For the third straight day, administrators with a proposed public charter school connected to Hillsdale College faced questions about their community support and the curriculum teachers would be using.
Clarksville-Montgomery County School System District Director of Policy and Continuous Improvement Elizabeth Vincent told the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission that American Classical Education’s application to open American Classical Academy Montgomery left out important details about how its Hillsdale connected curriculum has performed in other states.
“We don’t know from these tables how students of color perform, how students from low-income background perform, how students with disabilities perform,” said Vincent. “We don’t have growth data. In Tennessee we look at both achievement and growth to determine if students have been successful.”
The discussion in Clarksville Friday morning is the third public hearing American Classical Education (ACE) has been involved in this week before the charter commission.
ACE is asking the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to overturn its rejected charter application in Montgomery County along with charter applications in Madison and Rutherford County. Each district voted ACE down in July following public outcry over the organization’s connections to Michigan based Hillsdale College and controversial statements President Larry Arnn made about teachers on hidden video.
Vincent says her district also had concerns about the 19 waivers ACE requested to implement their Classical Education model in Clarksville.
“They did not provide compelling evidence that the waivers would improve student achievement,” said Vincent. “We felt that because they had not demonstrated the success of the Classical model in their academic plan, we could not rightly say that the reasoning for requesting waivers to more fully implement the Classical model was a compelling enough reason for them to have those waivers.”
In the public hearing, ACE CEO Joel Schellhammer argued there was nothing unusual about the number of waivers his organization requested.
“ACAM requested waivers from a limited set of laws typical of most charter schools in Tennessee,” said Schellhammer. “ACAM requested fewer waivers than other applicants who have been before the commission in this cycle.”
Schellhammer also defended his proposed school’s curriculum.
Under the Classical Education model ACE plans to use, all students will study literature and mathematics, history and the sciences, the fine arts, Latin, and physical education. Schellhammer says students learning in this model in other school districts have seen higher achievement scores than the 41% proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA) and 43% proficiency in math Clarksville Montgomery County Schools tested recently.
“That data shows students proficient in ELA and math at rates between 55 and 80 percent,” said Schellhammer. “Because the success of our students will be included in district’s results, the success of our students will contribute to a virtuous cycle of increasing student performance in all district schools.”
Much like other public hearings this week, multiple families told the commission this Classical Education model is needed in Montgomery County.
“We believe a Classical curriculum and charter schools like American Classical Academy are enriching and affective,” said Becky Zenteck. “They will fit the needs of our children and many other children in this district.”
“We want kids in our community to have the option, simply the option to attend a classical charter school,” said Jasmine Ledbetter. There is nothing new and no one is forcing kids into this model many local parents, teachers and students are demanding access to this model.”
Two parents spoke against ACE’s appeal including army veteran Monica Meeks who says the curriculum doesn’t tell the story of America’s diversity.
“The Hillsdale curriculum fails to paint the full picture of the American experience but instead brush strokes an antiquated America blotting out the origins and history of her diverse populace,” said Meeks. “Simply put, the history of brown people did not start in 1776.”
American Classical Education also faced questions about how much support there truly is for its school.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System claims it has not received a lot of communication of support from families who want the charter school established.
The district received just 88 responses supporting American Classical Academy Montgomery in a district survey.
“The review committee ultimately just does not feel that demonstrates a broad sense of community support both the early lack of community support with no local letters upon turning in their initial application in February, “ said Vincent. “There were no letters from Clarksville Montgomery County Residents in that initial application.”
ACE supporters argue the survey wasn’t well publicized.
The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission plans to decide this appeal and the organization’s other appeals in Madison and Rutherford County next month.
