(Colin Hay)

The weekend sure went by fast and here we are at Monday morning again. Last week was the Americana Music Fest here in Nashville and I had the pleasure of working shows all four days. If you were in Nashville and got out to any of the shows, you saw some great entertainment. A personal highlight for me was seeing Men At Work frontman Colin Hay do a stripped down version of their monster hit “Land down Under”. I never realized the song was so poignant.

HOW IT ALL WORKS

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit of an urge to explain myself a bit, to kinda pull back the curtain and reveal a bit of how this all works. By all, I mean the Dad Gone Wild blog. Some folks seem to have a bit of misconception about the process that goes into producing a DGW blog. They seem to think I spend most of the day sitting around throwing darts at pictures of my perceived enemies until someone calls me up and tells me what to write. First of all, you’ve got me confused with someone else and secondly thats not how it works at all.

I am married to a teacher. She’s a 10 year veteran of MNPS and I am extremely proud of her. For the first 8 years of our marriage I watched how hard she worked and how hard outside forces worked to make her job more difficult. Realizing that she couldn’t really speak up on certain issues, I started crafting the DGW blog. As the blog grew in popularity out of necessity we had a to create a separation of church and state, so to speak. I never write about her personal experiences, unless they are positive, nor do I ask her for information on things I may write about. She never questions me about what I write and to be honest, while she is extremely supportive, I’m not even sure she reads much of what I write.

Initially I focused on the privatization efforts of corporate reform groups and their attacks on public ed. This was at a time when not many people were questioning the reform movement. People were lining up to see “Waiting for Superman” and treating it like gospel. I was lucky to be a part of a small group of resistance fighters who did the research – man, we did the research – and realized that the majority of what was being pushed on our schools was not beneficial and in fact, extremely detrimental to public education. I am extremely proud of the work I did at the time and the people I came to call friends. I shudder too think what things might look like with out people like TREE, Momma Bears, Andy Spears, BATS, SPEAK. and some others I’m probably forgetting.

Last year I reached a point where I was beginning to question where I wanted to go with the blog. To be honest, I’d grown a little weary of writing what was starting to feel like the same old same old. We were winning the war but it didn’t seem like there was a plan to win the peace. That really started to weigh on me. Besides there were other people doing a better job of writing about the evils of corporate reform than I. People like Diane Ravitch, Peter Greene, Steven Singer, Anthony Cody, Jenifer Berkshire.

It was about this time that Metro Nashville Public School got a new director of schools. It didn’t take long for him to start exhibiting some of the worst traits of the corporate reform folks – lack of transparency, exorbitant perks, cronyism. The question became, how could I demand others be held accountable while defending the actions of the new administration just because they represented “Public Schools.” It seemed a little hypocritical to me. Unfortunately over the last year I’ve witnessed a whole lot more hypocrisy.

The result was, I started diving in and researching our district like I previously researched corporate reform. What I found wasn’t pretty and too be frank, challenged a lot of my preconceived notions.    I found myself returning to the motivation that lead me to start writing in the beginning, the telling of stories that others couldn’t tell. To do that I had to start really focusing on talking to people and building relationships, two things MNPS’s current administration should have been doing themselves upon arrival.

Let’s be perfectly clear, nobody has “leaked” me anything. I never write anything based on one person telling me something. Things come up in conversations and then I go research them. That research is followed by more conversations. Over the years I have found MNPS to be populated by some of the most dedicated, intelligent, professionals you could imagine. Earning their trust has resulted in access to a virtual treasure chest of knowledge.

Sometimes the subject is above my pay grade. There are things that I don’t think are right but I don’t have enough of a grasp on them to convey information in a meaningful manner. An example would be MNPS’s advanced academic programs. There is some really good work being done but there also some fees associated with the programs that I believe hinder access despite administrator’s best efforts. I’m still talking to people and researching the subject and hopefully some point I will be able to write something meaningful on the subject. If not, it won’t be due to lack of trying by folks overseeing the gifted program. They’ve been extremely open with me. My goal has always been to inform not to create hysteria. Despite some equating me with TMZ.

Earning the trust of educators requires work. It requires not using them to forward an agenda. Listening to what is important to them. Talking to them at times and through methods that are convenient to them not me. It means being willing to admit it when I had a wrong perception. I’ve talked to people at 7 AM as they got ready to get out the door. I’ve talked to them at midnight. I’ve talked to educators on their commutes and I’ve talked to them while they prepared dinner. I’ve talked to current teachers, retired teachers, administrators who’ve left for other districts and some that are still employed by MNPS. I’ve talked with principals, assistant principals, librarians, family engagement specialists, parents, bus drivers, and custodians. A common refrain around my house is, “Are you on your phone again?”  But I’ve always believed that the more people you talk to, the more accurate picture you’ll get.

I do though that I’m going to get t-shirts made that say ‘TC who?” because unfortunately, most of the conversations start with or include the phrase, “Don’t say you talked to me,” or “Don’t mention my name.” That alone should be troubling to folks, because the people I talk to aren’t looking to tear down MNPS. Quite the opposite, they are dedicated to making it the best district in the country. Nothing they are doing should be considered “state secrets”. After all it is PUBLIC education. The intense focus on who tells me stuff, instead of proving me wrong or fixing the issues raised is very troubling to me. Not acknowledging problems does not make them go away, it merely causes them to fester.

I don’t have a lot of heart these days for the charter school vs public school debate. It’s not that I don’t think it’s important, its that I think improving all our schools needs to take precedent and I need off the hamster wheel. In talking to people I’ve had conversations with really smart, dedicated, caring people that didn’t agree with me on how to improve all our schools. They didn’t have spiked tales and horns, just different opinions. That doesn’t mean I didn’t learn from them. I appreciate them for looking beyond my horns and hooves as well. We need to focus on policy not personality.

I appreciate you allowing me this little indulgence I want to give a heartfelt thank you and mucho respect to all of you at MNPS who have tried to educate this college drop out. Y’all are truly are amazing. Hopefully someone besides me will dedicate themselves to talking to you, learning your stories, and giving you the props you deserve. There is a lot of talent in this city. It’s past time we started fully accessing it.

RANDOM NOTES.

Social media over the weekend was talking about the recently released annual chart of the salaries Top 50 highest paid Metro Nashville employees by Nashville News. Director of schools Shawn Joseph came in 3rd. His Chiefs were ranked 17 – 20th. The Mayor? She was ranked 28th.

Interestingly enough, I put in an open records request about 2 weeks ago for copies of Dr. Joseph’s evaluation of the Chiefs performance last year. Here’s the response I received, “The evaluations for the chiefs are not completed at this time. I would suggest you request them again in a few weeks.” Not a bad gig if you can get it huh? Is anybody getting evaluated besides students, teachers, and principals?

It’s interesting that while MNPS Board Chair Anna Shepherd and and Board member Will Pinkston show little interest in the evaluation of MNPS leadership they are extremely concerned with how LEAD Academy evaluated their former director. Pinkston found the subject to be important enough to file an open records request for the emails surrounding the exit of then CEO Chris Reynolds. And what, you might ask, did these emails reveal? That the board was doing their job. In case you are keeping score at home, the board’s evaluation of Dr. Joseph was due back in June.

It’s often said that the past is the best predictor of the future. With that thought in mind, I decided to re-read the article written in the Boston Globe after MNPS Chief of Schools Sito Narcisse left the school he was principal of in Boston. The whole article is worth reading through the lens of what we now know. The most telling quote comes from a former school worker,

“We were the NBT school — the Next Big Thing school,” said the educator. “Whatever the buzz was, that’s where you found us — same-sex classes, uniforms, ninth grade academy, curriculum initiatives. But there was no input from anyone — no research, no training, no evaluating, and therefore no effective implementation.

Here’s another quote worth noting.

“No one ever feels good that they have to do that job,” said Narcisse. “But the reality on the other end — it’s like the NBA, right? Doc Rivers has to put their best team out on the court. It’s about wins and losses.’’

(Tusculum students for Walden Pond)

We always preach the need to increase critical thinking and real world applications when it comes to our children’s education. Tusculum 4th graders practiced both when they took to the streets last Friday to raise both awareness and resources for Walden’s Puddle, an organization that provides care and treatment to sick, injured and orphaned native Tennessee wildlife. The kids will be accepting donations of items such as trash bags, paper towels, liquid bleach, jars of baby food, dry dog food. unsalted walnuts and pecans, and birdseed until Wednesday September 20. Help if you can.

This week is a prime example of that old adage, too much to write about and not enough time. I hope you got a chance to read yesterday’s piece on teacher recruitment and retention. If not, please check it out. I’ve been overwhelmed by the response it has received. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that teachers are frustrated. Apparently though, it does take a rocket scientist to deduce the need to listen. The Atlantic has a great piece on why teachers need their freedom that I strongly recommend as well.

Before we get into things, I would like to express my sympathies to the family and friends of Those Darlins founder Jessi Zazu who succumbed to cancer this week at the much too young age of 28. Zazu was a former attendee of the Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp. Her spirit, intellect, and talent will be greatly missed.

THE BAD

Earlier in the week, I received an interesting private message from an MNPS parent. Initially she was interested in the ever-evasive TNReady scores, but then she wanted to know if this message that she had received from her child’s school seemed normal to me:

“While progress reports are scheduled to be sent home next Wednesday, September 6th, there are some factors to consider. Many elementary students are new to school or are still adjusting to school learning expectations and classroom procedures at this point in the school year. We have also been administering MAP-Reading, MAP-Math, FastBridge, and Text Level Assessments to provide a baseline of information so each student can have specific learning needs met going forward. These factors can limit clear and accurate information related to student learning 4 instructional weeks into the school year. Therefore, schools will not be issuing the standard progress reports and will be communicating differently with families. XXX will be sending home information about assessments that students have taken as soon as all of the results are available. Additionally, teachers will communicate with individual families if there are students at risk of not being successful this first quarter.”

I replied, “No it doesn’t.” So of course I did a little digging, and lo and behold, I found some strange doings indeed. Apparently this was a template that MNPS administrators had suggested principals utilize due to the district being so far behind in training staff on the new grading policies. Many principals, though, realized that when the calendar said that progress reports are coming home on September 6, parents actually expected them to come home on September 6. So they sent progress reports home on September 6.

What this translates to is that parents at some schools received progress reports while parents at other schools received something entirely different and a few other schools got something even more different. What it also means is that after 13 months, this administration is still incapable of producing a consistent progress report across the district. To me, that is completely unacceptable, as it should be to anybody who cares about kids’ education.

This administration, as well as members of our school board, talk so much about equity, yet seem to lack an understanding of what that means. You can’t have equity until you demonstrate that you are capable of executing the day-to-day functions of the district. In fact, failure to execute those tasks means that the quality of each child’s education is then placed upon the shoulders of the school level leadership and their ability to navigate the shortcomings of the district leadership. This is an extremely tenuous position to put our principals in, especially our newest principals.

We talk endlessly about the need to find more educators who “look like the kids they are serving.” While that is certainly an important consideration, it can’t supersede quality. I would argue that by focusing on color of skin over quality you actually increase inequities. I’m not accusing Dr. Joseph of purposely pursuing such a strategy, but I do think he needs to add a focus on quality to his message. Furthermore, I would challenge him and anyone else to name me one central office hire over the past year who is a marked improvement over the person they replaced. I can’t do it. Closest I can come is Dennis Queen. That’s a problem.

If the progress report debacle wasn’t enough, yesterday, administrators sent out this message to teachers:

Important Change to K-4 Grade Book

 In grades K-4, MNPS used a temporary Progress Report in September. This temporary report required that teachers post grades. Because grades were posted, “In Progress” grades at the reporting category and term level stopped calculating.

To allow “In Progress” grades to calculate in all standards again, MNPS will remove all posted grades in K-4 grade books Thursday, 9/14/2017. This will allow the grade book and family portal to show an accurate and current “In Progress” grade for students. 

If posted progress report grades are needed, Executive Principals can request copies of the Q1 Progress Reports and/or a school wide list of posted grades (organized by teacher) by emailing grading@mnps.org.

Thank you for your patience. Please continue to read communications to ensure that you have the information you need to provide families with accurate grades.

I don’t think I need to tell you how that email went over. Teacher’s do not have time to enter, re-enter, re-reading directions. All this memo does is reiterate the impression that central office’s agenda trumps everyone else’s.

I could write 1000 words about the mis-steps that MNPS continues to make, and former teacher and dear friend Mary Holden has written a few of her own, but the only words that seem to fit are, and I know I shouldn’t talk like this, can the district please get it’s head out of it’s….

THE GOOD

This week, a tweet from the students at Maplewood High School involved with ProjectLit brought a huge smile to my face. They were kind enough to send me a thank you note for attending their monthly book club. Truth is, I should thanking them for letting me be a part of it.

MNPS has brand new feature on their Children First blog, #MNPSVoices. They will be highlighting various heroes from across the district and telling you a little more about them. The first one features West End Middle crossing guard Teresa Hunter. I look forward to more of these.

Eighteen MNPS students are among the approximately 16,000 National Merit Award Semi-Finalists recently announced. That is cause for celebration. Here’s wishing all of them luck and letting them know they make Nashville proud.

(Smith Springs ES Watch D.O.G.S)

Smith Springs ES held the kick-off meeting for their Watch D.O.G. S. chapter this week. I’d say by the size of the crowd they should expect a huge year this year. Looking forward to hearing more.

MNPS will be hosting a College Fair on September 21st at TSU. It’s a good place to start to seed some of those dreams.

It is football season. I keep hearing from folks who have recently attended their first high school football game in a long time. Every one of them tells me what a great time they had. There’s kind of a big one this week, Glencliff visits Hillsboro tonight at 7:30PM. As much I like my Burro peeps, my heart does live in South Nashville. If you can make the game tonight, I certainly encourage you to do so.

Students and educators from Hillsboro, Overton, and Pearl Cohn High Schools will be heading to Charlottesville this weekend, where they will be performing a song they wrote inspired by recent events. Safe travels and know that Nashville is proud.

(MNPS educators and students going to Charlottesville)

THE UGLY

The Data Wars show no sign of letting up soon. At last week’s marathon school board meeting, the MNPS board voted to not share student information with the ASD. Of course, State Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen wasted no time in pointing out that this was an illegal action:

“We are disappointed MNPS has chosen to adopt a policy that conflicts with state law. T.C.A. § 49-13-132 is clear that districts must release students’ contact information, as allowed under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), to a chartering authority or charter school. The department has sought to proactively collaborate with MNPS and has taken several steps to clarify and establish protections that ensure that student contact information is not misused or shared against the wishes of a parent. We have allowed the district additional time to ensure parents received a second communication about the rights they have always had to opt out, and we have sought additional clarity from the attorney general.

The school board’s vote ultimately represents a decision to limit information to families about their public school options as they make decisions about what is best for their children – especially families who have students in the district’s Priority schools or lowest performing schools.”

Since irony seems to be lost on the masses, MNPS board member Will Pinkston fired back by accusing the Commissioner of “overestimating” her authority. Hey, I only write the punchlines, I don’t inspire them.

To further complicate matters, the Tennessee Attorney General issued a ruling this week that runs counter to Mr. Pinkston’s assertions. He ruled that requests for student contact information from state-run charter school operators doesn’t violate Federal student privacy law, but rather are “entirely consistent with it.” McQueen wasted no time putting both Shelby County Schools and MNPS on notice:

“If you do not provide this information by Sept. 25, 2017, to the (Achievement School District) and any other charter school or charter authorizer who has an outstanding request, we will be forced to consider actions to enforce the law.”

Yeah… this ain’t going to end well. As always, Andy Spears at TN Ed Report offers further insight, and asks the question, where do the current candidates for Governor stand on protecting student data vs. providing marketing information to competing districts and schools? Maybe while they are at it, they could give us their thoughts on the ASD as well.

POLL QUESTIONS

Here are the questions for this week. I think I have some interesting ones.

The first question goes back to what I stated earlier, that MNPS has made a firm commitment to hiring more people of color. How do you feel about that?

The second question has to do with magnet school entrance requirements. Some voices across the district have been calling to have magnet school seats designated by either quadrant or cluster. For example, if there were 100 seats available, every quadrent would get 25. How does that sound to you?

My last question has to do with high school football and how many of you plan to attend this year.

That about does it for another week. Remember to check out the Dad Gone Wild Facebook page for good things happening around the district. If you need to get a hold of me, it’s norinrad10@yahoo.com

After sitting through 2 hours of a 4-hour school board meeting earlier this week, I feel compelled to offer some additional insight on the portion of that meeting that related to teacher recruitment and retention. As a side note, I’m a firm believer that if a meeting lasts over an hour, you need another meeting. Research has shown that people’s attention spans drop off dramatically after 30 minutes, so imagine the drop off after 4 hours. But I digress.

One of the biggest challenges facing Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is teacher recruitment and retention. To be fair, it’s not just a local issue. Districts across the country are grappling with the same challenge. In my mind, that exacerbates the problem because it allows district leadership to shift blame elsewhere and not look at the role they play in the crisis. And I do believe it’s a crisis.

Chief Executive Officer of Human Resources Deborah Story gave a presentation at Tuesday’s meeting to the MNPS school board that I found quite interesting. She acknowledged last year’s shortcomings by saying “We didn’t see the growth that we’d like to have,” and that they’d have to work harder this year. She then proceeded to present a number of slides that illustrated data pulled from exit interviews with teachers who had left the district.

Before we get into those slides, it needs to be noted that only 17% of exiting teachers, up slightly from last year, participated in the exit surveys. Why is that, you ask? According to Ms. Story, a major reason was a fear of reprisal if they decided to return to the district at a later date. Wait… what you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?

Did I just hear the Head of HR acknowledge that there is a culture of fear at MNPS that keeps teachers from speaking their mind? But several board member have dismissed such claims over the years. Some board members have asserted that the culture of fear has dissipated over the last year. Yet, here you have the Head of HR saying that only 17% of teachers LEAVING the district responded to exit surveys with fear of reprisal being a leading reason given. Draw your own conclusions.

Moving on. Story produced a slide that compared the number of teachers leaving the district during the last two school years by their years of experience teaching. She noted that we had decreased the number of teachers exiting in their first and second years of teaching. She did acknowledge that by year three, there was a slight uptick, and that they were looking into it because they weren’t sure why those teachers left in slightly greater numbers than before.

Story then went on to praise the value of the new teacher academy and mentoring programs and the positive impacts they were having. Both are worthy of accolades, but let’s back things up for a second.

Take a look at teachers with 4 through 10 years of experience. We almost DOUBLED the amount of experienced teachers we lost from the year before. Yikes! That is pretty serious, and I bet that you’re thinking surely a board member or two questioned those numbers! Nope. They just moved on to the next slide.

More time was spent discussing the demise of transitional licensing than discussing why we saw this huge uptick in veteran teachers leaving the district. In my humble opinion, those numbers are another indication of a culture problem. Because if you go back a slide, district research showed that the vast majority of teachers leaving are heading to another district. So what you have is teachers who understand the requirements of the profession and have accepted them, but feel that another district would be a better place to practice their profession. Has anybody asked why?

To be fair, sometimes the reason for moving to another district can be as simple as a desire to cut down on commute time. But with that many educators making the move, coupled with the low exit interview participation due to fear of reprisal, I would be doing some digging. Though you can’t really dig into things if people don’t trust you. If I don’t trust you, it’s easier to take the path of least resistance than to give you meaningful answers. I realize that creates a bit of a Catch-22, but it is what it is.

At this point in the meeting, Dr. Joseph decided to speak about the threat of other districts poaching our teachers. He noted that at the beginning of the year, we lost 30 to 40 teachers to other districts, and it really hurt us. Other states have legislation to curb teacher poaching, and he felt like it might be something that Tennessee needs to explore. I guess nobody told him that Tennessee is a right-to-work state controlled by Republicans. Furthermore, MNPS has a bonus plan that pays teachers up to $6K if they join the district after August 11th. A plan that is designed to… wait for it… poach teachers from other districts.

I just keep going back to the elephant in the room: culture. We’ve all heard the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and it is absolutely true. If you don’t think the culture in MNPS is toxic, then you are not paying attention. Dr. Joseph himself has acknowledged such to me personally and even went as far to admit that he’d probably made it worse by bringing in so much outside leadership at the beginning. While I appreciate his candor, what is being done to fix things now?

I know, this is where people tell me that there has always been a culture problem at MNPS. Here’s my response: “I don’t care. The past should not be the sole justification for the present.” If it’s bad, it’s bad, regardless of who’s responsible for it. At some point, somebody has to own it and take steps to improve things. It drives me absolutely nuts when people shrug off a bad situation because it’s always been like that. As if a bad culture is an inherent part of the system.

If you watch the first 90 minutes of Tuesday’s board meeting, you’d be left with the impression that the district’s problems are minimal. In discussing this with a dear friend, she made the comment that she feels by and large, despite the deeper problems in the district, which she’s not discounting, there is incredible work being done. That kids are being engaged and teachers are closing their doors and doing transformational work behind them.

I certainly don’t disagree with that assertion. But, I would ask, at what cost? We celebrate all these feel good stories but we never ask to see the price tag. We never ask the cost to teachers’ health. We never ask the cost to their mental health. We never ask the cost to their family relationships. We never ask their financial cost. It has become expected that teachers will pay whatever cost it takes to produce quality learning opportunities for their students. They will do whatever it costs to ensure that every child has a shot at the best educational experience possible.

It’s very commendable of teachers to be willing to pick up the tab, but is it moral for us to just accept it and allow it? Many of us would bristle if, when out with a friend for a meal, they tried to pick up the tab. Yet we feel perfectly fine with allowing teachers to go into their pocket for classroom supplies. We have no problem expecting them to work on weekends for no pay because we’ve heaped so many responsibilities upon their plate. We don’t even feel compelled to make sure that they make enough money that, if they desired, they could afford to buy a house in the district where they work.

Instead we talk about alternative licensing, principal leadership programs, certifying teachers through the district, working with community groups, creating websites, and other ideas that may make a dent in the issue, but won’t touch the root. I’d argue that unless we get to the root, it’s akin to just throwing kindling on the fire. You may increase your numbers, but to utilize business speak, are you utilizing the right KPI’s – Key Performance Indicators?

Story talked a whole lot about teachers leaving the district. In my opinion, those numbers tell an incomplete story. If we are going to understand the full scope of the crisis, we also need to look at the number of teachers transferring within the district. Those numbers might give somebody a heart attack, but I believe you’d find that transferring schools is often a precursor to leaving the district. Those numbers may allow you to prevent further exodus from the district.

Towards the end of Story’s presentation, Board member Christiane Buggs asked, “What can we do for you?” Story responded that they needed two more recruiters at minimum. She went on to say that the current recruiters were drowning under the volume of the work and were highly stressed out. In her words,

“You can see it in their eyes that they are stressed out. If they get too stressed out, you start to lose people. Sharon and I have to spend a little bit of every day giving them some love.”

The irony in that statement is not lost on me. I wonder if we could get that statement on a T-shirt and present it to Dr. Joseph.

We’ve been starting to0 many weeks as of late with prayers. This week prayers continue to go out to the folks in Florida. Yesterday Hurricane Irma tore through and today the damage assessment begins. It’s my prayer that everyone is safe and that the damage is as manageable as possible.

Today also marks the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers. I can still remember that day vividly. I was at work at the Exit-In early and RJ, Kristin, and I watched the news unfurl in the little upstairs office on a tiny TV. We were so moved and taken aback that the only reaction that seemed appropriate was to pause, join hands, and take a moment for prayer. To this day that stills seems like the most appropriate action and one that it would’t hurt to emulate today.

Today’s post is going to be a little random, as I’ve got no over arching theme to hit but a lot of random things I want to touch on. Today’s writings will be written to the cool sounds of New Edition, Lavert, and Earth,Wind, and Fire, closing out with XTC.

REINVENTING HIGH SCHOOL

Like me, on Friday you might have been flipping through the channels around 7pm and found the same thing on every channel. It was a program produced by XQ and funded by Luarene Powell Jobs – yep, that Jobs – telling you about the reimagining of High School.  I’ll be honest, I only lasted 5 minutes…ok, 2 minutes…alright,30 seconds. But what I saw was enough to know that this was another slick package designed by well meaning people guaranteed to catapult education of our kids into the next stratosphere.

I’m not going to get into a critique, much smarter people than I have already done that and done it well, but I am going to make two observations. One, in despite of the fact that we’ve never actually committed to doing public education right – fully funded, empowered teachers, emphasis on research proven best practices, fully involved parents, transparent policies – we are endlessly searching for new ways to “fix” things.

It’s like that serial adulterer who leaves his wife for his mistress. He never fully committed to his first marriage so what makes him think the second, or third is going to be any different? In AA we have a saying, “Wherever you go, there you are.” It means sometimes you have to acknowledge, that you are part of the problem.

We know what works with schools. Teachers that are empowered, and adequately  compensated, implementing programs that are fully funded with parental and community support in a transparent manner. Imagine if we did a show that addressed those tenets.

You could start with Mark Zuckerberg coming out and earnestly looking at the camera, “I really don’t know anything about education but I got lots of money and it seems like a good vehicle to get you to like me and thinking I’m a benevolent soul. But I decided to do something a little different. I decided to started talking to professional educators.”

Than you could have a former superintendent of schools come out and say, “I used to get together with all my fellow supes and we’d hire each other to be consultants for our respective districts. It was a great gig and we were all getting cars and swimming pools. Than I realized, this wasn’t helping kids. Money invested in people in our district, and the programs they created, would allow us to do more with less and we could put that extra money back into the district. It was an epiphany!”

Next up would be Jay-Z, and he could talk about how 1 in 7 children in America will be born into poverty. He could talk about how this creates trauma in these kids and the effects that trauma has on their learning. He could tell a few stories about how he grew up hard but was able to get a better life. Kayne West could come out and talk about his mother and her commitment to public education. Young Buck could tell tales about being at Jere-Baxter MS – hey, they got Hume-Fogg, it’s only fair we get Jere-Baxter.

Ryan Reynolds could talk about how his parents always supported his educational endeavors and how they communicated with his school and were always at his sporting events. Matt Damon could then walk out and give him a big bro hug and they could talk about all that Matt does for public education. Maybe they could get together with Ethan Hawke and Norman Reedus and pledge to do a show where they tour American schools on motorcycle. Imagine the four of them showing up each week to a different school and showing us what really happens.

The whole show could end with everybody walking out on stage arm and arm with actual students across the country singing the Beach Boy’s Be True To Your School. I can hear it now,

When some loud braggart tries to put me down
And says his school is great
I tell him right away
Now what’s the matter buddy
Ain’t you heard of my school
It’s number one in the state

So be true to your school now
Just like you would to your girl or guy
Be true to your school now
And let your colors fly
Be true to your school

(SE Quadrant community meeting)

Reports out of SE Nashville tell me that quadrant superintendent Adrianne Battle and District 6 school board representative Tyese Hunter hosted a well attended and very informative quadrent meeting on Saturday morning. Kudos to them and I regret not attending, but I’m sure there will be more opportunities, as they seem committed to keeping community informed.

I covered crowded school board meetings and regularly scrambled for an open seat at legislative hearings where parents had filled the room after driving since dawn to beat the opening gavel. Not incidentally, those parents usually came from communities with the “worst” schools and the lowest test scores. While many disagreements exist about the best way to run schools, there is no shortage of people, particularly parents and educators, who care.

1. Mary Holden – District Leadership and Homework
2. Laura Benton – Educator Concerns/Request
3. Chris Moth – Please Honor the Transition Team Report
4. Gerald Grubb – Vocabulary Spelling City
5. John Cummins – Salary Increases
6. Amanda Kail – Safety for Immigrant Families
7. Kelly Lockridge Zaimah – Nashville Classical
8. Halima Labi – Purpose Prep
9. Monique Fisher – Intrepid
10. Yousef Husseini – Intrepid

Donelson teacher John Cummins is  going to challenge Dr. Joseph, and the school board, to commit to a 25% ACROSS-THE-BOARD SALARY INCREASE FOR ALL CERTIFIED AND NON-CERTIFIED EMPLOYEES, to be phased in over the next five years. In his words, NASHVILLE HAS THE MONEY – IT’S TIME TO PAY SCHOOL EMPLOYEES A FAIR WAGE FOR HARD WORK! Please come out and support if you’re able

Some make take exception to the number of parents speaking to the board on behalf of their children’s charter schools. I am not one of those. In looking at the names listed, it’s clear that these parents are representatives of our immigrant communities. The very fact that they are willing to engage in the public school system is cause for celebration as far as I’m concerned.

One more note on the agenda, why are we no longer doing the student performances before board meetings? It seems to me we should have more interactions with students not less.

We have our first school board campaign event kicking off this week. Anna Shepherd is announcing her intent to retain her seat at a fundraiser on September 14th. I guess that means it’s also the kick off for starting the rumor mill. I’m hearing two previous entrants are looking at running this years.

(Nashville School of Arts/Lady A)

Talk swirls that former board chair Cheryl Mayes is considering reclaiming her seat in district 6. Over indistrict 8 rumor has it that Becky Sharpe is considering another attempted run. I have heard rumors that Gina Pupa-Walker of Connexion is weighing options also in district 8. Remember those are just rumors.

Saturday night saw Nashville School of the Arts students taking the stage with Lady A. Kudos to their amazing Music Teacher Glenn Fugett and Principal Gregory Stewart for making it happen.

If you are on Twitter, do yourself a favor and check out Aunt B’s fascinating thread on the history of desegregation in Nashville and the bombing of Hattie Cotton. Her handle is @AuntB.

(Outdoor classroom at Madison Middle)

Over at Madison Middle School they are enjoying their brand new outdoor classroom.

(Alex Green ES students)

At Alex Green ES, they celebrated a week of behavior with NFL Day!

(KIPP student)

KIPP on Friday, had kid’s spend time writing letters of encouragement to fellow kids bracing for Hurricane Irma getting ready to hit Florida.

POLL RESULTS

Time now to take a look at the results from this weekends poll. As always the answers continue to be fairly unpredictable and very thought provoking. Thank you for your insight.

First question was in relation to MNPS’s recently released statement about Trump’s action on DACA. This one was an interesting one because throughout the weekend results tended to go back and forth between the leading votes. In the end, “I wish they’d focus more on kids and less on politics” slightly edged out “It made me proud”. In my opinion, this was a good reminder that our public schools are made up of all kinds of people and we do our best to always keep that in mind.’

Here are the write-ins.

Would have appreciated it more if I knew it would be backed by real action	1
Mixed emotions

The second question  was on outsourcing and for the first time ever, the write ins won. Thirty-six percent of you chose to write in your own answer. In reading them, it’s interesting that y’all seem to be on the same page. In my opinion, you sent a pretty clear message.

None	5
Too many already	1
Someone to babysit Will Pinkston	1
Nothing	1
Attending weekly academy & content meeting so teachers don’t lose 2 plan pds/wk	1
None! C’mon!	1
Trick question? None!	1
Central office	1
None. Outsourcing is an admin dodge of responsibility.	1
Chief Academic Officer	1
collecting the check they no longer work to earn	1
Maryland Central Office imports	1
Superintendent and chiefs	1
Administrators & Central Office Administrators Evaluations	1
Maintenance.	1
None, quality always drops with outsourcing to for-profits.	1
None of the above	1
Hiring director of schools	1
Director & Chief positions….	1
Director of schools	1
Director of Schools	1
District 7 leadership.	1
none	1
Any job that can be evaluated by someone from Maryland.

The last question had to do with the pending vacancy at Tennessee’s ASD. I’m sad to report that Snowbird just edged out board member Will Pinkston for the job. It was a tight race and could have gone either way but in the end, Snowbird prevails. Here’s your other votes.

Amy Frogge	1
Close it down	1
Nobody! Get rid of it!	1
No one. It should be done away with.	1
There shouldn’t be an ASD.	1
Someone who was an actual teacher	1
Doesn’t matter, state’s quietly dismantling it.	1
Me	1
Abolish it!	1
Dr. Felder	1
TC Weber

There you have it. I hope you have a great week and we’ll touch base throughout. As always if you need to send me a message, norinrad10@yahoo.com is the way to do it. Also check out the Dad Gone Wild Facebook page.

Temperatures are dropping outside and school activities are rising. Being a large urban district means that there is always a lot going on. I’m going to try and hit as much of it as possible. Lord knows I’ll probably forget a few things though.

BEST WAY TO START THE DAY

(Book Club at Maplewood HS)

My day began over at Maplewood HS with the years first Project Lit community book club meeting. In case you are not familiar, Project Lit was started by students at Maplewood HS and their teacher Jared Amato. Last September he presented an article about book deserts and challenged them to come up with ways to combat the issue. What resulted was a true Project Based Learning effort.

Students started by designing a plan to address the lack of books in their neighborhood. The book club grew out of their success in creating a book drive. Each month a YA title is chosen and community members are invited to read the book and come discuss it in student facilitated groups. This month the book was American Boys, a story centered around a police beating of a young Africa-American male told through the eyes of the African-American boy and a white boy who witnessed the event.

I joined a group that consisted of 5 AA young men and Tara Scarlett, who was gracious enough to attend. Listening to these young men talk was quite informative. So often we think that we can predict people’s thoughts and feelings, but when we talk to them we find that people are much more complex creatures then we give them credit for being. I’m extremely grateful for the willingness of these young men and Tara to share their thoughts with me this morning.

Next month the book is The Hate U Give. The Maplewood book club meets will meet on October 20th. However, one of the great things about Project Lit is that other schools are starting to open chapters – pun intended. Croft MS’s Project Lit book club will hold it’s second meeting on September 21st at 7:30 AM. The book will be Towers Falling. Do yourself a favor, get cracking reading, and show up on the 21st.

MEET YOUR CONSULTANTS

On Monday I introduced you to a brand new consultant group that would be securing substitutes for 24 of our district schools. In keeping with the spirit, let me introduce another new player to the field, Concentric Education Solutions. Concentric is a company out of Maryland – I know you are shocked – publicly endorsed by our number 2 man, Sito Narcisse. We are paying Concentric $98K to conduct home visits in 4 priority schools.

(Student Services and School Operations.)

You might be scratching your head right now thinking, “Don’t we already have a department for that kind of thing?” Indeed we do, it’s called the Student Services and School Operations. SSSO is one of the largest shops in MNPS and it’s chock full of councilors, social workers, family engagement specialists and the like. You know, people that would be good at conducting home visits.

They are not part of this though. This is being run through the priority school office and executive director LeTricia Gloster whom, hold on to your seat, is also from Maryland.

(Concentric Application)

Just so you understand how this works, the priority school office is engaging a company from their home state to manage 1099 employees from Nashville to go into the homes of families from 4 priority schools – Joelton MS, Jere-Baxter MS, Madison Middle, Napier ES – whose children have been flagged for attendance issues.Thinking that sounds like a neat job and you wonder if you are qualified? All you need is a HS or Bachelor Degree, business attire, and a cell phone with a GPS apps and you could be doing the work of professionals.

Anybody see any problems here? How about access to student data? What happens when this pilot grows? What are the ramification on the department of SSSO if the pilot grows? How do we measure whether Concentric is successful or whether they are benefiting from the work of MNPS’s social workers and family engagement specialists who are already doing the work? Is anybody coordinating to make sure that both MNPS and Concentric are communicating the same message when interacting with the public? Is there no other company in the country doing this kind of work and if there is, why did we not engage a company with roots in Tennessee or the very least the south? I could go on, but I’ll let you come up with your own questions.

THE TRAGEDY OF DACA

Wednesday saw President Trump make, in my opinion, a horrible decision to retract protections for our undocumented students by repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act. The possible repercussions of this action could impact nearly half of the students at my kids school, including many of their personal friends. For my family, and for the teacher’s and other families across the district, this is not a hypothetical exercise but a very real crisis.

MNPS released a strongly worded public statement rebuking the action. While I certainly support the sentiment of the statement, I’m always hesitant of the district taking a political position.

First of all it sets precedent. Eventually there will be an administration that does not share my values and an issue that I may support will come up and they will release a statement voicing opposition. How will that make me feel? They will use this to defend that.

Like it or not, Trump is President because enough people who agree with his policies voted for him and many of them send their kids to MNPS. I think a public institution must be very careful that it always remains neutral. Advocating for children is one thing, staking out a political position is another. Does this statement do the former and not the later? I don’t know.

The second issue that always gets me is that the district is forever willing to make bold political statements for our EL kids but fails to back them up when the cameras fade. Most of these kids are still housed in inadequate facilities. ELL funding was not increased at all this year despite the excellent work being done by the department.

The district continues to explore turning over responsibility for some of our newcomers to a charter school overseen by people with good intentions but no where near the qualifications of MNPS’s EL department. Imagine the reaction if the district considered turning a portion of the their special education kids over to a charter school with no proven track record in special education, merely a passion for it. So rather than issue an overt political statement, I would prefer to see the district put some walk in its talk and really step up their game in meeting our immigrant children’s needs..

QUICK HITS

Tennessee Achievement School District Superintendent Malika Anderson submitted her resignation this week. I can’t say that I was surprised to hear it. Anderson is someone who I philosophically disagreed with but I can confirm that she did not have two horns on her head, nor a pointy tail. I found her to be very passionate and I do hope she doesn’t leave education. Over the past couple of years I’ve become very conscious of our inclination to try and run people out of the conversation instead of getting more people into the conversation.

Chalkbeat has an excellent interview with Malika and I urge you to read it. One portion of the interview that I think needs highlighting and then hung up over at Central Office is her quote in response to the question “What’s your advice for the next leader of the ASD?”,

Know and honor the history of the communities that you are serving. There is a hell of a lot of good there, right? And there are warriors who have been fighting this battle on behalf of their kids for generations that should be included instead of us coming in as white knight to save the day.

Amen sister, amen.

Gary Rubinstein, a NJ blogger who has always covered the ASD better than anyone, has two great catches in a recent blog piece. He notes that with Anderson’s departure no one is left from when the ASD was originally created with the goal of moving the bottom 5% into the top 25% with in 5 years. A goal that was ridiculed at the time and one that the ASD has dramatically failed to reach. The second point is that Anderson had become a Chief for Change. I failed to catch that one. I knew that State Superintendent Candice McQueen had accepted membership but not Anderson. I’d be a little worried if I was McQueen because it seems that failure is a pre-requisite for joining the Chiefs.

The Tennessean has a interesting article today on the financial crunch facing Williamson County Schools. Seems people move to WC for the excellent schools and the low property taxes. It looks like one of those is going to have to give.

Here’s a fun little game to play. To the left is a hand out given to literacy coaches at this weeks meeting. Can you spot the grammatical error? Sigh…freudian slip?

This week 33 Nashville Council members signed a letter supporting MNPS School Board in their Data Wars. My only question is, where were these 33 when MNPS children were exposed to lead in the drinking water? SSSShhhhh TC…stop talking about that! As always, TNED Report’s Andy Spears explores things a little deeper.

The Overton PAC meeting that was scheduled for next week has been rescheduled to Monday September 25th at 6:30 at Tusculum ES library. All are welcome. The Hillsboro PAC kept right on going last year and we are hoping to emulate their success.

(Hillsboro PAC)

The Country Music Hall of Fame is now offering free admission to all Davidson County kids under 18.

More than 250 High School students participated in alumni led Ambassador training this week.

(Ambassador Training)

Even though we are not supposed to look at recently released ACT scores yet, the rumor I’m hearing is that Metro Nashville Virtual School blew the doors off.

Local blogger Vesia Hawkins has a post out this week in which she encourages parents to not get distracted by shiny objects and to instead stay focused on what matters, your child’s achievement. I encourage you to read the whole piece. I try not to read too much into things but coupled with Sharon Gentry’s remarks on the board floor last month…I think a message is being sent.

Has anybody seen that definition of equity that MNPS is using? Surely after 13 months they’ve written it somewhere right?

Since once you are one of us you are always one of us, Dr. Bryan Johnson has identified his transition team. Nice to see that it has some parents on it and far as I can tell nobody from out of state. His areas of focus seem solid as well.

POLL QUESTIONS

This week, as always, I’ve got questions. The first one involves MNPS’s statement on DACA. Do think it went too far? Not far enough? What are your thoughts?

The second question relates to the hiring of consultants. Since the district seems to endorse outsourcing as much work as possible, what else do you you think should be outsourced?

Last question relates to the job opening at the ASD. They need a leader and Dad Gone Wild knows people, so who do you think should be the next head of the TN ASD?

That’s a wrap for the week. May your football team win this week, unless of course they are playing my football team. If you’d like to send me a comment please do at norinrad10@yahoo.com. Check out the Dad Gone Wild Facebook page.

I hope everybody had a glorious Labor Day. We had a nice one here. Though I must admit I do feel nostalgic for the Labor Days of my youth when the holiday meant nobody labored. It used to be that you had to stock up on Saturday because come Sunday and Monday, everything was going to be closed.  Driving around this year and it was hard to find anything that was closed, which kind of defeats the whole point of the holiday, but what are you going to do?

DATA WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Watching the Tennessee Department of Education and the states two largest school districts, Nashville and Memphis, wrangle over student data continues to resemble WWE’s Summer Smackdown – lots of posing coupled with little substance. Quick recap, in case you are new to the game, new legislation passed last spring that School Districts have to share directory data with charter schools and Memphis and Nashville don’t want to do it.

Over the last couple weeks just everybody, including council members and state representatives, have wrapped themselves in the flag and strode to the podium to talk about the injustice being perpetrated by charter schools mis-using the data provided, despite evidence of a wide spread threat. The districts arguments are that sharing the data is a violation of a federal rule amended in 2011, and that the intent of the state statute was to exclude the data from being used for marketing purposes. The holes in those arguments are that their is dispute about whether the federal rule contradicts open records laws and that whatever the intent of the new legislation, explicit language excluding recruitment purposes was not put in place.

In the center of this is the the Tennessee Achievement School District. They are like that prom queen fallen from grace. Once they were everybody’s darling and now they can’t buy a friend. In talking to people in Memphis, an important element in the fight is the fact that for years the ASD unwarrantedly bullied everybody else and now that they are weakened, turn around is fair play and this is one more way to quicken their exit towards the door.

I’ve long said the ASD needs to go. ASD director Malika Anderson has always been forthright with me and I believe her heart is the right place, but let’s face it, founder and former ASD head Chris Barbic handed her a defective product when he left. In fact, if it was a used car, I think she’d have a case under the lemon laws. So, this part of the argument I’m good with it. It’s the posturing and hypocrisy with the rest of debate that loses me.

It was reported last week that Board Chairwoman Anna Shepherd sent a letter to State Superintendent Candice McQueen pushing back on the state requirements. Let me rephrase that, at the conclusion of a meeting with Ms. McQueen, in which everybody had the chance to air and discuss grievances, MNPS presented a letter raising issues never raised in the meeting. You can read for yourself how that went over in Ms. McQueen’s response letter. In the immortal words of Keith Moon, like a lead ballon.

In my eyes the whole argument boils down to opening another front in the battle against charter schools. Which would be fine, and welcomed, if somebody actually was able to describe what happens when the war is won. How are you going to ensure that all kids have access to a quality school once district is free of charter schools. That’s where I’d like to see the focus – eradicating demand instead of supply.

I suspect the goal here is less about getting rid of all charter schools and more about making sure only the ones certain board members like survive. The privacy issue in my eyes is just a piece of a strategy to get to that place. A strategy not all that dissimilar to the one employed by President Trump to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, starve it and then decry its failures.

I’m not down playing the seriousness of student privacy. Peter Greene has an excellent post and interactive map highlighting the seriousness. It’s a vital issue, which is why I hate to see it hijacked for political posturing. I asked people in the know how many outside companies does MNPS provide directory information. While I haven’t been able to get an official response yet, estimates run between 50 and 75 third party vendors. McQueen herself in her letter mentions companies selling class rings, yearbooks, and photographs. Those popular MNPS call out? Third party vender provided directory information. Charter schools are just a small portion of this issue.

A larger conversation about student privacy would be a good thing. I think that an annual review of policy to ensure that everything is being done to protect student information should be a priority. But it needs be an honest conversation, not one cloaked in hidden agendas. In an NPR interview Shepard let the cat out of the bag about what’s driving this fight, “I think that we are at a saturation point. I know we are at a saturation point monetarily,” McQueen is kind enough in her letter to point out that under the new state law MNPS should recoup about a million dollars in costs associated with charter schools.

SUBSTITUTE

Over the last several years MNPS, along with many other school districts, has been besieged by a shortage of substitute teachers. It’s a huge problem and one that has a direct impact on student learning. Recognizing that sub pay was long over due to be increased, MNPS did so at the end of last school year. Apparently that has had little effect because they have now gone to a favorite tool of theirs, an outside consulting agency.

The district is in the process of finalizing arrangements with Education Solution Services to address the needs of 24 schools selected to pilot their services. Education Solution Services is a company based out of Knoxville that specializes in school staffing. Wilson county employs them to mixed results, great service at increased expense. This week an email was sent out to begin the recruitment process in Nashville. It read,

The schools chosen to pilot the program are:

Margaret Allen Middle, Antioch Middle, Apollo Middle, Jere Baxter Middle, Buena Vista Elementary Caldwell Elementary, Carter-Lawrence Elementary, DuPont Tyler Middle, John Early Middle, Gra-Mar Middle, Harris-Hillman Johnson ALC, Issac Litton Middle, Madison Middle, McKissack Middle McMurray Middle,  J.T. Moore Middle, Murrell School, Napier Elementary, Park Avenue Elementary Robert Churchill Elementary, Rosebank Elementary,Two Rivers Middle, Warner Elementary

I called ESS and talked to a very nice woman who was only too happy to give me what details she could, but admitted the list was a bit random. For whatever reason those were the schools selected by the district. Let’s see how this one works out. It should be noted though that we continue to pay large salaries to administrators and then outsource the work. The job at central office seems to have morphed into one of managing consulting companies and not district employees.

QUICK HITS

If you are a parent, educator, or a community member in the Overton Cluster, there will be an informal Parent Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday September 21 in the Tusculum ES library at 6:30. Under previous administrations the PAC was a vehicle for parents in the whole cluster to be informed about what was going on in schools. Last year PAC was not officially active but the Hillsboro cluster continued to meet. Maplewood also met a few times. This is an attempt to emulate those two clusters. All are welcome. Come share the positive news of your schools.

Its neat seeing Whites Creek Students featured in this video from Ford Steam Day.

You are invited to a Southeast quadrant meet and greet with school board member Tyese Hunter and Community Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle on September 9 at Southeast Community Center.

Gower ES PTO held a spirit night at the Dairy Queen on HW 70 last week. Looks like a great time was had by all.

Waverly-Belmont is looking for some parents or community members to help out in the library. If that might be you, come to the meeting on September 9th to find out how you can engage.

POLL RESULTS

Once again we had good response to the poll questions and I am very appreciative. Thank you for your continued support. Let’s look at results.

The first question asked for your thoughts on closing schools. The number one answer with 35% of the vote was that we should close charters first. The district should take heart in that the number 2 answer at 30% was “I wish we didn’t have to but…”. This shows that people recognize the need and if the district communicates it’s intentions clearly they should find some willing partners. Closing schools and rezoning is hard work and requires as many partners as possible.

Here’s the write in votes. There are often ideas worthy of further exploration in these “other” responses.

The second question was in regards to the IFL units included in the new Advanced Literacy policy. If you are confused, and poll results indicate many of you are, don’t feel bad. This policy has been implanted as a shining example of building the plane while you fly it. I’ve never understood why people invoke that phrase with a sense of pride, but I digress.

The top two answers, with 20% of the vote each, were “Haven’t been given enough information to form an opinion.” and “Getting awful close to scripted lessons aren’t we?” That doesn’t bode well, especially when you consider the number 3 answer, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m not using them.”

I’ve been turning that 3rd answer over in my head all weekend. What are the consequences if teachers do ignore the IFL units? What is the district going to do? They can’t afford to fire anyone because they don’t have enough teachers as it is. I tend to think that the ones who would ignore the policy would be the older more experienced teachers. When you consider that the majority of teachers in our priority schools are young teachers, how does this impact equity?

Literacy coaches are evaluated on part, I would assume, on adherence to district policy. However, they don’t have any power to enforce adherence. I would think this puts them in kind of a precarious position and let’s not forget the district had to open up applications for that position twice last year in order to get enough applicants. Seem’s like we are running the risk of a negative impact here if we are not careful.

Logic would tell me that when rolling out an initiative of this size you might want to spend some time informing and securing the support of veteran teachers before implementing. You might also want to develop clear instructions and a rubric for evaluating end of unit tasks. In other words, you might want to build the plane before it takes off. Here are the write-in answers and there are a lot.

Question 3 asked for what song best summed up the first month of school. The number one answer with 30% of the vote was Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty” whose chorus is,

Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I’m running behind

Again, you wonder if anybody is listening.

Here’s the write-ins:

That’s it for now. Please check out the Dad Gone Wild Facebook page, and if you’d like to give me feedback you can send me a line at norinrad10@yahoo.com.

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I hope all of you Nashville peeps are keeping dry today. While nowhere near the catastrophe of Houston, parts of Nashville are submerged due to remnants of Hurricane Harvey. So this morning begins with a prayer for all of you adversely affected by Mother Nature.

If you didn’t catch it, I dropped a bonus piece this week titled Staying Out Of The Weeds. In it, I take a look at the chaos that is currently having a negative impact on MNPS. It might be good reading while you are holed up today. Just saying.

I recently discovered this Keb Mo/Taj Mahal record. Along with the new record by Tyler Childress, it makes for great tunes accompany my writing.

CLOSING SCHOOLS

Jason Gonzales of the Tennessean had an interesting article on the district dropping plans to continue exploring moving 5th grade down to elementary school in yesterday’s paper. Of course, those of you who read DGW knew this weeks ago. But this article isn’t really about dropping the plan. It’s about setting the stage and softening up communities to entertain the idea of closing schools.

Per the Tennessean,

“With the move off the table, the district now must decide what to do with over 20 schools with declining or low enrollment, as well as a bevy of schools over capacity. The conversations could include closing schools or rezoning others.”

I like the way that Gonzales opens with plans to abandon the 5th grade idea, drops the above paragraph, and then starts talking again about the 5th grade plan before eventually wrapping things up talking about closing schools. I never went to journalism school, but if I’m not mistaken, that is a textbook example of “burying the lead.” And it worked, because the majority of the chatter on social media has been around the abandoned plan and not the potential of closing schools.

While it’s extremely upsetting to think about the potential of closing schools, I think most people will begrudgingly admit that it is a conversation we need to have. When some schools are serving 800-plus students and others are serving less than 300, it becomes apparent that something needs to be done. I can only hope that somebody in MNPS leadership is studying recent school openings and noting how the lack of a robust communications plan led to some avoidable obstacles and making plans not to repeat those mistakes.

A couple things in the article made me scratch my head. First off, the article notes that the concentration of low enrolled schools is mostly, although not confined to, middle school grades, according to the district’s 2016-17 enrollment and capacity projections. Okay, so wouldn’t the moving of 5th graders back to elementary school have those schools even emptier than they are now? Was the hope that so many families would return to MNPS or not leave the district that the loss of a whole grade would be offset? That seems like a bit of a stretch, and this alone should have halted exploration.

The other head scratcher comes from a quote by MNPS Chief of Staff Jana Carlisle: “Our next steps are to look at if there are any programs that can be moved or co-located. Or if there is a school that is recommended for closure or mothballing, see what other uses there are that would continue to add value to the community.” What programs is she referencing? How will moving programs impact school population numbers? What schools are being recommended for “mothballing”? Very confusing.

The last part of the quote also sets off a few warning bells. Remember when I wrote about the Denver Plan? Part of the Denver Plan is closing schools and then turning them over to charter schools. Is that what Carlisle means by “add value to the community”?

I don’t know that I necessarily take issue with the concept. I think all of our kids need to be in adequate facilities, but in light of the school board’s recent willingness to determine good and bad guys, I would be wary that these buildings don’t become a tool to reward “friends” and punish “enemies.”

I’m also curious how far these conversations will go as we are coming up on a school board election year. Nothing puts a dent in a re-election campaign like a school closure. In that light, if the conversation does go forward, I would keep an eye on what districts the schools under consideration are housed in.

GOING TO WAR WITH THE STATE

The war over what data Memphis and Nashville schools are required to share with charter schools and the Achievement School District heated up some more this week. Both TN Ed Report and Chalkbeat TN published informative articles about what’s transpiring. It should be noted that both articles raise the specter of a lawsuit by the school districts or a financial penalty from the state.

My read on the situation is that both districts see an opportunity to put a spike through the heart of the failed experiment that is the ASD. That’s a sentiment that I can support, especially in light of their recent high school test scores. According to Chalkbeat TN, only about 8 percent of high schoolers passed English — fewer than last year — while math scores stalled with less than 1 percent meeting expectation. At some point lawmakers are going to have to pull the plug on this one.

The only thing I worry about is that in the zeal to strike a blow, we leave ourselves open for a worse blow. Picking a fight with the state never comes without risk. I’m a big believer in not entering into a fray until you have your own house in order, and I would argue that based on the chaos surrounding the first month of school, we have some vulnerabilities the state could exploit if they chose to. So we should proceed with caution.

RANDOM NOTES

This has nothing to do with Nashville, other than once you are one of us you are always one of us, but I hope somebody’s noticing what an exceptional job former Maplewood HS AP Ryan Jackson is doing over in Maury County. He’s getting me excited about about STEAM and that’s saying a lot.

The first Croft Middle Project Lit book club of the year met on Thursday, and they had great discussions on the book Wonder. If you didn’t make it, they look forward to seeing you in September when they’ll discuss Towers Falling.

Former school board member Mark North has been hired by MNPS to fill the recently-vacated spot once held by Hank Clay, the position of Director of Government Relations. In related news, Community Engagement Cordinator Allison D’Aurora will be joining Hank over at Communities in Schools. We wish everyone luck.

The Houston Independent School District continues to have an immediate need for children’s clothes of all sizes (clean and in reasonably good repair), school uniforms, and school supplies. All clothes and school supplies should be sent IMMEDIATELY to–

Mark Smith
Delmar Stadium
2020 Mangum
Houston, TX 77092

I was extremely blessed that when I started in the restaurant business I had some great mentors. They gave me a great foundation, which allowed me to excel as a bartender. The first lesson I was taught, and has served me well ever since, was the value of doing extensive prep work.

Right from the beginning, I worked with people who would spend hours preparing for a shift. They’d over-cut fruit. Back ups were double checked to make sure they were more than adequate. Soda and tonic bottles were bled so things didn’t explode all over you when you opened them. They would make sure that extra glassware was readily available in case more people than anticipated walked through the door. In short, they would over-prepare so that virtually any unforeseen challenge could be faced with minimum disruption.

As a young bartender, I scoffed at their over-preparedness. I would complain that we’d already cut enough limes, only to be met with the response of “cut more limes.” I would often try to predict how many people I would serve, and then prep for the minimum based on that prediction. “Man,” I’d say, “Those guys are wasting time.” Yeah, but I never thought it was a waste of time when the extra hundred people walked through the door and I didn’t have to interrupt service to cut more fruit, go get another bottle of liquor, or clean up the bar because tonic had exploded all over me.

As part of that lesson, they taught me when to make changes and when to wait. Ten minutes before opening, I might look over and think, “We’ve been serving a lot of Bourbon lately. I’m going to move them all over here and put the wines over there.” They’d tell me, “Not now, you are not going to.”

Their point was that you don’t make changes right before you get busy. Every action has unintended consequences, and if you are having to deal with those consequences right as you are hitting peak action time, you are going to run into problems. Problems that will hinder your ability to provide effective service.

Anybody who’s ever worked in the service industry will tell you stories illustrating the thrill of successfully navigating “being in the weeds.” For those of you not familiar with the term, “being in the weeds” describes those times when everything is firing on all cylinders. When the bar is five deep and the waitress is screaming orders at you while the kitchen is demanding you pick up food. Surviving the weeds is akin to surfing a giant wave and not wiping out. At the end of the prolonged surge, there is a tiredness, but deep satisfaction that has to be felt to be understood. Equally important, all the people you served leave with their own sense of satisfaction.

I’m sure teachers get a similar sense of satisfaction. For teachers, it would be akin to trying to teach a class while little Johnny can’t stop talking, little Mary has a toothache and can’t stop crying, the principal is buzzing you about an upcoming team meeting, and the technology is acting up. On top of all that, report cards are due tomorrow, you have a meeting during your planning time to decipher a new grading plan, and you still have 50 papers to grade for the morning. This is just a sliver of what teachers navigate daily while trying to produce results.

The weeds are an internal part of the restaurant business. The goal is for the staff to be in the weeds every night. Therefore, if an establishment’s staff can’t navigate the weeds, then odds are the place is not going to be successful. Hence, the importance of them not losing focus on the importance of the prep work.

Oh, the horror stories I could tell you about working with someone who did not adhere to the rule of prep. The result of lack of prep work is always a failed shift, where customers leave unhappy and team mates are forced to work extra hard because unfortunately, as much work had to go into putting out fires as serving customers. Nobody leaves those shifts happy.

Right about now, you are probably wondering, “Why’s he regaling me with his bartending tales? What’s this have to do with education?” I believe that right now, in regards to Metro Nashville Public Schools, everything. I believe right now, teachers and administrators in MNPS are trying to pull off a shift with that bartender who didn’t do their prep work. The bartender who thought that they could just cut enough fruit to get the doors open. That they didn’t have to worry about back ups and that they could rearrange the furniture right before opening.

I am extremely blessed that many of you educators trust me enough to share what is going on in your schools. Emails and phone calls come in daily telling me about this new policy or this new initiative and the concerns that go with it. I try to sort through it all and figure out how to dive deeper into these things so I can hopefully better communicate them to the public. Lately I’ve felt a bit of anxiety because I haven’t been able to prioritize and then find time to research and fully understand these new initiatives. There are just so many of them. Last night I realized what I was feeling was a lesser version of what teachers and administrators in MNPS are currently feeling.

The start of school this year saw the introduction of a new literacy plan, a new grading and report card plan, and a new homework plan. None of these plans came fully fleshed out or with adequate training. There are parts of each of them that are still being sorted out after 4 weeks of school.

For example, part of the literacy plan includes units that teachers are being told they must teach. That is problematic by itself because these weren’t developed by MNPS teachers; rather, they were developed by an out-of-state vendor. They are being forced on teachers. And each of these units – forgive me if some of the terminology is off – has a task at the end. Is that task to be evaluated? If so, what is the rubric? What’s to be done with the evaluation once completed? There are also questions about the appropriateness of a unit because its contents are very New York City-centric. Being as this is Nashville, there is a potential for students to become distracted by the unfamiliar terms and lose focus on the task at hand. Is the timeline appropriate for kids districtwide? What happens if a school falls behind? And that’s just one aspect of the literacy plan.

The other two plans have their own questions. With the grading policy, changing the way teachers do their grading and how they’re reported on report cards is a huge change – and it was done, as I mentioned, right as school began. This has been very frustrating for teachers to adapt to because it is such a big change. And the district’s new homework plan has not been a hit with parents or teachers from what I’m hearing. Again, this was a big change that was imposed on teachers with no input from them and with little time to prepare.

It is hard to tell if these new plans are bad or good because there are so many questions. This is where prep work comes in.

Few people prep and plan like teachers do. They will look at a district calendar and make plans for the year. They will get together on their own time to plan out the first nine weeks of school. Do you realize that the day school ends in May, teachers are already formulating plans for next year? It’s one of the reasons why standardized test results are virtually useless. By the time results arrive, teachers have already created their lesson plans.

In order to capitalize on this natural tendency, you have to provide information in a timely manner. The first week of school is not timely. Two weeks before school starts is not timely. Two months before school starts is timely.

On top of new policies, teachers and administrators are challenged by a new district management structure – the creation of quadrants overseen by community superintendents – implemented on July 1, as well as buildings that due to construction issues are grossly inadequate to house kids, a shortage of teachers across the district, and a school board looking to pick a fight with the state over student data sharing. If this doesn’t constitute being in the weeds, I don’t know what does.

You talk to anybody in the district right now, and the description you’ll get is one of chaos. I’ve had teachers tell me they are trying to survive the chaos. I’ve had principals tell me they are trying to manage the chaos, but directives from district leadership change daily and sometimes hourly.

For example, Chief Academic Officer Dr. Monique Felder has a penchant for sending one directive at 11pm only to send another an hour later at midnight counteracting the first. Even in departments of relative calm, I’ve had people tell me, “We’re running pretty smoothly, but we feel the chaos outside the door and it’s distracting.” One long term MNPS employee who’s keeping the faith told me, “I just think the problem is that leadership has so much on their plate.” Like School Board member Dr. Sharon Gentry has said, there is “too much on the plate to say grace over.”

I’m not trying to paint a picture of abject failure. Don’t get me wrong, there are incredibly great things transpiring in the district. We have great people doing great work. But we shouldn’t let that great work blind us to the potential for even greater work. If you take Tom Brady and put him behind an inadequate offensive line, he goes from being a Hall of Fame quarterback to being just a very good one. You also create a situation where the individual player may still shine, but the team fails to execute at an exceptional level.

When you are in the weeds and things are starting to go off the rails, you need to adjust quickly or things tend to continue to spiral out of control at a rapid rate. Luckily, in my career, I’ve had good managers who were always willing to help navigate the weeds. The role of a good manager can’t be overstated.

The good ones were able to assess where the problems were coming from and create solutions. Sometimes those solutions involved moving people. Sometimes the solutions involved prioritizing and taking things off the plate so that I could focus on service. Sometimes the solution involved jumping in and talking to customers, explaining to them what was going on and why, along with a promise to improve.

The good managers always took the heat for us, even when they were not responsible for the issues. The good managers always sought our input when things calmed down a bit and listened to our feedback and concerns so that we weren’t constantly in an unmanageable state. The good managers realized that they were there to set us up for success and they did everything in their power to meet that goal.

I’m hoping that over this Labor Day holiday, MNPS leadership takes a deep breath and realizes that they have got to take steps to calm the chaos. Dr. Joseph likes to speak about drowning out the noise, but if you’re not careful the noise can drown out the instruction.

Part of the challenge is realizing that not every problem has to be solved at once. Working hard is admirable, but working smart is exemplary. I think as a district it’s time to shift the focus from the former onto the latter.

For example, currently the new Community Superintendents are working from 7 am to 10 pm every day during the week and similar hours on the weekend. Riddle me this, Batman, how is that sustainable? What happens in a year or two when they leave out of exhaustion? When does this schedule afford them to opportunity to look at a challenge with fresh eyes? In creating this new position, shouldn’t it be embedded with more realistic expectations? Expectations that would allow people to remain in that position for perhaps as long as a decade, therefore creating stability instead of feeding the chaos.

The community superintendents is just one example. Teacher expectations far outpace teacher compensation, and I would argue that especially in elementary school, these expectations are not sustainable. Veteran teachers will tell you that they’ve done it, but in the very next sentence will tell you how much the job has changed and the work load has grown. Evidence of this is the fact that many schools are still not fully staffed.

I looked at the roster for MNPS and found something interesting. Of those district employees hired in 2016, 1,454 remain MNPS employees. The number for 2015 drops to 1,109, and for 2014 it goes to 972. 632 people hired in 2013 remain with the district. This is not just teachers, but all district employees. Remember my offensive line analogy? Admittedly, I don’t have the number hired each year, but even if those were available, I don’t think it would tell a tale of stability.

In all fairness, I’m not trying to paint this solely as Dr. Joseph’s problem. Like all large urban school districts, MNPS has always struggled with controlling the chaos. Dr. Joseph is just latest person charged with getting it under control.

Upon arrival in Nashville, Dr. Joseph encouraged everyone to read the book Leadership and Self Deception. A large part of that book, which I read, prescribes deep self-evaluation. Now is the time for district leadership to apply the lessons in that book and use them to get control of the chaos while there is still time to get out of the weeds.

It has been a busy week. Hopefully you found yesterday’s piece informative. We’ve got a lot more ground to cover today. Hard to believe this is only the third week of school.

AN ALT-WORLD SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

Yesterday I sat down and watched this week’s MNPS School Board meeting – I know, I need a job or, at the very least, a hobby – and was just flabbergasted, for lack of a better word. The whole meeting seemed to be grounded in some kind of alternative reality. Let’s see if we can’t make some sense of what transpired.

Before we go any further, can I make a request? Can we leave the grasping at pearls at the door? I’m going to try to do this sans the casting of aspersions or the assigning of motivations to people. That’s a difficult task in these conversations, and I probably won’t get it 100% right, but I think we need to make a greater effort to remove the hyperbole from these conversations. There are no devils and there are no angels at the table, merely mortals trying to navigate through the waters.

That being said, do I believe that every entity involved has their primary focus on kids? Absolutely not. Now before you start howling and throwing accusations of hypocrisy my way – a charge that I don’t run from because my views are constantly shifting as I absorb more information, therefore leaving me open to that accusation – hear me out and note that I’m not identifying who I think are the guilty and the innocent. I personally believe that some of the involved parties have a different primary motivation other than kids, but that said, I think we do need to focus more on evaluating actions and less on interpreting intent and picking teams. And that goes for everybody.

On Tuesday, local charter school Smithson-Craighead Academy was up for its 10-year renewal. In preparation, the MNPS Office of Charter Schools had completed a report along with its recommendation for the school. It’s not a flattering report, and they recommended the charter not be renewed.

The school has struggled since its inception a decade ago. They’ve been on academic probation for the years 2013, 2014, and 2015. They’ve had 5 executive directors since inception. The principal has remained the same up until this year, and now they have a new principal and an interim executive director. They’ve got unsustainable debt and no substantial plan to retire it. There were complaints from teachers over the summer about not getting paid. They have no substantial plans for teacher or student recruitment, and enrollment numbers have been dwindling.

There is no shortage of documentation backing up these allegations and very little tangible positive news. In my eyes, this was a clear cut decision for the board to make. In talking with members of the charter community, that opinion was further fortified. Charter community members, for the most part, recognized that this was an example of holding yourself accountable to the rhetoric.

But board members did not see things that way. In defense of the school, it was brought up that the last 2 years of test data was not available, which is a fair argument had everything else been positive. One board member brought up that this school hired a large number of African American teachers and how important that was. That’s an argument I’m extremely sympathetic to, but shouldn’t the primary goal be to have effective teachers, no matter their race? Do kids really benefit from having teachers who all look like them but are not on par with those assigned to other students?

The underlying argument was that the founders of Smithson-Craighead Academy were good people and loved children. One school board member went so far as to pronounce them “one of the good guys.” Which is good, I guess, because we don’t want those responsible for children to be out twirling their mustaches and tying women to railroad tracks. The conversation was very different than the one held recently for LEAD Academy’s renewal. I’m guessing LEAD imports mustache wax by the gallon.

The end result was that action on Smithson-Craighead’s charter re-authorization was put off for a future date. Now what’s supposed to happen between now and then, I don’t know. Maybe test scores will suddenly become available showing dramatic growth, or maybe they’ll find a pot of gold, and teachers will flock to teach there. I find all that highly unlikely, and that we are just delaying the inevitable.

I think the district as a whole would be better served if the renewal was denied. Since the district needs more teachers of color, those teachers at Smithson-Craighead could be offered district positions. And I’m sure there is a priority school in MNPS that could use the skills of the new principal, who by all accounts has skills. A plan could be developed to help those families enrolled understand their options and get placed in the best one. I am not denying that it is an extremely difficult decision, but based on the facts on the ground, it’s a necessary one.

After the culmination of the discussion about Smithhead-Craighead, the board moved to a discussion on data sharing – more on that in a minute – that included one board member speaking about the Tennessee Achievement School District and their lack of academic progress over the past decade, lack of fiscal responsibility, shortage of teachers, and declining enrollments. However, in this case, the ASD was declared to be the bad guy. Huh?

What are we doing? Are we shining our transponder quartz ultra-truth ring on people, and if you get a blue aura you are good, and red means bad? Is Malika Anderson, who oversees the ASD, a “bad” person? I don’t know, she’s always been kind of nice to me. Are the people at Smithson-Craighead good people? How do I know?

What I do know is that both entities have a model that, based on a decade of work, has proven to be ineffective, and therefore, both need to be discontinued. Motivation should not come into play. The focus needs to be on results, not who we want to hang out with at a BBQ or who is going to push our political agenda forward. We say it, but I don’t think we really understand it: kids don’t have an infinite amount of time. If they lose a year because someone made a choice based on a personal feeling sans evidence to back it up, and things don’t work out, they ain’t getting that year back.

DATA WARS

The other main discussion at this week’s MNPS school board meeting was the brewing battle between the district and the state over the sharing of student data with charter schools. This discussion comes on the heels of several recently published articles in the Tennessean, ChalkbeatTN, and TNEd Report. These stories make it really easy for parents to become inflamed. Nobody want their child’s data readily available. The issue of privacy is a huge concern. But then I got to thinking.

This morning, I picked up the phone and called over to the TNDOE.

“Hello,” I said, “Can we talk about these pending data wars?”

“Sure,” the nice-sounding lady on the other end responded, “What would you like to know?”

“Can parents opt out?”

“There are actually two provisions for parents to opt out in the policy. The local district is required to annually send out notice to parents informing them of the policy and giving them an option to opt out. Charter schools, once they receive the data, also are required to give parents a chance to opt out,” the lady with the nice voice informed me.

I resisted the urge to ask her if she was a nice person and instead just thanked her and hung up.

I went back and re-read the other articles and didn’t see any mention of this parent opt out provision. Chalkbeat did publish an article late yesterday outlining exactly what data was potentially being shared and letting parents know how they could opt out. For Shelby County, the directory data includes the following (I’ll confirm that MNPS is the same):

• student name
• address and email
• phone number
• date and place of birth
• major field of study
• participation in officially recognized activities and sports
• weight and height of members of athletic teams
• date of attendance
• degrees and awards received
• most recent previous school district or institution attended

Now the question becomes, why are the districts sharpening their knives instead of informing parents of the opt out possibilities? MNPS employs a horde, and I mean that in the nicest way, of family engagement specialists. Are you telling me that they are incapable of putting together a FAQ and creating a campaign that allows parents to make an informed decision about their kids’ data?

I asked the TNDOE what happens when a parent opts out with a charter school. Does the school just not use the data anymore or do they actually delete the data? This is the response from Sara Gast, Director of Strategic Communications and Media at the TNDOE: ‘We have not issued formal guidance, but our recommendation would be that the student’s information is deleted if their parent declined to receive additional communications from the charter school or authorizer.” Seems like a fair enough response to me.

In my humble opinion, this is another example of seizing on an opportunity to label people “good guys” or “bad guys.” They are “bad guys” because they want to take advantage of your kid’s data. We are “good guys” because we are publicly battling for your privacy. Personally I could use a whole lot less super hero duels and more focus on things that directly impact kid’s lives for the better.

RANDOM NOTES

(Cambridge CEO visiting Overton HS students)

This week, Overton High School received a visitor from across the pond. It seems that Cambridge Assessments CEO Simon Lebus has been so impressed by the results at Overton that he had to come check it out himself. I understand he left even more impressed.

If you still think that virtual school idea is a good one, you need to go over to the TNEd Report and read Andy Spears’ latest. Andy also does a deep dive into teacher salaries. I know y’all are interested in that.

The MNPS Student-Parent handbook video has won a Telly award. According to the press release, “The Telly Awards, founded in 1979, is the premier award honoring outstanding content for TV and Cable, Digital and Streaming and Non-Broadcast distribution. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators and corporate video departments in the world, and are judged by a prestigious panel of 600+ accomplished industry professionals.” If you watch the video closely, you’ll see a certain dad and his offspring going wild.

If you haven’t checked out the Hillsboro student newspaper yet, what’s your excuse? Follow them on Twitter @HillsboroGlobe.

My dear friend Mary Holden has published a new blog post, Back to School Once More. Mary is a former classroom teacher who still educates people through her writing. Read it. You’ll be a better person.

Creswell Middle Prep introduced their ambassadors for 2017-2018. Very exciting. Last year’s group set the bar high.

(Creswell Middle Prep 2017 -2018 student ambassadors)

POLL QUESTIONS

Before this post becomes too long – I know, I set myself up there – let’s get to the poll questions. This week’s questions are of a serious nature. I don’t want to in any way downplay their real world implications, but I think DGW has established a reputation for being a trustworthy format for addressing those serious issues. We’ve always talked about those issues that scare others.

The first question is in regards to Smithson-Craighead Academy and whether you feel they should have their charter renewed or not. Please keep in mind that the renewal must be for a full 10-year duration and if there are any egregious situations that arise the charter could be revoked, it is a very difficult process.

The second question is in regards to whether or not you would, as a parent, opt out of your child’s directory information being shared.

Lastly, and this is the most serious of the questions, the Tennessean published an article today questioning whether MNPS has been adequately reporting cases of child abuse. They question whether teachers and administrators have been adequately trained on the proper protocol of reporting incidents of abuse. Again, not looking to grind an axe, just thinking you guys will give an honest answer and that’s what is called for.

There you have it. Have a great weekend. You can contact me at norinrad10@yahoo.com.