IT IS NEVER AS INNOCUOUS AS IT APPEARS UPON FIRST BLUSH – Dad Gone Wild

IT IS NEVER AS INNOCUOUS AS IT APPEARS UPON FIRST BLUSH – Dad Gone Wild

IT IS NEVER AS INNOCUOUS AS IT APPEARS UPON FIRST BLUSH

“What was educationally significant and hard to measure has been replaced by what is educationally insignificant and easy to measure. So now we measure how well we taught what isn’t worth learning.” —Arthur L. Costa; Professor of Education, Emeritus; CA State Univ, Sacramento

Every once in a while I feel the need to do a kitchen sink edition. A palate cleanser of a sort. Things pile up and I never get time to really address them. Today I’m going to hit as many of those as possible. So warning, this one may be a little more disjointed than most.

In the wake of recently passed legislation concerning literacy. the Tennessee Department of Education and in particular Its Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn, have kicked up their PR efforts.

What this translates to is a social media feed chock full of pictures of the commissioner visiting schools and posing for pictures with students and staff. A sure-fire method of currying favor with the masses. Who doesn’t love a picture of kids in the classroom?

It also means a subtle rewriting of history and putting a positive spin on events that transpired over the last several months. To serve this end, a new Twitter account has sprung up #LiteracyMatters Tennessee. A nice innocuous name, right? After all, everybody loves literacy.

There is little additional information about the account, but based on early thread entries I would suspect it’s been created by one of the regular culprits – TNDOE, SCORE, TNTP. All three paired CONTINUE READING: IT IS NEVER AS INNOCUOUS AS IT APPEARS UPON FIRST BLUSH – Dad Gone Wild

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO? – Dad Gone Wild

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO? – Dad Gone Wild

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO?

“You’ll never decide what you want until you’ve decided who you are.”
― Noël Coward

 

Who’s in charge of education policy in Tennessee?

It seems like a pretty straightforward question, right? Those with a passing knowledge might answer that it’s the General Assembly who set’s policy.

Those with a little deeper knowledge might elaborate more by saying that the General Assembly expresses their priorities based on the desires of their populace. The State Board of Education takes the legislation created by elected officials and creates policy out of it. The TNDOE in turn implements and enforces that policy. Local districts use the boundaries created by DOE policy and mix them with local preferences to execute local governance.

While that is the way it is supposed to work, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests a different story in Tennessee. A story where two private entities, funded by a third, wield more power than that of elected officials. Entities that remain cloaked from the general public while they work their magic. Magic that seemingly benefits their friends and family more than the students and families of Tennessee.

This past week I was finally able to confirm that The New Teacher Project was the recipient of an $8 million state contract(69466 TDOE_TNTP_FA_Literacy_Services_Agreement_FY21 copy) for teacher training. The contract means that the training on foundational skills for all k-5 teachers mandated by recently passed legislation will be facilitated by TNTP, close associates of both SCORE and Commissioner Schwinn. It’s a contract produced by a flawed RFP CONTINUE READING: WHO’S ZOOMING WHO? – Dad Gone Wild