Roy Exum
When it was whispered over the weekend that Hamilton County’s public schools are much worse than we may think, it was revealed that six teachers at Tyner Academy (high school) have quit since after the schools resumed in just as many weeks. Believe this, it turns out that is just the tip of the iceberg awaiting the Hamilton County Titanic and my email address has been boiling. It is widely alleged that student behavior has become unbearable, that a marked lack of teacher support has never been worse, and that the entire system is toiling under an unprecedented blanket of bureaucratic idiocy.
Last Friday – just five days ago – 19 more teachers at Tyner Academy (high school) were absent. I don’t know if they called in sick, just didn’t show up, or what – that doesn’t matter. Instead, the children in those Friday classes where no substitute teachers could be found in time, were herded into the gymnasium and the school itself – with roughly half of its faculty missing – might as well have been closed for all practical purposes except to feed those on free lunches. “The best way to see what schools are the biggest problem is to check teacher absenteeism,” said a former county-schools administrator. “It is no secret Chattanooga’s schools are in trouble but don’t blame the teachers for the inner-city schools like Tyner and Brainerd and Howard – the Superintendent and his inept central office followers deserve all the blame.”
I’m the wrong person to find this out, because I know that last Friday morning, when some single mother who is working two jobs entrusted her 14-year-old daughter to our public school system, and we as the taxpayers failed both mother and child miserably. That’s just wrong. Hamilton County just budgeted a record amount towards public education and there has been increasing evidence over each of the last five years money isn’t the answer.
Let’s start by being honest. Last week Tyner (high school) was one of 45 public schools achieving a top score of ‘5’ on a ridiculous Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS). It is said this “measures academic growth for districts and schools using a range from Level 1 to Level 5.” The truth is that the TVAAS system includes a lot of hocus-pocus. It has been roundly criticized as flawed. Seriously, look it up and you’ll laugh.
It was invented by William L. Sanders, an agricultural statistician at UT from 1972 to 2000. He devised a system to predict some kind of outcome about cows. It appears Doc Sanders was also quite an opportunist, and when he got then-Governor Lamar Alexander all jazzed up about using his system in 1982 to evaluate teachers, it was actually eight years later when then-Governor Ned McWherter adapted it for students. By then Doc Sanders had craftily maneuvered the Tennessee Legislature to embrace his “cow test” by law, and today his heirs accept millions in royalties from state taxpayers every year. Why? Because archaic state laws foist the TVAAS upon us as a version of the gospel when it is most certainly not.
Want the better truth? TVAAS is no more than a progress report. While it is admirable that Tyner earned a “5 Banner” to hang from its rafters, the stark truth is that last year Tyner’s seniors scored an average of 14 on the ACT test. The ACT is a nationwide test that measures knowledge. Please – do not mistake progress, as wispy as it may well be, with proof of knowledge, which is far more transparent. A passing grade on the ACT is 17 and, to apply at UT, a student must have scored 18 or higher. Volkswagen, Erlanger, Blue Cross-Blue Shield … they could give a rip about a TVAAS banner and the ballyhoo of ‘progress.’ They want a hire who can read and do simple math. Oh, and for what it’s worth … no other state in America uses Doc Sanders’ cow system for anything.
This week I have gotten dozens of emails from teachers and parents alike that our public schools are worse than outsiders can believe. From Ooltewah comes, “HCDE issued the new Code of Acceptable Behavior this year and it outlines discipline infractions and possible consequences. The almost 40-page document is a complicated matrix that administration has to decipher before even a small infraction can be dealt with. On another matter, we recently had a fight that two teachers broke up and it turned out that the students had chemical spray, possibly Mace or something similar, and a “stun/taser” device. If a staff member were to use one of these to break up a fight the outcome would be termination. The students are now better armed than we!” the note read.
The 40-page “Behavior and Discipline” guide is a textbook example of the idiocy – no, liberal idiocy -- that has been allowed to infest our schools and a number of teachers and staff point to the guide as a loathsome example of growing insanity. “When you read that the school district’s absenteeism has improved, that’s because we no longer suspend the troublemakers – it is not allowed. They come to school, act out, and ruin any chance of teaching a lesson. To begin the discipline process, there are five steps the teacher must take before the administration will get involved. If I am teaching a class, I don’t have time to be a policeman … the lack of discipline shows the other students they can be as crazy as they want, and you get used to being called vulgar names … “ one teacher told me.
Another, with almost 30 years of invaluable experience in the Hamilton County system, admitted an effort to retire by Christmas. The spouse of a former Tyner teacher writes to say over a dozen of last year’s resignations were because there was no confidence in the administration on both the school and district level.
A grandmother writes in the mistaken belief I can do something about the fact her daughter’s son cries at the bus stop almost every morning because the bullying begins immediately. “I can’t go to the school … they’ll take it out on (my son) and I have no other option. We can’t afford a private school. Everybody in the family works, so there is no way to home school … we are stuck.”
Here's one from one of State Senator Todd Gardenhire’s neighbors: “I am a Hamilton County grandparent whose grandchildren have been FORCED to go to private schools because of the current situation in our schools. My daughters have been frightened to put their children in such environments. I am, usually, very reticent to voice my opinions online because of the inevitable "hate" responses and ill will that they generate. However, after reading your column this morning, I am SO PISSED! I would like to actively participate in any lawsuit (over vouchers) such as you mentioned, do you know who would I contact?”
And that’s the most painful cry – seemingly hundreds of parents have no choice except what today’s children face at some HCDE schools. Worse, neither do the teachers: “At my school, we have been told that we should not have ISS (in-school suspension) even though we have a full time ISS monitor. Out of school suspension is not used either this year. We have a few students who have been blatantly disrespectful (not anything like Tyner though) and they have had NO punishment at all. It seems that this is the new HCDE plan. It us disheartening and WRONG. The kids will figure it out and it is gonna be a long year!” read one email.
So, where do we go from here?
The recent school board evaluations of Supt. Bryan Johnson by the school board appear to affirm the belief by many parents that our elected school board officials are, this in their perception mind you, just an extension of the central office. There is a new conservative non-profit, ‘Hamilton Flourishing,’ and some disgruntled parents hope it will add candidates with backbone to the School Board elections.
At least two School Board members have said they are aware of growing concern over the lack of discipline and say it is a priority for the board. The majority of the HCDE teachers could care less what the school board says, instead wondering what the central-office leaders are going to do about it today – right now. At Tyner they are starving for an answer and the problem is spreading – “the kids will figure it out … it’s gonna’ be a long year.”
royexum@aol.com