Tennessee, Exemplar for Meritocratic Rot

A recent news story in the Tennessean found that the most recent TN standardized test scores show remarkable disparities between affluent and poor school districts across the state:

Out of the subjects we analyzed, Algebra II saw the largest performance gap with a staggering 72-percentage-point spread. Williamson County Schools posted a 74% proficiency rate, while Humboldt City Schools came in at 2%. Geometry came in second for disparities with a 71-point spread between Williamson County Schools, which saw 76% proficiency, and 2% proficiency rate for Humboldt City Schools.

The city of Humboldt is shared by both Gibson and Madison Counties. Gibson County is ranked #33 in household income, and Madison County comes in at #45. Williamson County, on the other hand, is ranked #1 in household income.

Not only are income gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged school systems reflected in test scores, but the same gaps are found within districts when comparing scores of "economically disadvantaged" students with students who are "non-disadvantaged." 

The first chart below shows proficiency rates of "economically non-disadvantaged” students in 30 of Tennessee’s 151 school districts.

Now compare those scores with the second chart below, which shows proficiency rates for “economically disadvantaged” students in those same school districts. Within the same school district, disparities in scores between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students vary by 30-50+ percent.  

While not alone among states where such vast inequities exist, Tennessee offers a perfect example of an education system built on a rotted meritocracy based on flawed and outdated assessments of educational worth, i.e. standardized tests.  Promoted as scientifically objective, these rankings are trumpeted and blindly celebrated by high-performing rich communities like Williamson County, while citizens of poor districts like Humboldt are eager to find someone to blame for their shortcomings.

Those "someones" are almost always identified as those lazy teachers and parents in the lowest scoring schools, the ones you know, with a disproportionate number of economically disadvantaged students. And the disadvantaged students? Having been indoctrinated to believe that because the same test is given the same way to every student on the same day, and is, therefore, a fair reflection of what every student should know, then they end up, implicitly or explicitly, blaming themselves. That, or rejecting school outright.

And, thus, the poisonous meritocracy rolls on, with no one the wiser, neither the non-disadvantaged citizens who continue to celebrate the parents and children and teachers in their communities who deserve to reap the rewards for their diligence and hard work, or the disadvantaged citizens who continue to blame the poorest parents, children, and teachers in their communities for their test score failures.

Without such a system in place, it would be much harder for the upper classes to climb their way over the less fortunate and, thus, claim their well-deserved top spots in colleges and careers. That’s why it is critical for both neocon and neolib meritocrats to bond together once more to 1) promote another generation of universal high stakes testing in K-12, and 2) to re-assert the critical importance of ACT and SAT in college admissions.

Scandal-Ridden TN DOE Lies to Parents about Opting Out of Tests

Andy Spears recently shared a memo from the TN Department of Education denying denying parents the right to opt out of annual state testing.  Even though the invalid, unreliable, and racist tests have never been morally defensible, they are particularly indefensible during the present pandemic. 

Tennessee's corrupt Education Commissioner and former charter school CEO, Penny Schwinn, continues to circulate a one-page lie that tells parents that opting out of state testing is prohibited by state and federal laws. Any parent receiving this ridiculous memo should ignore it and keep their children safe from these irrelevant, racist, and mideducative tests that only companies that use public education as another vast revenue stream. 

Speaking of revenue streams, Broad Center alum Penny Schwinn has an established reputation for using her office to arrange lucrative no-bid contracts for her cronies in the ed industry. Before coming to Tennessee, she was caught up in a Texas-sized scandal based on playing favorites and passing out no-bid contracts.  

Since coming to Tennessee, Schwinn has continued her corrupt practices in awarding a no-bid management contract for a school voucher program and, more recently, another multimillion dollar no-bid contract for a  company to screen results on third grade reading tests.

As Bill Lee's mentor always said, only the best people. 

The Dubious Claims by the TN Dept. of Education

Tennessee politicians enjoy a long, sordid history of underfunding public schools, crying about poor education quality, making outrageous demands of students and teachers, and complaining about federal interference while begging for federal grant stashes to keep state school doors open. 

One of those big stashes of federal cash is about to run out in 2019 unless state politicians can gin up a good reason for extending the Gear Up TN, a 7-year grant awarded in 2012 "that aims to expand the college-going culture in Tennessee and empower students to succeed."  

This program, which focuses largely on counseling high school students into college and career fields that fit the needs of corporations receiving huge public incentives to locate in Tennessee, is worth $29,590,281 to state politicians, who, by the way, are unwilling to ask TN's wealthy elites or said corporations to pay a fair share to educate Tennessee children.

And so recently the TN Department of Education (TDOE) manufactured a report that claimed that 30 percent of TN's high school graduates had skirted high school requirements, as established in 2010 by Business Roundtable honchos with the U. S. Diploma Project.  Could this be the reason why so many kids drop out of college, the State asks.  How could this happen! 

According to TDOE, it would seem that quite overnight the State realized that Tennessee school counselor corps falling down on the job, along with administrators and teachers who should act as counselors when counselors can't keep up.  And thank goodness, too, for Gear Up TN.  Where would the state be without it!! 

Obviously, TDOE never guessed that someone might challenge their phony claims that were published in this glossy report.  And as you might guess, TDOE never asked local school boards or superintendents to help verify the shocking statistic that 30 percent of graduates were not taking required courses to graduate.

Well, a local superintendent did challenge the fake numbers and came up with quite a different set of numbers.  The news spread, and now the TDOE phony data has been exposed:

While state officials continue to check districts’ data, it appears that more than 70 percent of what looked like missing requirements were in fact data errors. Thirty percent of the time, students had actually been allowed to graduate without taking required courses — meaning that only about 12 percent of graduates overall had not met requirements.

TN Ed Commish, Candace McQueen, added this bit spin that somehow does not restore confidence:

McQueen said the state is taking several steps. At the top of the list, she said, is working with the companies that manage student information to improve data entry.

Does anyone know which companies she is talking about?  Are these the same companies that produced the Report?  How reliable or secure is this student data?

How embarrassing for Haslam's coterie of dissemblers at TDOE.  How will they now justify another $30 million of Gear Up TN federal welfare grants to fund what fiscal conservatives won't pay, themselves?  Surely, one of the State's contracted data mercenaries can come up with something.