Click HERE to read the secret report from the Governor's puppets
 
You'll clearly see:  The State Board of Education will get the incredible power to decide the Standards for our children.  Yes, the same State Board of Education that voted, through a telephone conference call with dogs barking in the background, to revoke the licenses of teachers over test scores.  The same State Board of Education that is APPOINTED and serves at the whim of the current administration.  Tennessee citizens did not elect this board.  This board does not answer to us.  In fact, they won't return our messages.  Two of them even unsubscribed from our emails.  They don't want to hear from parents.  They know who they serve and obey:  Governor Haslam.

As it seems right now, we are ALL being played right into the Governor's hands... parents, local school boards, Superintendents, legislators, and worst of all... our children.  
 
Legislators: when you go home tonight, exhausted after this Legislative session... will you be able to sleep soundly at night knowing you have sold out our children to corporate interests? 

TODAY is the last day of the Legislative Session but there are many BIG questions still unanswered...

The word on the street is that there is a SECRET Conference Committee report prepared by Commissioner Huffman (okay, actually, by his lawyer) that not only allows Common Core and PARCC, but locks Tennessee into it because of the deceptive wording and testing criteria.  

Not only that, this agreement would give Commissioner Huffman (who is ON the Executive Committee of PARCC) and the TNDOE the power to expand Common Core to include the Next Generation Common Core Science Standards, Social Studies Standards, and those Common Core Sexual Education standards that parents have been freaking out about. 

Also very disturbing, things that were promised to be included, like protection for student data, have been so watered down, they are worthless.  FERPA is not the safe law everyone thinks it is.  FERPA doesn't protect our children against data sharing without parental consent, it just makes it legal for companies and organizations to do so, and there's nothing that parents can do to stop it.  This is sickening and scary for parents.

Politicians that vote for this will be just playing right in to their hands, and they know it.  This is a deliberate, underhanded move by the administration.

Remember just a few weeks ago?
82 Representatives bravely voted to delay Common Core
88 Representatives wisely voted to delay PARCC

Heads up:  They are also trying to SNEAK the VOUCHER bill through on another bill (again).

It is a shame that the leaders of the House & Senate are doing the bidding of Governor Haslam and corporate-interests instead of representing the people that elected them to serve.

Once we get this SECRET CONFERENCE REPORT, we'll send it out for everyone to read.

A plain ol' TN Mom connected the dots... and discovered something HUGE!!! She wrote us this:
 
I was reading this blog by Mercedes Schneider, and she wrote that Florida's NAEP gains were partly due to the fact that Florida stopped socially promoting 3rd graders, but it backfired on them because it was mostly their minorities that were being held back. Anyway, the blog said that "Jeb Bush tried to erase social promotion in the third grade by holding back number of third graders. Having these students repeat third grade offered the illusion of testing gains for fourth graders taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In short, if more lower-performing students are kept out of fourth grade, then the resulting fourth-grade NAEP score improvement is misleading."

So that got me curious about TN. Do we socially promote 3rd graders? I searched online and lookie what I found!!!  

• http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/jun/13/new-state-law-ends-social-promotion-third-graders/
• http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/may/18/tennessee-senate-passes-bill-forcing-schools-end-s/
• http://www.wsmv.com/story/16203480/lawmakers-want-to-eliminate-social-promotion-in-schools
• New LAW: http://www.tn.gov/sos/acts/107/pub/pc0351.pdf
• LAW Ammended to include 8th graders: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/billinfo/BillSummaryArchive.aspx?BillNumber=HB3269&ga=107

Tennessee passed a law in 2011 that required Tennessee's 3rd graders to be held back if they aren't proficient.  So, beginning in the 2011-12 school year in Tennessee, no more social promotions to 4th grade! 

Why is this such a BIG DEAL?

The NAEP test is ONLY given to 4th and 8th graders!

And the NAEP test is only given every 2 years! (2011 & 2013)

BINGO!

So, those huge jumps for 4th grade Reading (5 points) and 4th grade Math (7 points) are, in large part, because there were no socially promoted students to take the test!  They were all still in 3rd grade!!!

So, as Governor Haslam and Commissioner Huffman have traveled across the state bragging about being the "fastest improving state in the nation" they don't tell you the whole truth. 

POP!  (That was the sound of their bubble bursting)
 
TN was "fastest improving" because we left our failing students behind a grade before the last NAEP test.
 

Dear Representative Harry Brooks from Knoxville & Representative Mark White from Memphis,

We are asking that you please, pretty please, include these:

• Educator Respect and Accountability Act of 2014 (HB 2263 / SB 2047) 
• Repeal Common Core bill (HB 2332 / SB 2405)

on the House Education sub-committee and committee schedules very soon.  Teachers and parents are eager to see these become Law this year.  

As Chairmen of these committees, you have the responsibility of scheduling when Bills are heard and voted upon.  Surely you wouldn't do anything underhanded like delaying those bills until the end of the Legislative Session so the Governor can veto them after all the Legislators have all gone home and cannot over-ride it, now would you, Representative Harry Brooks from Knoxville and Representative Mark White from Memphis???  That would not only be selfish, but it would be an abuse of power by committee chairs.  

We know Governor Haslam isn't happy with these bills, but his job isn't tied to volatile test scores of children using a secret mathematical equation that nobody can explain (His job, like yours, is tied to the ballots cast by us voters, which everyone clearly understands).  And his own children aren't forced to do unproven, untested, developmentally inappropriate standards (Because private schools are wisely not adopting Common Core).  

Representative Brooks from Knoxville, even though you may not agree with the bill to support and respect our children's teachers, 77 of 99  Representatives agree with it strongly enough that they have signed on to the Bill as co-sponsors.  So, it shouldn't take long at all to pass it through your House Education Committee and on to the House Floor so our Representatives can vote on it.  Surely you can squeeze it on your House Education Committee Agenda in the next few weeks, can't you?

Representative White from Memphis, even though your own children aren't affected by Common Core, ours are.  Tennessee parents want this bill heard in a timely manner because a year in our children's lives is too long to wait while we elect new leaders to get rid of Common Core.  Surely you can include this bill in your sub-committee agenda on the March 4th agenda as was originally planned?

We know you're stuck in a difficult situation by the Governor.  In times like these, it is especially important to remember who it is that you have been elected to serve.
 
Sincerely,
Tennessee Parents 

SENATE BILL 2405 
By Beavers 
HOUSE BILL 2332 
By Womick 
 
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, 
Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 10; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6, relative to common core state standards. 
 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE: 
 SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-1-302, is amended by adding the following language as a new, appropriately designated subsection: 
 On July 1, 2014, the state board and the department of education shall discontinue the use of the common core state standards in English language arts and mathematics. Beginning on July 1, 2014, the standards for English language arts and mathematics adopted by the state board that were in use prior to the adoption of the common core state standards shall become the standards for use by LEAs and schools 
until the state board develops and adopts new Tennessee specific standards for English language arts and mathematics. 
 SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.