The Achievement School District (ASD) in Tennessee is an attempt to replicate the ‘success’ of the Recovery School District (RSD) in Louisiana.  The main difference is that while Louisiana’s RSD was set into action because of a natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, Tennessee’s ASD was set into action because of a man made disaster, Hurricane Kevin Huffman, the commissioner of education in Tennessee, and an old acquaintance of mine from the days when we were both in TFA in Houston in the early 1990s.  (I was Houston 1991 and Huffman was Houston 1992).  In charge of the ASD is someone who was a good friend of mine back in Houston, Chris Barbic.  Chris started the YES chain of charter schools.

The goal of the ASD is to take the bottom 5% of schools in Tennessee and in five years transform them into schools that are in the top 25% of schools in Tennessee.  As Tennessee schools are supposedly all improving at record rates, this would require that the ASD school progress at much faster rates to get from the bottom to near the top.

Last year I wrote my first annual report on the status of the ASD in a post called The Underachievement School District.  At that time, they boasted that they got the highest growth score possible, a 5 out of 5, but also revealed that their reading scores dropped from 18.1% proficient in 2012 to 13.6% proficient in 2013 while the rest of the state rose from 49.9% proficient to 50.3% proficient.  I questioned the validity of the five point growth scale based on these numbers.

The state tests in Tennessee are called the TCAPs.  This year there was a fiasco where the TCAP score release was delayed so long that schools were not able to use the scores in the student’s grades.  Tennessee is all about ‘accountability’ so this was one more straw that made parents and also Republican state legislators to call for Huffman’s resignation.

Early July 2014, I wrote about how the state released a summary of the TCAP scores.  It was revealed that 3-8 math increased by less than 1% while 3-8 reading went down by less than 1%.  Nothing to celebrate there.  Instead they focused on supposed high school ‘gains.’  This was ironic to me since Tennessee was so proud of their grade 4 and grade 8 NAEP gains yet when the 12th grade NAEP showed that Tennessee didn’t do so well there, they said that they can’t be held responsible for high schoolers since those students had most of their academic careers before the reforms set it.  So they can’t take blame when high schoolers do poorly, but they will take the credit when they do well.

Tennessee is releasing TCAP results in stages.  The big picture came out around July 4th, the school results are coming, they say, around August 15th, and the district results were released today, July 30th.  With the release of the district data, they also had some press releases telling the newspapers what to say.  In the whole country I’d say that the education reporters in Tennessee are the worst.  They just take whatever the press releases say and print that without any delving into the numbers themselves.  It is a shame I have to do their job for them, but I guess someone’s got to do it.

With the release of the district data, there are the Louisiana style invented statistics like this one:

• From 2011 to 2014, the percentage of districts with the majority of their students proficient or advanced in 3-8 math increased from 18 percent to 57 percent.
  
  

Keep in mind that for the whole state of Tennessee, the percent of students passing 3-8 math rose about 10% from 41% to 51% between 2011 and 2014.  How this translated from 18% of districts having half the students pass to 57% having half the students pass is something that can very well happen when everyone is hovering near 50%.  It is a made up stat since there was so little to celebrate with the flat math and reading, including reading going down by about 1%.

So I was interested to see how the ASD fared.  Looking over their scores, 21.8% passing 3-8 math and 17% passing 3-8 reading, the first thing I looked for is what sort of progress they are making in going from the bottom 5% to the top 25% in five years.  Two years in and they are still in the bottom 5%, dead last with the second to last district not even close to them.  They will surely have to pick up the pace on their growth.

Then I saw this tweet

and thought, “that’s interesting.”  The link led me to a pathetic attempt to dress up the horrible numbers posted by the ASD this year.  I went to the link and found a page with the headline “ASD Grows Faster than State in Reading and Math, High Schools Make Double Digit Gains.”

They included this bar graph showing their ‘growth’ over the past two years in math, ELA, and science.  I noticed that while they technically did ‘gain’ 3.4% in their reading scores, they are still 1.1% down from what they were in 2012.  This reminds me a bit of a guy who is gambling and you ask him how he’s doing and he says “I’m up $1,000 in the past hour without mentioning the $1500 he lost in the hour before that.”  Also these bars since they are only being compared to each other do not make it clear how low these scores really are.

But in reform, when convenient, it’s not about score it’s about ‘growth’ compared to the rest of the state.  Well since from 2013 to 2014 the whole state went down by .4% in reading, any ‘growth’ no matter how little by a district is ‘out-gaining’, as the tweets said, their peers.  And since math across the state was flat from 2013 to 2014, rising only by .6%, almost any other possible gain by a district will be better than the state.  Still it made for this impressive looking graph comparing ASD growth to state growth.

Of course the 2.2% bar is quite large the way they did their scale.  But it is accurate that the ASD had better growth than the state between 2013 and 2014.  But the ASD has been around for two years, so wouldn’t it make more sense to compare the ‘growth’ of the ASD to the whole state for the two year period.  Well, they were wise not to, but I was wise to make it for them, and here’s what it looks like:

Suddenly, it’s not so good anymore.  The ASD grew by 1.1% more than the state in that period while the RSD actually went down by .7% more than the state went down.  At this rate of losing .35% of ground each year to the state, the ASD will never get out of the bottom 5% in reading, and for math where there is a 30% difference between the ASD and the Tennessee average, if they creep up at .5% a year it will take 60 years for them to get to the 50% mark, let alone the top 25%.  Here is another graph I made that you won’t find in the press release.  The are those proficiency numbers of the ASD side by side with the Tennessee average.

This demonstrates, as much as anything how the fact that the ASD had a better 1 year ‘growth’ than the state, the two year growth is about the same and that the ASD better start ramping it up if they plan to get their schools from way way back in dead last to beating 75% of the districts in the state of Tennessee in just three years.

But there does need to be something to celebrate so the ASD made up the most outrageous statistic of all and presented it in this graph.

According to this graph it seems that ASD high schools had 42.4% ‘growth’ in English 1, 24.2% ‘growth’ in Algebra 1, and 28.9% ‘growth’ in Biology 1.  Whoah, those are big numbers.  When I went to the page with all the databases I found that there were no numbers at all for the ASD.  Other districts had ‘growths’ generally between -10% and +10%.  But why no ASD?  Then I noticed in the fine print on this graph the very mysterious explanation:

SCORES ARE AN AVERAGE OF FRAYSER 9GA AND GRAD ACADEMY; GROWTH IS BASED ON COMPARABLE SCS HIGH SCHOOLS (I.E., CARVER HS AND FRAYSER HS 9TH GRADE CLASS)

I’ll give a hearty thumbs up to any Tennessee education reporter who gets to the bottom of what this could possibly mean.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was once good friends with Chris Barbic, and maybe he still sees me as a good guy, though an annoying one.  I hope so.  A year and a half ago he was the recipient of one of my ‘classic Rubinstein’ open letters.  I write him emails from time to time, mostly yelling at him for having become a ‘reformer.’  He hasn’t written me back in a while, actually.  But from time to time he will respond to one of my tweets.  I’ll then tweet back and a bunch of others will usually join in and then Chris, like the groundhog seeing his shadow, but this time it is him seeing his own reflection, and he goes into hiding for a few months.

This concludes this edition of the 2014 report on the Achievement School District.  For sure there will be three more of these 2015, 2016, and 2017.  After that I will determine if the ASD has met their goal of getting the bottom 5% of schools up to the top 25% in just 5 years armed with only a healthy dose of high expectations and a whole bunch of new TFA teachers.

TCAP scores in TN have been embargoed by order of Commissioner Kevin Huffman. Superintendents, principals, and administrators are forbidden to release or discuss this information with the public or the media.

Could it be:

• The results show that their reforms and Common Core aren't working?
• The results show that charter schools are performing worse than public schools?
• The results show that the Achievement School District won't be moving test scores from the bottom 5% to the top 25% of the state, as they promised to do?
• They need more time for their fancy new PR firm (that the TNDOE just hired with our public tax dollars) to put a polished, positive spin on the bad scores?
• They don't want parents upset that their children's report cards were negatively impacted from the TCAP delay and Huffman's illegal waivers?
• They don't want local school boards to see the real results of charter schools in their district to be able to vote on their futures before the new school year starts?
• They are protecting certain charter schools that have ties to politicians and their friends? (like Tony Bennett did in Indiana)
• It is an election year for Governor Haslam and he's already had so much negative publicity?
• They didn't want the negative news to be announced when all the Governors met in Nashville last week?
• They don't want the negative news to cloud the big Koch brothers reform party next week in Nashville?
• They're waiting for Huffman to get back from Las Vegas, NV where is is currently at the Teach For America Conference and the extravagant TFA Awards ceremony.  Huffman is being honored for the lucrative $6.7 million no-bid contract he signed for TN with Teach For America using our tax dollars. (By the way, Tennessee spends more money per Teach for America recruit than any other state, but we cannot even afford to give our qualified, experienced teachers a 2% raise as Governor Haslam promised was his top budget priority last fall.)
     

Tennessee deserves testing TRANSPARENCY.

   We, as parents, should be able to see the test questions our children are forced to answer.

   Teachers should be able to see the questions that their evaluations and jobs are so heavily based upon.

   The public is entitled to know the results of these tests that we paid for.

Commissioner Huffman is hiding something.  What is it?  Will anyone find out?  or will the test results be quietly released the Friday before the next holiday weekend?

One thing is for certain: This secrecy undermines public trust.
 

There’s been a lot happening on Twitter this past month in regards to Teach for America. The #resistTFA twitter bomb went off and is still resonating. Apparently the “bomb” resonated enough that it encouraged one of the upper ranking TFA administrator’s to write a lengthy piece trying to counter the “myths”. TFA communication specialist, Juice Fong, jumped into the fray as well. Unfortunately countering a “myth” with a "myth” doesn't make a truism. If we hadn't all but decimated Liberal Arts education we would already know that.

A more academic type person would take the TFA pieces and systematically point/counter point them. Yea, I’m not that guy. There are people much more talented then I for that and the truth is they’ve already done an exceptional job at it. So, you’ll just have to bear with me as I kind of free-associate through the various themes.

The first counter argument that really got me irritable was the argument that TFA applies for open positions available to every teacher. True they do. What they fail to mention is that, due to their contract with the school districts and the 5k per corp member fee, TFA teachers go to the head of the line. In Tennessee, state law requires that you hire a displaced teacher first. However, you can bypass a displaced teacher if you are hiring a TFA corp member. Only after all TFA teachers and displaced teachers are hired will the district consider a new teacher.

Teach for America typically contracts with a district for anywhere between 75 and 100 teachers. That means as a district, you have to run through the whole displaced teacher list plus the 100 or so TFA fresh new faces before you can hire a potentially exceptional new candidate. That includes candidates fresh out of college or an experienced high quality teacher that just moved into your district. That’s a lot of people to stand in line behind. A line that automatically reserves a spot at the front for TFA.

So yes, Teach for America does just apply for jobs open to all teachers, but its like going to an Easter egg hunt and getting to start 10 minutes before everybody else. Non-TFA teachers get invited to the hunt but have to stand around and watch all the good eggs get gathered up before they get a chance to search. Doesn’t really seem fair does it? That’s because its not, but Teach For America won’t tell you that part.

Another thing they won’t tell you about is that vaunted “on going” training that TFA supposedly supplies. You know where that actually comes from right? The district, through their own existing teachers, coaches and personal development programs. I know the contract is full of fancy language about observations,   personal coaches and consultations, even mentions of video taping and reviewing. The truth is their professional growth is managed the same way all first year teachers growth is managed, through experienced teachers and coaches. The difference is that most first year teachers don’t come with a 5k price tag.

Teachers that have come through a traditional licensing program have usually spent a year student teaching. That means they show up with some basic classroom management knowledge. TFA corps members get five weeks in the summer with virtually no student teaching. You tell me which of these two are going to require the most district training resources? Lets add that up, 5k plus taking away valuable time that could also be used on another first year teacher. Deal gets better all the time doesn’t it.

This leads us right to the "usually quit after their 2 year contract is up" argument. TFA likes to point out the large amount of corp member’s that remain in education and the fact that there is an incredible turn over rate in teachers regardless of what TFA does. As far as the latter goes, when I was a kid, the “everybody’s doing it” defense never held up. My parent’s always held me to a higher standard. Why should TFA be any different. If there is a problem with retention why shouldn’t we demand that they try to help solve it instead of acerbate it? Like I tell my kids, we’re in the solution business, not the problem business.

I’ll be honest with you, I know of some good TFA corp members that are good teachers, and could become great ones, who are leaving this year as their two year commitment is up. Some are moving to non-profits that work in education, or going to work for senators that sit on education committees, while some may be even going to work for the Tennessee Department of Education. TFA will be touting the fact that they will be remaining in education and thats true, but aren’t we in the midst of a drive to put a great teacher in every classroom? So shouldn’t every effort be focused on keeping these “best and brightest” in the classroom? Lets also not forget those previously discussed diverted training resources that could have been dedicated to another first year teacher that might have been retained.  Just another inconvenient truth we are not supposed to talk about.

Which brings us to that "best and brightest thing", its a good example of saying something enough times and people will take it as fact. Often touted is a recent study that supposedly demonstrates corp member add an average 2.5 months to a child’s learning. How they arrive at that number completely baffles me. An argument that somethings adds 2.5 months to a child’s learning has to begin with the assumption that all chidren develop at a similar rate. Anybody that has spent anytime around children can attest that’s pretty much not true. So how can you calculate two and half months added learning unless you are using voodoo math or “value added.”

Yep, the study uses value added figures.  Now this is good. Value added is like me giving you the formula on how I’m going to calculate your paycheck and then cutting you a check with out ever giving you the figures that went into that formula. That’s right, the individual test scores that make up the value added grade aren't available to the general public. The testing companies claim they are proprietary. You’ll just have to trust that those numbers are correct. I’m assuming you’d trust me if I applied this method to your paycheck right?

Now for my last counter argument. TFA likes to scream, “Everybody’s a critic. They just like to point out flaws. Nobody has solutions.” Well, once again, that’s not true. There have been lots of suggestions on how to make the program more effective. Julian Vasquez-Heilig has one of the best. Change the recruitment program to target education majors and provide them with a two year internship. Put in a stipulation that during the summer between years they be required to take classes at a local university. This ensures that they remain a part of the community during the summer. Problem with this? J Crew doesn’t print shirts for interns.

There’s also suggestions of lengthening the commitment period, greater professional development that would encourage them to remain in the classroom and having corp member’s work as teacher’s aides for the first year. The problem with all these is that they mess with the business model. Businessman donate to TFA not because they are effective but because as NPT puts it, they are sexy. See, we like sexy, we are not so fond of the unglamorous tedious work that is often required to make a difference. We also like to feel good. Unleashing bright shining faces on the down trodden masses, makes us feel good. We need to work a little more on feeling a sense of accomplishment instead of just feeling good.

I’d like to think that my counter arguments won’t fall on deaf ears. That confronting people with the facts will actually change opinions on Teach for America. However, at this juncture, I have no illusions about that. TFA is a juggernaut and will roll right over critics today. The key word in that sentence though is, today. I do believe that some eyes are beginning to open and there are some chinks in the armor. I’m going to keep trying to widen those chinks. I encourage others to also do their due diligence, don’t just take my word for it,  and really look at the research that’s beginning to amass. If enough people really engage, maybe at some point we will turn away from these educational tourists and start really talking about how to put an excellent teacher in every classroom and how to afford the profession of teaching the level of respect it deserves.

(published originally on March 3, 2014 at Norinrad10. Click HERE to visit that website)

Teach for America is in trouble in TN.  Parents aren't happy to learn about this arrangement with our tax dollars and our children.  See what we're talking about: