The Tennessee Department of Education is likely still more than a month away from releasing an A through F letter grade for every public school and the department has received plenty of feedback for how it plans to do it.
Last week Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds unveiled the system her department will use to create its School Letter Grades. That calculation will measure schools on student achievement and student growth along with other factors like how well schools are preparing students for college and careers.
Commissioner Reynolds stressed the goal is to provide accountability and information to families.
“School letter grades will be a powerful communication mechanism for our parents and families, which is why it is so important to ensure the calculation of the letter grade is clear and easy-to-understand,” said Reynolds. “While we cannot satisfy all priorities and perspectives that were shared, we believe we have developed a calculation for school letter grades that aligned with the spirit of the law and will more meaningfully differentiate school performance to parents.”
The calculation found support from parent advocates like Memphis Lift’s Sarah Carpenter who served on the working group that provided input for School Letter Grades. Carpenter took to social media to push back on opponents of the new accountability system.
“Why is it that people in Tennessee upset about letter grades for schools? Is it you can HIDE BEHIND NUMBERS AND Can’t HIDE A,B,C, D or F,” asked Carpenter on the social media site X. “IT’S TIME FOR THE REAL TRUTH!”
One of the loudest critics of the grading system has been the union that represents Tennessee teachers. The Tennessee Education Association expressed opposition to providing parents with more accountability for their schools on social media, citing decisions two other states made.
“Utah and Michigan repealed their A-F school grading laws saying they did more harm than good in understanding school quality and accountability. This law must be repealed in Tennessee,” wrote the Tennessee Education Association on X.
While Utah and Michigan have stopped providing parents with an A through F school grading system Tennessee is not unique in providing that sort of accountability. More than a dozen other states currently utilize a school letter grade system.
State Board of Education Suggests Tweaks
Members of the Tennessee State Board of Education provided their feedback on the School Letter Grades at a meeting last week.
Board member Nate Morrow was among those expressing support for the grading system the department created.
“What we are trying to do is shine a light on truths that exist. And we’re not creating new truths about whether or not a school’s performing or not performing,” said Morrow. “So much of the work, so much of the important, and often time the most important work is done by the parents and done by the districts and the school boards and the local leaders that are on the ground and the closest and most approximate to the school that might have received a D or an F grade in this case. This tool helps to shine a light so that those people in particular can become more active and more engaged, more involved in fixing whatever deficiencies or problems might exist.”
Board member Larry Jensen was another who expressed support for School Letter Grades, but he had concerns that schools that earned an “F” might struggle to improve their grade because of a lack of resources or other factors.
“The point is, when you get to a failing (grade), it’s like how do we address those schools who are, they’re missionally in that area, working, that’s their goal. That’s who the kids, they’re defined to work with. Are we assigning them to a failure mode,” asked Jensen.
The state board is only providing feedback to the Department of Education. Its members will not play a role in any potential tweaks the department could make before rolling out the School Letter Grades next month.
