Tennessee Lawmakers Call on State Chief to Slow Down Accountability Changes
September 11, 2019
Last week, Tennessee legislators asked Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn to slow down proposed changes to the state’s accountability system, reports Marta W. Aldrich for Chalkbeat. “The commissioner wants to reexamine the state’s system for judging schools, which currently heavily weights ‘student growth’ by measuring learning over time, regardless of whether those students are proficient in meeting a certain threshold on state tests.” The “state’s formula also factors in proficiency, as well as new metrics such as chronic absenteeism rates, English language learner proficiency rates, and—for high schools—graduation rates and ready-graduate scores.” This formula “was reached in 2017 as part of Tennessee’s school improvement plan developed with stakeholder input over the course of a year in response to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA.”