The Tennessee State Department of Education(TDOE) updated the State Board of Education(SBE) last week on progress toward implementing the state’s A-F school grading system.
Lawmakers passed legislation in 2016 requiring the TDOE to release school letter grades annually. Grades were intended to be implemented during the 2017/18 school year, but state testing issues and COVID-19 prevented the release of those scores until this year. In anticipation of releasing individual school grades, the TDOE is revising the grading formula to give parents greater clarity.
“The goal is to have a calculation that you can just understand,” State Education Commissioner Lizzie Reynolds told board members. “Here is how much achievement counts, here is how much growth counts, and how much any other indicators that the steering committee’s decided were important enough to be in this big a calculation count.”
In looking at models using existing data, the department noticed an overlap in the required areas of “growth” and “achievement.”
TDOE chief of staff Chelsea Crawford told the SBE, “We saw large discrepancies. Schools that scored a ‘B’ could have a TVAAS score in growth of 1, 2, or 3.”
She added, “A ‘B’ school could also have an achievement rate anywhere between 8% and 98%.”
As a result, the formula did not provide a meaningful rating system for parents.
Crawford said, “There was that reality check moment and that this system needs to be clear and meaningful to parents.”
The new formula aims to provide greater differentiation to provide parents with more useful information and greater differentiation between grades.
Last month, the TDOE conducted a series of town halls to solicit public input. The department also accepted public input through email, [email protected].
In looking at public commentary, most respondents are advocating for a balance of growth and achievement.
Jimmy Sullivan, director of Schools for Rutherford County, told the department via email, “A reliance on achievement and growth in any accountability must continue. Removing either does not show a true picture of student performance by schools or districts. Schools have no control over the performance level that students begin in their current school. However, schools should continue to receive achievement scores because it is an integral part of the entire picture.”
Vic Birkey, director of Assessment and Reporting for the State Achievement School District, took the opportunity to draw attention to a potential issue.
“A major flag for the school letter grades is the accountability component for high schools. For smaller high schools, this could result in two teachers (Alg 1, Eng 2) carrying the entire Accountability component for the school.” He wrote, “With teachers already being hard to find/hire, especially in high school and tested subjects, this creates an immense amount of pressure for those individuals. Hiring, retaining, and supporting those teachers is quite a feat.”
A newly created 50-member steering committee will consider these and other considerations between now and October 20th. The TDOE will consider their suggestions before presenting a final formula to the SBE on November 4th.
The board will not be able to impact change in this year’s model, but their observations and comments will be considered in future revisions.
Reynolds said the final formula “must be valid, reliable, and comparable.”
She added, “That to ensure best practices we will fully engage with our research partners.”
Reynolds did not indicate who those partners were.
The TDOE plans to deliver school grades in late November.
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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.
