NASHVILLE -- Most Tennessee school superintendents want state lawmakers to back off from making changes this year to the state's K-12 academic standards and instead give Gov. Bill Haslam time to complete his current review.
On Tuesday, the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents released a letter signed by 114 of 141 school district leaders calling for a timeout.
Today, a House subcommittee is scheduled to hear a bill that would establish a new process for reviewing state education standards, which have been replaced with Common Core. Haslam's review process, due to be complete in 2016, shares some similarities but wouldn't see full implementation until the 2017-2018 school year.
"Please do not derail our momentum," TOSS Board Chairman Randy Frazier urged lawmakers Tuesday in a state Capitol news conference attended by several superintendents from across the state.
The letter to lawmakers, which never mentions Common Core, says schools have been faced every year starting in 2008 with implementing changes ordered by governors and lawmakers or the State Board of Education.
"We have made significant progress in the quality of education," the letter says. It asks that "teachers, administrators and students be afforded the opportunity of stability that is just on the horizon. Specifically, we are asking that no legislative action be taken."
Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith was among those signing the letter, but did not return telephone calls seeking comment for this story.
Common Core standards for English and math outline specific skills children need to have by each grade level. The National Governors Associated initiated the effort to put states on the same page in improving education and facilitate state-to-state comparisons.
President Barack Obama embraced the concept. And Tennessee and most other states adopted the standards in 2010. Tennessee was among two dozen states joining together on standardized testing.
But conservatives, as well as some liberals, have sharply criticized the standards and tests. Conservatives charge it's yet another example of Obama and the federal government poking a nose into states' business. At the same time, Common Core has gotten entangled in Tennessee and elsewhere with other concerns ranging from sex education to promoting liberal ideas, all of which proponents say have nothing to do with the standards for math and English.
In Tennessee, Haslam and his then-Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman's push to link data on student outcomes with teacher tenure and pay brought its own controversies. And last year, lawmakers put Haslam back on his heels by imposing a one-year delay of the implementation of Common Core tests for students, known as the PARCC assessment.
The state is now working on new tests.
This October, Haslam initiated a plan for "full vetting" of Common Core standards with a state website inviting public comments. So far, the website has attracted 80,000 comments.
Lawmakers are now pushing their own bills. One, sponsored by House Instructions and Programs Committee Chairman John Forgety, R-Athens, a former McMinn County superintendent, would put the review under the state Board of Education. Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, is Senate sponsor.
Forgety's bill, which has 29 co-sponsors including House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, comes up in a subcommittee today.
"As I understand the governor's approach, it seems very similar to what I had in mind," Forgety said. But Forgety's House Bill 3, which he has "been working on ... since last June" is "not a rebranding of the Common Core process.
"What it does is identify the ultimate stakeholders to me and task them with the mission of identifying standards that are equal to or more extensive in rigor and relevance than what we currently have," Forgety said.
The ultimate stakeholders are children and parents as well as the education community, he said. His bill provides slots for teachers, higher education experts and parents on the panels with adoption by the State Board of Education.
Haslam's process involves two panels with expert teachers and higher education specialists and another involving teachers looking at needs in specific grade levels. Both use public feedback to rewrite, alter or keep standards as they are.
The aim is to come up with recommendations this July, subject them to more public vetting in the fall and finally present them to the state board in the summer and fall of 2016 before their full implementation.
Staff writer Tim Omarzu contributed to this report.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.