“The great challenge of adulthood is holding on to your idealism after you lose your innocence.”
― Bruce Springsteen

“People may or may not say what they mean… but they always say something designed to get what they want.”
― David Mamet

Yesterday was a surreal day. Over in my neighborhood, in South Nashville, the sun was shining, kids were enjoying a day off from school, and life was progressing pretty much as it does every day. Meanwhile, just 15 miles down the road, fellow Nashvillians were grappling with what hit them in the night and trying to determine how they were going to rebuild their lives.

Shortly after midnight, on Tuesday, East Nashville, along with Putnam County and Mt Juliet was struck by a tornado. A tornado that stayed on the ground for 60 minutes. The damage done by Mother Nature was nothing short of devastating.

I was in the middle of the tornado that struck Nashville in 1998. That day I thought I was going to die in the Ace of Clubs, where I worked on 2nd ave. People talk about the freight train sound that accompanies a tornado, trust me it’s a sound you never forget. My heart goes out to those affected by the latest calamity. But, at the same moment, this city continues to make me proud.

People sprung from bed yesterday to extend a helping hand to those who no longer had a roof over their bed. While other legislators were in general assembly arguing over a woman’s right to decide what’s best for her body and whether those who choose to bear arms should require a permit, Rep Harold Love, an ordained minister, and the congregation at Lee Chapel AME Church set up a staging area in their parking lot to help with cleanup from tornado damage. With the needs being great, I suspect you’ll find them there today.

MNPS’s communication department was in top form,  communicating not only the district’s plans in a timely manner – schools were closed – but where people could go to help. PENCIL Foundation, an organization so vital to teachers, also provided a means to help.

Robert Churchwell, Meigs, and Lockland Springs all suffered damages and plans will have to be formulated about housing those students for the rest of the year.

Board Chairwoman Anna Shepherd postponed the remainder of interviews scheduled this week for the director’s search. I can’t help but wonder how long it will be until someone suggests suspending the search permanently. In the wake of Tuesday destruction is now really the time for a change in leadership or would the city be better served to remove the interim from Dr. Battle’s title and allowing her to do the required work unencumbered?

It’s going to take a while to clean up and readjust. Some lives will be altered permanently. But if any city has the ability to pull together and lend a hand to their neighbor, it’s Nashville. We did it in the aftermath of tornados in 1998, and we did it when flooding hit in 2010. Nashville is strong and only getting stronger.

SESSION IS OPEN

Yesterday HB 2229 – the Reading Bill – was scheduled to be discussed again in the House Curriculum, Testing, & Innovation Subcommittee. In the wake of Tuesday’s tornado, early indications was that committee meetings were going to be canceled because of the local state of emergency, but by mid-morning a revised schedule had been released. A decision whose propriety I would question, but will instead extend the benefit of the doubt.

I know y’all are getting a little sick of me talking about the reading bill, but its importance can not be understated. Public education advocates have become so accustomed to having attacks on public education appear in a prescribed form – vouchers, charter schools, scripted curriculum – that we some times miss the implications of legislation when it appears in an unfamiliar form. I don’t question the intentions of the legislators – they have continually asked the right questions throughout the process – but a bill that codifies curriculum, removes local control, and leaves LEAs to deal with unfunded mandates is not good for public education, nor will it produce the desired student outcomes.

Crafting legislation, not unlike learning to read, is a complex process with a lot of moving parts. It’s imperative that we recognize the dangers in this bill in the same manner that we have recognized the dangers inherent in vouchers, charter schools, and other tools of the disruption movement.

Yesterday’s committee meeting was packed with members of SCORE, and it’s affiliate LIFT, in support of the proposed legislation. In case you are unfamiliar with SCORE, they were founded by former Senator Bill Frist, a doctor. Because of Frist’s cash and connections, over the last decade, they’ve had a direct pipeline to the TNDOE.

Since inception, their initiatives have been treated as gospel and often implemented by the TNDOE, which has led to some viewing them as an extension of the DOE. Word of late is that they don’t even bother with the department of education anymore, and instead have a direct relationship with the governor. Seeing as HB 2229 is the governor’s bill, SCORE’s promotion would make sense.

They have even gone as far as printing a nice glossy booklet on the “science of reading”. As a reader points out the booklet contains the following boxed quote,

“RESEARCH IS THE ONLY TOOL WE HAVE
THAT ALLOWS US TO DETERMINE THE
KINDS OF TEACHING MOST LIKELY TO
ADVANCE OUR STUDENTS’ LEARNING;
COMMONSENSE AND PAST EXPERIENCE
ARE USELESS BEFORE SUCH QUESTIONS.”

The passage is a quote from reading expert Timothy Shanahan, and as a reader of his, I can’t help but feel this is presented out of context. I urge you to read the whole piece, it’s a bit more nuanced then quote would lead you to believe. But think about it, and ask yourself if there’s a good reason to expect a non-biased report could possibly follow a quote that includes the phrase “commonsense and past experience are useless”. Not my words. Theirs. Unfortunately for them, the branding language of the “science of reading” has been struck from the latest amendment. (HB2229-SB2160_AMENDMENT #2 )

I’m not going to debunk individual testimony but I do think there are a few things worth noting.

First up was Trousdale Superintendent Clint Satterfield. Satterfield qualified his testimony by stating that he was neither an expert on reading nor an expert on this bill and then proceeded to testify how this was the only way to teach reading and how great the bill was. At one point he made the observation that “You can’t lie to your pets, and you can’t lie to your teachers.” Freudian slip? I’ll let you decide.

It was clear by his testimony that Satterfield was not very familiar with this bill. A key moment came when Chairwoman Moody asked him to explain the difference between a “screener” and a “diagnostic”. Satterfield “aw shucks-ed” his way through the question by saying he used the terms interchangeably. A response, that were he a contestant on Jeopardy, would have earned him a loud bzzzzttt. The two, as most educators know, are not interchangeable.

A screener is used to decide if you need an intervention, while a diagnostic is used to decide what you need. Two very different tools. This is important because of the following language in the bill.

Categories: Education