Gov. Bill Haslam (R-TN) spent his morning in school, quizzing representatives from three districts about education reform. 22 teachers, principals, and administrators from Sullivan County, Bristol, and Kingsport spoke candidly with the governor inside the Sullivan South High School library Friday morning about their concerns.
Under the governor's plan for education reform, teachers would be evaluated more often. But some teachers say that's a bit excessive, especially for those who are good at their jobs.
Vance Middle School Math Teacher Janice Russell fears extra evaluations will lead to more stress, especially for younger teachers.
"I don't want it to be so strenuous that they say, 'I'm going to choose another profession,'" Russell said. "I don't want to run excellent people out of the profession."
Russell is also asking the governor to hold students more accountable. She'd like to see the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Achievement Test pushed back so she and her colleagues can have more time to teach their students, especially since a poor showing on that big test could cost them their jobs.
"Six more weeks we could teach so much more skills, so much more review and not have to cram everything in," Russell said. "I think that the possibility of losing you job if student test scores are not good two years in a row, that's a stressful thing for teachers. I think putting some accountability on students themselves will help tremendously. It's not just a test to see how well the teachers are teaching, but to benefit the child."
Gov. Haslam weighed in on all of those concerns. He said pushing back the date for TCAPs is an interesting idea.
"I do think one of the things we want to evaluate, number one, the way we give them and when we give them," Haslam said. "Is there a way to push them back further like these teachers were saying, 'Hey, if I had six more weeks, I could really work with that.' That makes sense to me."
Friday's "Breakfast with Bill" session is one of many Haslam is holding throughout the state. After an hour of listening, the governor promised to take teachers' feedback to heart.
"We're asking a lot more of our educators these days and what we have to make certain of is in the process, we're not taking more time away from the classroom and spending time with kids," Haslam said. "I believe in the evaluation process and that leads to accountability. We've got to make sure that evaluative process doesn't come to dominate what they do. I want to raise standards. Raising standards means more accountability. It means more feedback. We just need to understand how to do that in a way that doesn't disrupt teaching."
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