Shelbyville education leaders want student growth to play a large role in new School Letter Grades

Shelbyville parents and educators gave the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) a lot to consider as it fine tunes the new system to provide an A through F grade to each public school.TDOE plans to unveil the School Letter Grades to the public in November and the department has spent the last few weeks hosting public events across the state to gather input.Thursday night’s meeting in Shelbyville provided a number of concerns from both parents and school leaders who don’t want the school grading system to devalue student growth in favor of student achievement.Bedford County Superintendent Tammy Garrett was among them, saying increasing the importance of student achievement on School Letter Grades won’t help with the teacher shortage poorer counties like hers are facing.“We really worked with principals to study this accountability model. We have a good handle on it. We have had good growth, great growth this year, the first time we’ve had that good of growth in many years. We are not interested in lowering the percentage – and that’s what we’ve heard, that we are going to lower the percentage of growth and increase the percentage of achievement. So as an educator, I think that is detrimental to areas like ours,” said Garrett.Other meeting participants, including teachers, argued prioritizing growth will be good for students who may not feel valued if they show growth but don’t meet achievement goals.“I get achievement, I get that’s what we wanna go for. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s not our process in this whole mess, but getting them there because they are delayed, we do have disabilities in our system. My concern is, my kids have to see that TCAP score and seeing below, seeing approaching, seeing proficient – when are they going to ever feel valued to know that they’ve shown growth?” said teacher and parent Tristie Bankston.Other teachers also added that this is especially a concern for English language learners.The timing of implementation is also a concern for some attending the meeting, including Bedford County School Board member Shanna Boyette. She worries there’s not much time to fully consider and implement the input TDOE is receiving from the public about School Letter Grades.“When the law was actually written and where we were as a state…pre-COVID is not where we’re at post-COVID, especially in the world of education and so I would like those things to be taken into consideration. And really, more than take the comments from the public hearings and move forward with the implementation when we’re hearing a lot of comments of concern, take those back to the legislators and amend the law, because the law is what people are questioning now,” said Boyette.The Tennessee General Assembly passed the legislation creating the School Letter Grades in 2016 but the state has continuously delayed the roll-out for various reasons, including the pandemic.Public comment submissions will be accepted by TDOE until September 15.