennessee, it’s generally up to the local school district that authorizes a charter school, as well as the governing body that oversees that charter school, to determine how many out-of-district students can enroll.
Gardenhire said his bill seeks to address confusion around those policies with a state law that would cap out-of-district enrollment at 25 percent, and give priority to students from within the school district.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, who voted against Gardenhire’s bill, said local school districts should be able to control enrollment policies for the charter schools that they authorize.
“If they’re making that decision for the public schools in their district, that same policy ought to apply to the charter schools in the district,” said the Nashville Democrat. “I think that ought to be a uniform policy.”
Elizabeth Fiveash, chief policy officer for the Tennessee Charter School Center, testified last week that out-of-district student enrollment in charter schools isn’t an issue in the four cities that have charter schools. However, it could be in the future as the state’s charter sector expands.
She told members of the Senate Education Committee that charter schools statewide have a waiting list of over 10,000 students, most of whom come from within the authorizing district.
“This is not an issue that’s currently happening,” Fiveash said, “but we’re trying to make sure it’s clear going forward.”
Sexton’s legislation, which is co-sponsored by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, would mark a significant expansion of Tennessee charter school law.
Under the proposal, the state could authorize charter schools to enroll homeschooled students from within any school district in Tennessee. Those schools would be required to provide classroom instruction at least three days per week, while parents providing instruction the other two days could use remote instruction provided by the charter school.
Lundberg and Rep. Mark White of Memphis, who chair education committees for their respective chambers, have signed on as co-sponsors.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information about Sexton’s charter school legislation.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Many Memphis youths are already struggling to overcome emotional and psychological trauma inflicted or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the specter of being held back in third grade if they can’t pass the state’s reading test will pile onto that trauma, Memphis and Shelby County child and education advocates said during a town hall Wednesday.
“I don’t want my babies that I’m responsible for caught up in this,” said Ian Randolph, board treasurer for Circles of Success Learning Academy charter school.
“They’re trying their best to meet our expectations as educators, and you put this kind of crap on top of them, after going through a pandemic … now you want to put more pressure on them to meet a state expectation?”
Randolph was among the roughly 50 people who gathered at First Congregational Church to discuss — and to lambaste — Tennessee’s strict third grade retention law, which kicks in this year. The law requires that third-grade students who don’t demonstrate reading proficiency on the TCAP assessment for English language arts participate in tutoring or summer learning programs, or risk being held back from the fourth grade. (Some students are automatically exempt.)
The law, passed in 2021 during a special legislative session that Gov. Bill Lee called to address pandemic learning loss, also included funding for tutoring and summer learning camps to help struggling third graders catch up.
But those aspects of the law became unworkable for many families, some attendees said, because of issues ranging from a shortage of tutors to confusion about how progress is measured on the tests the students take after the recovery camps.
Barring changes in the law, thousands of Memphis students face the prospect of having to repeat third grade. According to data presented by Venita Doggett, director of advocacy for the Memphis Education Fund, 78% of third-graders in Memphis-Shelby County Schools could be held back this year, while 65% of third-graders could be retained statewide.
The figure would be closer to 80% for Black, Hispanic and Native American third-graders in MSCS, and 83% for low-income students.
The implications of those figures resonated with Natalie McKinney, executive director and co-founder of Whole Child Strategies Inc., a nonprofit that supports families and children in the Klondike and Smokey City neighborhoods in Memphis.
The retention law, she said, would have a disparate impact on children in those neighborhoods, where 1 in 3 residents are poor, and 70% of the schoolchildren are from low-income families.
“They’ve all been impacted emotionally by the pandemic,” said McKinney, who moderated the town hall. The retention policy “doesn’t make any sense.”
Lee and other defenders of the law say that it’s needed to avoid pushing unprepared students ahead, and that holding students back who aren’t proficient in reading is part of the state’s post-pandemic recovery efforts.
“If you really care about a child’s future, the last thing you should do is push them past the third grade if they can’t read,” the governor once told Chalkbeat.
But even some of his political allies have expressed concerns about enforcing the law based on the result of a single test.
Already, Doggett said, 19 proposals have been filed to amend the law — bills that range from nixing the retention requirement altogether to extending funding for summer camps and other aid beyond this year.
Pending the outcome of those efforts, organizers of the town hall urged attendees to sign a letter they had drafted asking Lee to issue an executive order to waive the retention policy for third graders testing below proficiency this year.
“The current 3rd grade class of 2022 and 2023 were the students who were affected by the pandemic,” the letter reads. “Studies show that a tremendous amount of learning loss occurred due to these students being virtual in the previous grades. In addition, these studies showed (that) to recoup the loss during the pandemic would take years.
“The third grade retention law seems to hold these students and educators accountable for something that was new to this generation for which they had no control,” the letter said.
The letter also urges lawmakers to use more criteria than a single test to determine whether a student should be retained, and to focus on broader solutions, such as partnering with community agencies, to help students recover from pandemic learning loss.
Besides sending a letter to Lee, opponents of the retention policy said they planned to pressure their local public officials to push back on the law, as many school boards have. Some called for the MSCS school board, the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission to issue a joint resolution supporting the waiver.
The two MSCS board members who attended the meeting in person, Amber Huett-Garcia and Michelle McKissack, said they intend to push for revisions to the law.
“Let me be clear: This is not a good law. I do not support it,” said Huett-Garcia, who said she plans a trip to Nashville in early March to talk directly with lawmakers.
“The mood that I have gotten from legislators is that they know that they have not gotten this right,” she said, “but this is not the time to let up pressure.”
Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Contact her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Tennessee, which once counted on Mississippi’s worst-in-the-nation reading scores to elevate its own national ranking for literacy, is now looking to its neighbor to the south as a role model for how to improve.
In a turnaround dubbed the “Mississippi miracle,” the state saw its fourth-grade reading scores on a national test rise dramatically between 2013 and 2019, even for historically marginalized groups like Black and Hispanic students. Mississippi also maintained its reading gains in 2022, while scores in most other states declined after the pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to schooling.
Now under several 2021 laws, Tennessee is employing many of the same tactics that Mississippi did under its 2013 law. Among them: prioritizing reading improvements and investments in grades K-3, training teachers on the “science of reading,” including an emphasis on phonics, and — most controversial of all — requiring third graders to pass a state reading test to get promoted to the fourth grade.
“You are really to be commended for the comprehensive nature in which you’ve approached this topic,” she said, noting that Tennessee has even required its teacher training programs to change how they teach reading instruction, which Mississippi did not.
Wright cited a recent Boston University study finding that Mississippi third-graders who were retained under that state’s law went on to achieve substantially higher scores in English language arts by the sixth grade. The study also found that retention had no impact on other outcomes such as attendance or identification for special education.
Literacy is foundational to all subsequent learning, and third grade is considered a critical marker. As the old saying goes: You learn to read up until the third grade, and after that, you read to learn.
In 2011, lawmakers passed a retention law to try to address the problem, but the statute was largely unenforced, with few third graders being held back by local school leaders.
“So here we are 12 years later having the same discussion,” said Rep. Mark White, who chairs the House Education Administration Committee and helped pass the state’s new reading and retention policies.
“I personally am grateful that we passed a retention law … because now we have everybody’s attention,” the Memphis Republican said to kick off Wednesday’s hearing.
House leaders have compiled a list of 14 bills that aim to revise or tweak the law. They range from gutting the retention provision altogether to giving local districts more authority to determine which students should be held back. Gov. Bill Lee pressed for the 2021 law and wants to stay the course.
To avoid retention, the law says third graders whose scores on state tests show they are “approaching” proficiency must attend a summer camp and demonstrate “adequate growth” on a test administered at the camp’s end, or they must participate in a tutoring program in the fourth grade. Students who score “below” proficiency must participate in both intervention programs.
Third graders are exempt from retention if they were held back in a previous grade; have or may have a disability that affects reading; are English language learners with less than two years of English instruction; or retest as proficient before the beginning of fourth grade.
Parents also can appeal a retention decision if their child performed at the 40th percentile on a different test that allows for comparisons with national benchmarks, or if the child experienced an event that reasonably impacted the child’s performance on the TCAP test.
While Tennessee’s tutoring and summer learning programs are popular, many parents and educators dislike the part of the law that makes results of the state’s standardized TCAP test for English language arts the only criterion to determine whether third-graders can progress to the fourth grade. Numerous school boards also have passed resolutions urging the legislature to revisit the new retention policy.
On Wednesday, several district superintendents echoed that call.
“I respectfully ask that you allow districts to use multiple data points when making the monumental decision to retain a student, which can have serious long-term consequences,” said Gary Lilly, director of Collierville Schools in Shelby County.
Beyond the state’s test, school districts generally give students multiple assessments that are specifically designed to gauge reading progress. All of those results could be considered, Lilly said, along with other factors such as a student’s overall achievement, attendance record, and emotional and social maturity.
Lilly noted that Tennessee also has among the nation’s highest thresholds for measuring proficiency. The state began working to raise them when a 2007 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report gave Tennessee an “F” for truth in advertising, because its standards were so low that most students were deemed proficient.
But Lilly suggested that Tennessee may want to rethink those high thresholds.
“I am not advocating to decrease the rigor of our standards,” he said. “What I am saying is that the TCAP test should not be viewed as the definitive authority to target students for retention.”
The state’s one-year timeline for implementing the new retention policy at scale is another concern.
Jeanne Barker, director of Lenoir City Schools, said her district won’t receive TCAP results until after the school year ends, leaving little time for students to take the test over or for families to decide about attending summer learning camps or appealing retention decisions to the state education department.
Penny Schwinn, Tennessee’s education commissioner, acknowledged the “tight timeline” but testified that no parent should be surprised by the end of the school year if their child is identified as having a reading deficiency.
“Parents should be receiving notification that their child may be at risk for needing additional supports two times before we even get into testing season,” said Schwinn, adding that preliminary TCAP results will become available the week of May 19.
Policy conversations that began with third grade reading continue to gravitate toward earlier grades.
Wright said Mississippi’s playbook emphasized the importance of literacy instruction and interventions for struggling readers as early as possible.
“My goal was that, by the time third grade came around, there shouldn’t even be an issue around third grade,” she said. “We should have captured those kids a long time ago and made sure that they were getting the interventions and the help that they needed.”
Tennessee education advocates shared similar sentiments.
Nancy Dishner, president and CEO of the Niswonger Foundation supporting students and educators in East Tennessee, said her biggest concern about Tennessee’s current initiative is that “we’re not doing it early enough.”
“We have to move back,” Dishner said. “Birth is when we need to start helping our kids, not when they enter elementary school.”
Amy Doren, a 35-year educator and former coordinator of early childhood programs at Kingsport City Schools, agreed.
“Children’s brains develop 90 percent to capacity by age 5. So why would we not seek to make an impact in those early years?” Doren asked. “That’s where we want our children to learn to be problem-solvers and critical thinkers, so that when they get to the third grade, they’ll be ready to handle it.”
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton speaks during a news conference at the State Capitol on Aug. 2, 2021. The Crossville lawmaker, who is one of the state’s most influential Republicans, recently made headlines by suggesting that Tennessee reject federal funding for K-12 education. (Courtesy of State of Tennessee)
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Subscribe to our free Tennessee newsletter to keep up with the Shelby County public school system and state education policy.
When House Speaker Cameron Sexton recently floated the idea of Tennessee rejecting U.S. education dollars to free its schools from federal rules and restrictions, he made the pivot sound as simple as making up the difference with $1.8 billion in state funds.
“I don’t think the legislation would be too hard to do,” he said last week after publicly declaring his desire to “do things the Tennessee way” at a Tennessee Farm Bureau reception on Feb. 7.
But the way federal funding works is pretty complex. Some districts and schools are more dependent than others on that money, which is directed to schools that serve disadvantaged students and programs that target certain needs ranging from rural education and English language learners to technology and charter schools. A related web of state and federal laws and policies created in response to the federal grants also likely would have to be unwound.
Sexton told Chalkbeat he’s working on legislation to “start a conversation” about the possibilities. And once filed, his written proposal might answer some of the many questions that Tennesseans are asking about what such a change would mean for kids and schools.
But for now, here are a few answers, along with more questions to ponder:
“I absolutely think we should do it,” Sexton told Chalkbeat.
Sexton noted that, based on the latest budget information, Tennessee could tap into $3.2 billion in new recurring revenues, which would more than cover any lost federal funds for education.
“Now is the time to look at it,” said Sexton, who as House speaker is one of the state’s most influential Republicans. “It doesn’t mean that you do it this year or you have to do it in the next six months, but it starts with the idea.”
Spokespeople for Republican Gov. Bill Lee and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally expressed openness to Sexton’s proposal, while several education leaders in Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature expressed outright enthusiasm.
“I would do everything in my power to pass that bill,” said Rep. Scott Cepicky, of Culleoka, who chairs a House education subcommittee and said he “wants Tennessee to have more autonomy when it comes to educating our kids.”
“It’s intriguing,” added Rep. Debra Moody, of Covington, chair of the House Education Instruction Committee. “I think my constituents at home would love it.”
Others were more reserved in their comments.
“It’s a thought-provoking idea, but I’d like to see details,” said Senate Education Committee Chairman Jon Lundberg, of Bristol. “I have questions about what federal strings would be removed and, more importantly, do those strings need removing? Right now, I don’t know.”
Can Tennessee say ‘no’ to federal money?
Probably. No state has rejected the funding so far, mainly because states typically need the money, which on average makes up about a tenth of their budgets for K-12 education.
But Republican leaders in other states have talked about the idea before, and Oklahoma lawmakers are currently considering legislation to phase out federal funding over 10 years for pre-K through 12th grade. A smattering of small school systems across the nation already have passed on federal money because of the cost of compliance.
“States do not have to accept federal funding at first glance,” said Matthew Patrick Shaw, assistant professor of law, public policy and education at Vanderbilt University. “These are carrot-stick programs in which the federal government has policy objectives and, in order to encourage states to go along with them, offers money that they believe states need to operate these programs.”
Would the change disrupt finances for students and schools across Tennessee?
Possibly, but a lot would depend on how it’s done.
Through a program known as Title I, the federal government distributes hundreds of millions of federal dollars to Tennessee schools that serve large concentrations of students from low-income homes to help improve achievement. If Tennessee replaced Title I funding with state money, would it still use the federal formula for distributing that money? Sexton hasn’t said.
The same question applies to federal funds that go to Title III programs to support English language learners, or for Title V programs to support rural education.
Sexton says Tennessee would still cover the costs of all of those programs, as well as free meals funded through assorted grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, where all but eight of the system’s 155 district-run schools have Title I designations, some officials aren’t convinced about the stability of state funding.
“If Tennessee decided to do it our way, what does ‘our way’ look like?” asked school board member Amber Huett-Garcia, whose district expects to receive more than $892 million in federal funding next year.
“Would it achieve equity? Would Memphis continue to receive the share that it currently gets?” she continued.
More questions:
While Tennessee is currently flush with cash and able to backfill federal funding, could the state sustain that level if a recession hit down the road?
Are Tennesseans okay with paying federal taxes that support education spending, without getting any of that money back for their students and schools?
“You’re really making Tennessee taxpayers pay twice for the same underfunded public school system,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, a Nashville Democrat who chairs his party’s House caucus. “That is completely fiscally irresponsible and jeopardizes the entire future of this state.”
Huett-Garcia, of Memphis, asks: “What if there’s another global pandemic or a natural disaster, like when flooding and a tornado destroyed several schools in Middle Tennessee in recent years?” (Through three pandemic recovery packages approved by Congress since 2020, Tennessee has received more than $4 billion in federal funds for K-12 education.)
“At some point, we will need the federal government,” she said. “You have to consider whether halting our current federal funding mechanism could end up cutting us off from innovative funding or emergency resources in the future.”
What federal strings does Sexton want to cut?
Testing is the main problem, according to Sexton.
“I don’t think the TCAP test measures much of anything, and I think teachers would tell you that you’re teaching to a test,” said Sexton about the state’s annual test under the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.
States that take federal money must give annual assessments in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. They also are required to administer a science test one time each in elementary, middle and high school grades. Thus, each state must give 17 tests annually, though no individual student takes more than three of those tests in a given school year.
Sexton said Tennessee could scrap TCAP — which Tennessee developed through its testing companies to align with the state’s academic standards — and create a better test with the help of its educators.
But several education advocates note that states already have more flexibility than ever to develop their testing, evaluation, and accountability systems under a 2015 federal law crafted with the leadership of former U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
“When shepherding the Every Student Succeeds Act, Sen. Alexander was laser-focused on Tennessee and what Tennessee would need to be successful,” said Sasha Pudelski, national advocacy director for the School Superintendents Association.
States receiving Title I funds also must participate in national tests of fourth- and eighth-grade students in reading and math every two years. Known as the nation’s report card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress allows comparisons across states and is an important marker for showing how students are doing over time.
Lundberg, a key education leader in the Senate, said such testing data is important for Tennessee.
“I want to make certain that we’re able to continue comparing Tennessee to Montana or California or Michigan,” he said. “If we really want to be No. 1 in the nation in education, we need to be able to measure apples to apples across states.”
Incidentally, the TCAP exam that Sexton wants to scrap is the same standardized test that a 2021 Republican-backed reading law uses as the only criterion to determine whether third-graders can progress to the fourth grade. Lawmakers have filed numerous bills this year to address concerns about the retention policy, which kicks in with this year’s class of third graders.
What other federal mandates are considered burdensome?
Few would dispute that accepting federal funding comes with a lot of red tape. Mounds of paperwork and numerous audits of how money is spent are all part of a huge bureaucratic infrastructure that comes with administering billions of dollars of federal funding.
But Sexton, who said there are “a gazillion restrictions” he doesn’t like, did not enumerate other burdens beyond testing, despite Chalkbeat’s multiple requests to his office for a list.
Marguerite Roza, a Georgetown University professor who researches education finance policy, said she suspects the bigger objections are related to current “culture wars” about curriculum and whether transgender students should be allowed to use school bathrooms or play sports consistent with their gender identity, which may not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
“Those strings come from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights,” Roza said.
Civil rights enforcement is the mission of that office based on the passage of federal laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of education amendments passed in 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, and disability.
And Tennessee has been at the forefront of culture war legislation. It passed more laws in 2021 aimed at limiting the rights of transgender people than any other state in the nation, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
If Tennessee rejects federal funds, would the state still have to ensure students’ civil rights protections under federal laws, including for students with disabilities?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, is a federal funding statute that says schools must identify students with disabilities and provide them with a free and appropriate public education tailored to their needs. But generally speaking, legal experts say, those requirements apply only to states that accept IDEA funds.
“If I were a parent of a child with a disability, this would be a major concern,” said Gini Pupo-Walker, state director for The Education Trust in Tennessee. “Would my child’s rights and needs be protected without the federal funding and oversight?”
Sexton says the state would still fund services that are currently part of IDEA and would come up with a similar program that he believes could be better.
But the Tennessee Disability Coalition says there’s no assurance that a Tennessee version would give families the same or better protections than under IDEA or other federal laws designed to protect students with disabilities.
“It’s hard for the disability community to trust Tennessee when our state’s track record hasn’t been so great,” said Jeff Strand, the coalition’s government affairs coordinator. “Our state institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have a long history of abuses, and we continue to see a troubling pattern of actions such as our state’s choice not to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid services.”
Another concern is where families could appeal when the system isn’t working for their students. Under IDEA, they can call for a meeting at school to speak with teachers, administrators, and case managers. If they’re not satisfied, they can appeal all the way up to the Office of Civil Rights. Dozens of disability-related cases in Tennessee schools are currently being investigated by that federal office, which has the power to take away funding from states or schools that don’t follow the law.
“It’s already tough to live with a disability in Tennessee,” said Strand. “A change like this would cloud a specific longstanding avenue that ensures that the rights of students with disabilities are being protected. And it clouds it for no good reason.”
Beyond IDEA, federal civil rights laws are hard to unpack because some are also linked to receipt of federal funds, so it may depend on how state laws are structured.
The Office of Civil Rights also enforces Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a civil rights statute which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, as well as Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which extends this prohibition against discrimination to government services such as public schools, regardless of whether they receive any federal financial assistance.
Several legal experts believe many Tennessee families likely would turn to the courts over alleged violations of those laws based on the state constitution, which guarantees equal access to a system of free public education, or the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law and due process of law.
“If you want to know how this change would affect children,” said Vanderbilt’s Shaw about the possibility of rejecting federal funds and restrictions, “there’s just a lot of uncertainty.”
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Rep. Mark White (left) and Rep. Kirk Haston chair a House education committee and subcommittee that will consider proposals to revise Tennessee’s tougher new third-grade retention policy. Larry McCormack for Chalkbeat
Lawmakers have filed at least 18 proposals to try to address concerns about a new Tennessee reading law that could force tens of thousands of third-graders to attend summer school this year to avoid being held back.
Several bills would gut the retention provision altogether, while others would keep the law mostly intact but extend related state-funded summer and after-school programs beyond this year.
Some measures would give authority back to local school districts instead of the state to determine which students should be retained. Others would add measures beyond Tennessee’s annual test for making such a decision. And one proposal would establish a new reading and retention checkpoint even earlier than third grade — making students who are finishing kindergarten take a reading test to determine whether they are ready for the first grade.
The interventions have proven popular to help students catch up from the pandemic, but the law’s retention provision — which kicks in with this year’s class of third-graders — has sparked pushback and even outrage.
“It’s upsetting, because it feels like they’re punishing our children,” said Leslie Wallace, whose 8-year-old son is in third grade in Knox County Schools. “At this age, a child is going to be extremely discouraged if they’re held back, especially if they started kindergarten during the pandemic.”
The Republican governor pushed for and has stuck by the law, including the aggressive retention policy, which could hold back third graders who aren’t deemed proficient readers based on state TCAP tests administered each spring.
“If you really care about a child’s future, the last thing you should do is push them past the third grade if they can’t read,” Lee told Chalkbeat last fall before easily winning a second term in office.
But now many lawmakers in the GOP-controlled legislature want to take a closer look at the law’s far-reaching implications for third graders, their families, and schools.
“I’m not saying you should never retain a child,” said Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Knoxville Democrat and retired teacher who voted against the law. “But the decision should be made student by student, by their teachers and parents — not because of sweeping legislation that’s based on a single test score.”
Third grade is considered a critical year for reading because literacy is foundational to all subsequent learning. But reading scores have been mostly stagnant in Tennessee, with only about a third of the state’s third graders meeting the law’s high threshold for proficiency based on state tests.
In 2011, lawmakers passed a retention law to try to address the problem, but the statute was largely unenforced, with few third graders being held back by local school leaders. That set the stage for the 2021 retention provision that, starting this school year, requires third graders to get extra help if they don’t show proficiency on their TCAP test for English language arts.
Backers of the new policy say the law might not be perfect, but they also worry that many Tennesseans don’t fully understand it.
“This was never about ‘fail one test and you’re automatically retained,’” said Rep. Kirk Haston, a Republican who is a teacher, coach, and health education administrator in Perry County. “It’s more about reading identification and providing a lot of supports for students who need help.”
The law says students whose scores on state tests show they are “approaching” proficiency must attend a summer camp and demonstrate “adequate growth” on a test administered at the camp’s end, or they must participate in a tutoring program in the fourth grade. Students who score “below” proficiency must participate in both intervention programs.
Third graders are exempt from retention if they were retained in a previous grade; have or may have a disability that affects reading; are English language learners with less than two years of English instruction; or retest as proficient before the beginning of fourth grade.
Numerous school boards across Tennessee have passed resolutions calling for revisions, though. Among other things, they’ve urged the legislature to let local educators make retention decisions, without giving final authority to the state. And they’ve noted that TCAP is not a reading diagnostic test and, therefore, isn’t the best measure of a student’s reading ability.
It’s little wonder that the retention rule is controversial — because research is mixed, and holding students back is a controversial policy decision in education.
Supporters say having students repeat a grade can spur additional supports that struggling readers desperately need, and that those academic interventions matter, especially in the early grades.
Most research suggests that retention has, on average, null or negative effects on students, and that it’s also linked strongly to dropping out of high school.
The best time to intervene in a student’s progression in school is also under discussion in Tennessee. Increasingly, lawmakers and education advocates are recognizing the importance of also providing interventions for struggling students in kindergarten, first, and second grades — instead of zeroing in on third grade.
That’s where discussion veered this week in a House education subcommittee chaired by Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Republican from Maury County, during an exchange with Reginald Nash, a former Memphis kindergarten teacher who now works for The Education Trust in Tennessee to advocate for education equity.
“The General Assembly should consider revising the law to permit students at risk of retention who opt into reading and tutoring at the beginning of third grade, as opposed to after it, and as early as kindergarten, to be promoted,” Nash told lawmakers. “This approach could possibly be easier to implement, requires less bureaucracy to track, and proactively gets more students into reading tutoring before and during third grade.”
Cepicky, who is co-sponsoring a bill that could delay kindergarten entry for many children and add another retention gate before kindergarten, clearly liked the idea of programs and policies directed toward students before they fall too far behind.
“We have to do something in early education to change the dynamic that we have right now,” he said. “We can’t keep going with the status quo.”
Before the 113th General Assembly convened last month, revisiting third-grade retention topped most lawmakers’ list of education priorities this year based on feedback from constituents.
The large number of proposals filed by this week’s bill-filing deadlines bore that out as Republican leaders shared their plans for sorting through the barrage of legislation.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Jon Lundberg said Thursday he’ll let the House take the lead in vetting the proposals, with hopes of eventually bringing a consolidated bill before his panel.
In the House, the first focused look is set for Feb. 14, when all of the bills are laid out before an education subcommittee chaired by Haston.
“We’re just trying to get organized,” said Haston, who added that he doesn’t expect votes for several weeks. “We want to get everything on one calendar to see the lay of the land.”
As part of the process, Rep. Mark White, who chairs the full House Education Administration Committee, has scheduled a Feb. 22 hearing to discuss early childhood literacy. Nine legislators are new to his 19-member committee, and White said he wants them to understand the big picture before voting on any potential revisions to the 2021 Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act.
Among those testifying at the hearing, he said, will be a range of literacy experts, from third-grade teachers and school superintendents to Tennessee’s education chief, Penny Schwinn, and education officials in Mississippi, where students improved the most on national reading tests in 2019.
In the meantime, Tennessee schools have been sending out information and hosting meetings with parents of third grade students to inform them about what the law means for their child.
But many parents like Wallace, in Knoxville, are afraid.
“I appreciate the interventions being put in place, but I don’t appreciate the threat that my child could get held back if he doesn’t score high enough on a test,” she said. “I don’t feel like it’s a conducive environment for learning.”
The Education Trust has compiled a list that summarizes and analyzes each retention-related bill.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Tennessee needs to invest more than $9 billion in its K-12 education infrastructure over five years, an increase of nearly 9 percent from an assessment done a year earlier, a new state report says.
Of that amount, about $5.4 billion is needed for renovations and technology improvements, while nearly $3.6 billion is needed to build additions and new schools, according to the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
The report, approved Thursday by the commission, comes as local and state officials grapple with how to cover the soaring costs of school construction, which have doubled in the last decade due to rising material and labor costs.
Meanwhile, years of research shows that fixing school buildings can improve student learning, health, and behavior. One study in Tennessee shows a direct connection between student achievement and the condition of school buildings. Another study from New York found that poor building conditions can lead to higher rates of chronic absenteeism.
In Tennessee, cities and counties pay for most of their school facility needs with property and sales tax revenues. But some state lawmakers are looking for ways to ease that burden.
Last year, one legislative proposal would have directed tax revenues from Tennessee’s new sports betting industry toward local school facility costs. But the measure fizzled in committee as legislators opted to keep most of that money — at least for now — for higher education scholarships, such as the state’s popular HOPE and Tennessee Promise programs.
This year, new legislation to eliminate state mandates on class sizes — if approved — could slow the need for new schools and additions.
But many local officials would prefer a new state revenue stream to help them repair or replace aging schools.
Miska Clay Bibbs, a former school board member in Memphis who was elected last year to the Shelby County Commission, said a broader conversation is overdue. At least 33 Memphis schools were built before 1950.
“Not only is Memphis-Shelby County Schools the state’s largest school district, but most of our school buildings are some of the oldest,” said Clay Bibbs. “These buildings don’t mirror the greatness of the students, teachers and families that these schools represent.
“It makes for a difficult learning environment,” she said.
The inventory compiled by the state commission, which reports directly to the legislature, serves as a yearly reminder of Tennessee’s billions of dollars in unmet capital construction needs — from schoolhouses and roads to bridges and water lines. The report has been compiled every year since 1998 and has become an important tool to identify critical needs and set state priorities in the budget-making process.
The latest needs list tallied $63 billion in all, with education ranking second again, behind transportation and just ahead of health and safety infrastructure needs such as clean water, law enforcement, fire protection, and public health.
In the education category, college campuses saw a decrease in their infrastructure needs after several years of new investments, while K-12 public schools saw their needs increase.
To keep on track, local officials reported needing to build 70 more schools across Tennessee, at an average estimated cost of $42 million each. That amount can vary widely, however, depending on the school’s size, location, and purpose. For instance, Sullivan County’s new high school cost $75 million, while a new K-8 school in Lincoln County came in at $17 million.
Rep. David Hawk, a Republican from Greeneville, said his local school district is staring at a $50 million price tag to build a new middle school in Upper East Tennessee. He added that something has got to give.
“Brick and mortar for education is one of the largest costs to local governments, which go into substantial debt to build schools to meet state mandates,” said Hawk.
For much of his 20-year legislative career, Hawk has looked for a way to direct state funds to build schools, and he sponsored last year’s failed bill to use sports betting revenue for that purpose. He doesn’t plan to file a similar bill this year but says he wants to continue to “push the envelope.”
“We can and should do more,” Hawk said.
Sen. Jon Lundberg says infrastructure challenges aren’t the impetus for his bill this year to eliminate Tennessee’s maximum class size requirements of 25 students in kindergarten through third grades, 30 students in grades 4-6, and 35 students in grades 7-12.
“My goal is not to create larger class sizes; it’s just to give localities more discretion when there are extenuating circumstances, such as when a classroom has teacher aides,” Lundberg said. “The state would still put out best practices on optimum class sizes.”
But the Bristol Republican, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, acknowledged that such a change could also have the unintended effect of lessening pressure on local governments to build new schools or additions as their student populations grow.
“It’s possible,” he said. “My expectation is that locally elected leaders will do what’s right.”
Last August, the collapse of a school library ceiling at one school — when school was in session — underscored the importance of addressing longstanding capital needs in Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
No students were in the library at the time at Cummings K-8 Optional School, but the school librarian and two other staff members were injured. All students will finish out this school year at a neighboring school pending repairs and the outcome of a structural review.
According to the state’s latest breakdown of local needs, Memphis-Shelby County Schools needs to address school infrastructure projects totaling more than $464 million, at a cost of $3,450 per student, by mid-2026.
Interim Superintendent Toni Williams is compiling a new capital improvement plan to bring before the commission this year. But Clay Bibbs, who chairs the Shelby County Commission’s education committee, says relief from the state could expedite improvements.
“Imagine if we had more dollars to take on more projects. Change could happen faster,” she said.
Tennessee received over $4 billion from three federal COVID relief packages, but Gov. Bill Lee and GOP leaders encouraged school districts to use at least half of their portions on programs and resources to help their students catch up academically from the pandemic.
Districts spent much of the early funds on technology upgrades like digital tablets. Some used part of their later funds to upgrade ventilation, heating, and air conditioning systems in school buildings. However, much of that spending was not captured in the latest state report, which gives a snapshot of infrastructure needs as of July 2021.
“We might see a drop in some of those areas next year,” said Tyler Carpenter, the commission’s research manager and the report’s co-author.
The governor has said he’ll prioritize Tennessee’s transportation infrastructure backlog this year. He is expected to unveil his proposed state budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year on Feb. 6.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Tennessee public schools and universities would not be allowed to require employees to take “implicit bias” training under legislation filed this week by two state lawmakers.
The legislation also would apply to employees of Tennessee’s education department and state Board of Education.
Currently, it’s up to local school districts, charter schools, and the state to set personnel policies that may or may not include implicit bias training for their employees. Such training is designed to increase self-awareness around subconscious prejudices and stereotypes that may affect how individuals see and treat people of another race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background.
A significant amount of research in education says that such biases may contribute to racial disparities, such as differences in student achievement,learning opportunities, and school discipline between Black and white students. But it’s less clear whether training about implicit bias actually changes behaviors.
State Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga, who is co-sponsoring the bill with fellow Republican Rep. Jason Zachary of Knoxville, said the measure is needed to protect school employees from policies that could lead to disciplinary action or firing. He cited the case of a Texas nurse who said she was fired by a hospital last year for refusing to take a mandatory course that she said was “grounded in the idea that I’m racist because I’m white.”
“It’s about having to admit to something that you’re not,” Gardenhire told Chalkbeat on Thursday.
Gardenhire, who is white, noted that his legislation would prohibit “adverse licensure and employment actions” in schools or education-related agencies if an employee refuses to participate in such training.
Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat who is Black, called the proposal “a step in the wrong direction.”
She cast the legislation as a continuation of politically motivated national conversations that seek to pit people against each other instead of fostering policies that promote understanding, respect, and reconciliation among people of different races and backgrounds.
“That is a bill that I think is damaging to children,” Akbari said. “At the end of the day, we want to make sure that they have the safest, most equitable and fairest opportunity when they go to school.”
Implicit bias can hurt people of certain races and backgrounds in their interactions with numerous institutions — from law enforcement and criminal justice to health care and education.
In Tennessee, students of color make up about 40 percent of the state’s public school population, while teachers of color make up about 13 percent of its educators.
Mark Chin, a Vanderbilt University assistant professor who studies racial bias in education, said his research published in 2020 suggests a need to address bias in the classroom.
But implicit bias training is not enough to significantly change outcomes, Chin said.
“A single session where people are told of implicit biases is less impactful than sustained, embedded conversations around implicit bias,” he said.
It’s unclear whether or how many school districts or charter schools across Tennessee have policies that require employees to participate in implicit bias training.
Elizabeth Tullos, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Education, said Tennessee does not require such training within its agencies. However, staff members for the board, which sets rules and policies around education, go through the state’s required annual training on workplace discrimination, she said.
Brian Blackley, a spokesman for the state education department, said his agency doesn’t require its employees to participate in implicit bias training either and has not taken a position on the legislation.
The bill defines implicit bias training as any program that presumes an individual is “unconsciously, subconsciously, or unintentionally” predisposed to “be unfairly prejudiced in favor of or against a thing, person, or group to adjust the individual’s patterns of thinking in order to eliminate the individual’s unconscious bias or prejudice.”
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
