With the prospect that as much as $485 million might come to Tennessee from the federal government’s competitive $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” education initiative, Tennessee’s Gov. Phil Bredesen and members of the Tennessee General Assembly commendably have energetically joined the “race.”
The goal is to boost educational opportunities for our youngsters, from kindergartens through high schools, and then on through our colleges and universities.
“It could be transformational for K-12 education in Tennessee,” Gov. Bredesen said. The same hope goes for higher education achievement. There is nothing that could advance Tennesseans’ economic opportunities more than extensive educational advancement.
The efforts will center on our K-12 schools, our two-year-colleges and our four-year universities. The desire is to take advantage of the proposed funding to expand faculty development for teachers, principals and professors, to give help to “failing schools,” and to advance the teaching of technology, science, math and engineering.
While “everyone” is for educational advancement, there are differences about emphases. The governor wants student testing to account for 51 percent of evaluations of teachers and 35 percent of that to be based on Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System tests designed to reflect the effects of teachers on student achievement, with other measures accounting for the rest.
“I know this represents change,” the governor said, “but this is not rocket science. … We pay teachers to teach children. A part of their evaluation ought to be how much the children they teach learn.”
Money, of course, is important, as is indicated by the state’s effort to get a substantial share of federal funds. But students’ and teachers’ efforts and abilities are difficult to evaluate accurately. Motivation, attitudes and hard-work efforts will affect the degrees of real achievement.
Tennessee’s governor, legislators, teachers and — most important — students, from kindergartens through universities, will determine how much will be actually achieved with whatever funds are provided.