NASHVILLE — Gov. Bill Haslam's new state education commissioner, Candice McQueen, is a Tennessee native and professional educator who transformed Lipscomb University's once-sleepy education college into a nationally recognized institution.
McQueen will succeed Kevin Huffman, whose work overhauling policy changes, such as pushing student testing and tying test results to tenure and salary, put many teachers and school superintendents on the warpath.
"There's nothing that's as important to me as governor as what we're doing in education, and I'm thrilled to have Dr. McQueen join our team," Haslam said in a news conference announcing her appointment.
McQueen, 40, will take over Jan. 20. Huffman announced in November that he was leaving the department for the private sector.
Like Huffman, McQueen, dean of Lipscomb's College of Education and the university's senior vice president, has been a supporter of Common Core education standards. In response to legislative pressure, those standards are now under review.
McQueen said she wants to travel the state to hear the concerns of local superintendents, teachers and parents.
"My first priority is to listen," she said. "Second, we really do need to have conversations about how we're going to ensure that our standards review process is the top of the line and we get feedback from Tennesseans that actually helps us make the revisions that need to be made."
She said Tennessee's public education system is headed in the right direction.
"We need to remember that. We're the fastest-improving state in the nation in terms of student learning. We can claim that. We're making a real difference in the lives of children and in the future of our state."
The Tennessee Education Association fought pitched battles with Huffman and criticized his relative inexperience in the classroom.
On Wednesday. TEA President Barbara Gray said in a statement that teachers hope McQueen will listen to "veteran educators" who "should have a significant voice in decision-making at the state level."
Huffman also irritated the Professional Educators of Tennessee and some legislators. PET Executive Director J.C. Bowman said that as a teacher herself, McQueen is "well versed in the hard work teachers face every day."
He added, "She is familiar with Tennessee, one of our major concerns."
Under McQueen's six years of leadership as Lipcomb's dean, the university's College of Education achieved national recognition for its preparation of teachers. She also oversees the faith-based university's pre-K through 12-grade schools and is a university senior vice president.
Unlike Huffman, a former top Teach for America executive who was criticized for not being a professional educator, McQueen has taught at both elementary and middle school levels.
But she has also has been an ardent supporter of Common Core standards. Earlier this year Haslam faced an uprising in the Legislature from critics, forcing him to postpone tests aligned to Common Core standards for a year.
The governor is now reviewing those standards, which were adopted by most states. He has said that whatever changes are made must maintain high standards. McQueen said she agrees.
"I'm going to ensure that it is done very well and we are doing all the requirements and changes that need to happen. Certainly I'm in favor, as I know the governor is, of high standards ... and so we're going to make sure we're keeping high standards."
Lipscomb University President L. Randolph Lowry III said that with McQueen's help, the university's College of Education went to No. 2 in the nation in terms of preparing secondary school teachers.
"She's got some track record there that, if she can translate into the state system, can be phenomenal," Lowry said.
Haslam said he is interested in having a commissioner who can help play a role in the training of future educators.
Lowry said McQueen's leadership style is "very sophisticated, refined and wanting to be collaborative. But she also is a visionary. And she has a tenacity to get where she wants to go."
In nine years she helped more than triple enrollment in Lipscomb's little-known College of Education, McQueen said.
"You don't get that by not being fairly tenacious when you need to be," McQueen said. "So I think you'll find a wonderful spirit but with that spirit a sense of intensity."
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.