House committee grills Department of Education on its work to improve math

Members of the Tennessee House Education Instruction Committee spent their final meeting Tuesday grilling the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) about its work to improve the state’s struggling math scores.Currently, only 22 percent of Tennessee high school students are on grade level in math and there are similar numbers in both middle and elementary school.Culleoka Representative Scott Cepicky expressed concern over these statistics and questioned whether leadership in the Department of Education views it as a concern.“It seems like we said 22 percent of our kids are on grade level in high school in mathematics. And it seems you just glossed over that. Like, 78 percent of our kids are not, and you never answered. You never offered a reason why you’re concerned why 78 percent of our kids are not on grade level math,” said Representative Cepicky. “I would like to know from the department: is this a concern of the Department of Education that 78 percent of our kids are not on grade level in math?”Every six years Tennessee adopts new math standards. TDOE Deputy Commissioner Eve Carney appeared before the committee to discuss the department’s current work in that process but failed to highlight the negative math proficiency numbers.Representative Cepicky criticized the omission and questioned whether the Department fully understands the problem and is able to fix it.“I just want to fix this, folks. For our kids. I just want to fix this. How can you help us?” said Representative Cepicky. “How do we get out of the perpetual cycle of education reform, of changing stuff every couple years?”Dr. Carney told members of the committee her department is employing similar tactics to the state’s work to improve literacy. She says this includes offering quality math instruction, employing task forces and supports, and doubling down on what has worked for students without reinventing math in Tennessee.“Now more than ever, it matters. It matters to get this right for kids who are now trying to catch up and trying to make sure that to your comment that we are preparing them to be citizens and to prepare them for life. And that is our goal. And I would say that the best way to get to that place is to continue to do what’s working and just focus on doing them well,” said Dr. Carney.Other members of the committee questioned whether the state is doing enough to get teacher input into the problem.Nashville Representative Vincent Dixie believes those working inside the classroom might offer valuable input into what needs to be done to improve the state’s math scores.“One thing I think we can do is we can cut out the middleman. We need to go straight to the teachers. We have talked about having some town halls and hear straight from our teachers and I think that’s some we can do immediately,” said Representative Dixie. “I do appreciate what you (TDOE) do, but I think that we (representatives) can do some things. It’s not saying that you’re not doing the best you can, but sometimes you get disconnected the farther we are. Just like government, we get disconnected from our constituents.”