BY REP. MARK WHITE
and SEN. DELORES GRESHAM
One decade ago, despite the hard work of many great teachers and administrators, public education in Tennessee was in poor shape.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave Tennessee an “F” on its national education report card for “truth in advertising;” our standards were so poor that 90 percent of Tennessee kids passed the state tests, while only one-in-four could meet a high bar on national assessments.
This reality harmed our students’ futures and our state’s economy.
Only 33 percent of Tennessee adults had a post-secondary degree, and Tennessee had one of the highest unemployment rates and lowest median household incomes in the nation.
Instead of pointing the finger at factors beyond our control, Tennessee policy makers and educators came together to change our state school system. The State Board of Education adopted the Tennessee Diploma Project standards, calling for a higher bar for student learning.
Ben Franklin fourth grade teacher Kinsey Flaherty works with Knox Hodges as he creates a patriotic grocery sack that will be used to bag the groceries of veterans this weekend at the Sheppard Air Force Base commissary.
The legislature passed the First to the Top Act, calling on the state department of education to develop new systems for evaluating teachers, principals and schools. We passed laws that opened new high performing charter schools for students in high need areas.
We empowered communities to work together by changing the way contracts were negotiated. We transformed access to community college and technical college, and gave more adults access to courses to finish degree programs.
These policies — often hard-fought and controversial — set the conditions for innovation and change in our schools, but the real work happened on the ground.
Principals and teachers embraced more rigorous work for students.
They used the results of tests to find areas for improvement and worked on getting better each year. New schools, led by hard-working teachers, opened and served our highest need students. Year by year, over a decade, Tennessee schools improved.
In early 2011, when Governor Haslam entered office, Tennessee ranked in the bottom ten states in the country on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the gold-standard test given to 4th and 8th graders. In math, Tennessee students scored among the bottom five states. Tennessee was significantly below the national average in reading and math, in elementary and middle school. Recently, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of the 2019 NAEP and Tennessee scored between 25th and 30th in state rankings on each of the four tests. Tennessee students scored at the national average, or just one point below the national average, on each test. Tennessee improved its national standing between 2017 and 2019 on all four tests. This will not happen through wishing or waiting.
We must remain focused on having high academic standards for students, measuring their progress each year so that we can have honest conversations about getting better. We must continue to provide real feedback — based on student growth — to teachers and principals.
We must give information about school performance to parents, and give them access to choice and opportunity. We must continue to revamp high quality career and technical programs, and connect high schools with the workforce. And we must push for a higher share of our students to earn technical, associates and bachelors degrees.
Most importantly, we cannot take our foot off the gas. We have weathered attempts each year to water down accountability, to lower academic standards, to reduce choices for families, and to return to the way we ran schools back when Tennessee was in the bottom ten states.
Our progress is clear. We are not going back. And we are inspired by Tennessee students and educators to press forward until our public schools are in the upper echelon of national results.
(State Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, serves as the Chair of the Tennessee House Committee on Education and State Sen. Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, serves as Chair of the Tennessee Senate Education Committee)