Special Session on Education Continues – K-12 reforms Enacted

Last week, the General Assembly re-convened in regular session then quickly adjourned into a special session to focus primarily on education issues. The first week of the special session, the legislature spent most of its time on K-12 issues, as the state was facing a January 19 deadline for sending in a “Race to the Top” grant application to the Federal Government. Only those reforms enacted and in place by the 19th could be included in the application. According to Governor Bredesen, one principal area of weakness in Tennessee’s application related to use and availability of student performance data in the teacher evaluation process. To correct this weakness, Bredesen introduced legislation in the special session that comprehensively revised the teacher evaluation process and proposed other reforms related to persistently struggling schools. Tennessee is planning to request a grant of approximately $485 million to advance reforms around four specific areas:

•Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
•Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
•Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
•Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.

One theme that was repeated in speeches by the Governor and in testimony by the Department of Education before committees was that these additional federal dollars would not be used to create on-going liabilities that would continue after the grant period. In other words, the additional federal dollars would be spent on innovative short term reforms and fixes that do not require continued funding from the state or local governments after the program is over. The TCCA board heard information about the K-12 proposals and discussed them on January 13, the second day of the special session. After consideration, the board resolved to support the initiatives with the understanding that the legislation did not create new on-going costs for counties who are facing very challenging budgets.

Late Friday evening, the House and Senate passed the K-12 initiative and adjourned for the MLK Jr. holiday weekend. With that legislation in place, the state finalized its grant application. It is expected that finalists for Race to the Top grants will be announced in March, with the final awards coming in April.