Race to the Top

This week, the Tennessee Legislature goes into a special session to consider education proposals that would make our state eligible for a share of approximately $4 billion in federal “Race to the Top” funding. One of the key provisions is to make student testing data a “significant” factor in tenure decisions and subsequent evaluations. The TEA is opposed to making it count for more than 35% of the weighting, while the Governor has asked for at least 50%.

Tennessee has one of the best data systems in the country, but we generally don’t make the best use of it. One of the reasons is the provisions built into law about who can access the data and for what purposes, but I’m sure that another of the reasons is that not enough people know how to access and use the data effectively.

I also have some questions about the Governor’s proposals:

  • What would happen for teachers who teach subjects (or grade levels) that aren’t part of the standardized testing?
  • Would the decision be based on raw scores, value-added, or some combination of both?
  • Might we encounter increased teacher shortage areas, as some choose to teach subjects that aren’t tested to avoid this additional scrutiny?

Those aren’t all of my questions, to be sure. Just the ones that come to mind right off the bat. Regarding the use of test data in tenure decisions, we might ought to reconsider some of our other tenure provisions. Presently, a teacher is evaluated for tenure at the end of the third year; if tenure is not awarded, then he/she cannot be offered a contract for the following year. But, what if a new teacher shows great promise, but might need another year of coaching to get his or her scores up? Could we change that part of the law, so that a teacher who doesn’t get tenure in the third year could be retained for another year or two?

It would make more sense to me to use test data in performance evaluations, except that with teacher salaries dictated solely by education and experience, what difference do the evaluations really make? Certainly, it provides teachers with a clearer picture of their strengths and weaknesses, but it doesn’t make any difference in compensation, as it would in most other professions.

My feelings on this are decidedly mixed.

Submarine Races

So, all of us with teenagers have probably hoped, at least secretly, that our kids are not engaging in the time-honored tradition of spectatorship at the submarine races… I know I have.

Never did I expect that one of mine would actually attempt to enter the race, in a vehicle intended only for dry land.


Yes, that silver Explorer darn near made it into one of the tributaries of Melton Hill Lake last Friday afternoon.

Beta, on her way to work at Big Ed’s from her apartment in Knoxville, was cruising southbound on Melton Lake Drive when she fell asleep at the wheel.

At 4 in the afternoon.  Rush hour.  She crossed a lane of oncoming traffic, just missed a row of vertical railroad ties, traveled nearly 100 feet  on the wrong side of the railroad ties along the top edge of a gully, then veered off toward the water.

She called and told me she’d fallen asleep while driving, and asked me to pick her up.  She didn’t say anything about the truck being in the lake, or anything like that… I guess I assumed that she’d been pulled over for weaving, and the officer wouldn’t let her drive.

She’s okay.  Her dog (riding in the back seat) is okay too.  The Explorer — yes, that one — is less than okay, but upon close inspection in the daylight, probably isn’t totaled.

On Friday evening after a wrecker towed it home, we thought the  frame was bent, but on closer inspection in the daylight,  it’s not.  There’s a cross-rail that is mangled, the front axle may have to be replaced, and some mounting pieces that nearly sheared off, but those are all things that can be found in a junkyard.  There’s a window busted out, the driver’s side rearview mirror sheared off, but those are replaceable.  HWTFM and I went back to the scene of the crime on Saturday, and picked up several pieces.

The kid is lucky to be alive.  It’s a wonder the truck didn’t roll.  She’s lucky she didn’t get thrown through the windshield (with no seatbelt on).  It’s only now that I can actually think about it, write about it, without shaking.

Maybe a few weeks without wheels will be a good thing.

THURSDAY UPDATE: Yes, it really is totaled. Our mechanic said it can’t be fixed.

Test phobia

Everyone knows a little about test phobia: the dream of showing up for class and realizing that the biggest test of the year is that day (and you didn’t study), the clutching fear of a test that you’ve studied for but fear nonetheless, the simple fear of failure.

What if you took a test, then found out after the fact that the grading scale had been dramatically changed?  That instead of needing an 69 to pass, you’d have to get an 80 — but you already turned it in?

That’s what Tennessee school systems are facing right now.  Sometime in the next few weeks, Tennessee will issue our State Report Card.  This shows, for the state as a whole, for every district, and for every school, how well our students did on the TCAP tests last April.  It also shows the TVAAS (value added) score — how much students improve from year to year, not just how well they did this year.

Last April, the test that the kids took (grades 3-8) was pretty much the same test as they’ve taken for the last decade.  What’s different is that the grading scale has changed: kids have to score higher to attain the desirable “proficient” or “advanced” designations.  With the grading scale raised, it’s almost certain that fewer kids will attain such scores, making it appear that a higher percentage of our students are something less than proficient.  If that happens, the value-added grade could actually be negative.

It will appear, on the surface, that our students’ performance has declined.  For those of us who are aware of the change in the grading scale, we’ll know to look more closely to see what happened with the raw scores, not just the grade, but my fear is that most people won’t know the difference.

Next year will be worse, as the grading scale will remain higher, but the test will be made markedly harder as well.

Neither of those things is inherently bad.  More is required of today’s students to be competitive in the world, and we’re teaching them more in preparation for that fact.   The downside is that the school system is judged annually on these scores (they have No Child Left Behind implications as well), and if the public doesn’t realize that the rules of the game changed mid-stream, then the system is subject to intense criticism.  That’s a morale-buster for the teachers, and makes it tougher to obtain the public funding for education that is required.

Every school system in Tennessee is subject to the change in the rules, so it shouldn’t have a huge impact in comparing one school (or one school system) to another.  Where the change in rules impacts the most is in making comparisons of how the same school did in 2007 to 2008 — a measure of improvement.  For the next few years, that measure will be badly flawed.

We will rise to the challenge and meet or exceed the new standards.  It just won’t happen immediately, and we all need to be prepared for that.

WordPress Upgrade

Having been warned,  I upgraded WordPress today (the engine that drives this site).  Because I hadn’t upgraded my “automatic upgrade” plugin either, I had to do it manually.   Meaning it took a little while, and looked funny in the process.   So, if you stopped by this afternoon and it didn’t look right, that’s why.

All done now.

PS: Delta is listening to Kansas as she does her homework in the next room… not too different from how I did my homework in high school, except that she’s better at it.

Scribus: software review

For several years, I was a proficient user of Pagemaker, having responsibility for a number of different desktop-publishing projects for clients.

I no longer do much of that for work, but still have a volunteer commitment or two that requires it.  Unfortunately, when I lost my hard drive last year, I never was able to find my PageMaker CD.  It’s an older version (6.5), but it did what I needed done.  So last year, my volunteer publications were constructed on my OLD laptop (now relegated to the youngest child).  Unfortunately, over this past Summer, it required a total reformat, so my only surviving copy of PageMaker was lost.

This week, it’s again time to put together an orchestra program… and I had no software.  I can’t justify $499 for something that I’m going to use four times per year (and donating my services at that), so I set out to see if there’s a comparable open-source package.

Scribus is it.  Although different from PageMaker, it has all the same functionality, and even seems a bit less finicky about working with imported images.  For example, PageMaker wouldn’t directly import from Photoshop (even though both are Adobe products); Scribus does.

Although it took me a little trial-and-error to figure out how to do the things that I’d learned over the years with Pagemaker, for the most part, it was a seamless transition.  If I’d had the time to actually order the manual before embarking on my first publication, it might have gone even more smoothly!

One of the attractive features of open-source software is the availability of a broad support community, rather than just a manufacturer’s site with paid support options.  There are wikis and message boards with more experienced users, so answers are just a few clicks away in most cases.

If you need to do professional-looking desktop publishing, I highly recommend Scribus.  And no one even paid me to say it (though the software was free, as it is for everyone).

Not so bad…

Fever, chills, congestion… and a general feeling that some evil elf came along and beat me all over with a big stick: sounds like the dreaded “flu-like illness” that’s been making the rounds in the last few weeks.

Since I’m not in any risk categories and likely have at least partial immunity from decades past, I have just ridden it out the old fashioned way.  Aspirin, lots of water and orange juice, a little hot tea and soup, is about the best one can do.

Today is Day 4, and the fever is gone.  At this point, I’m just left with that “hurt all over” feeling… like I’ve skied really hard for several days, or completed a 50-mile bike ride.  But I haven’t done any of those fun things.  All I’ve done is lie in the bed.  I don’t know where that big, ugly bruise on my left foot came from, but I hope it’s from kicking that evil elf to the next county.

In retrospect, it wasn’t nearly as bad (for me) as the media hype, and I’m glad to have gotten it over with.  Years ago, just out of college, I worked for the Knox Co. Health Department, where I was sick for most of three years.  Although I hated it at the time, I’ve become thankful over the years since that I did build up a pretty healthy immunity to the stuff that my kids inevitably brought home from school.

I’ve been through at least five different bouts of kids home with the flu, without catching it.   A little over a week ago though, HWTFM came home from Pantex and fell ill within a couple of days.

Luckily, neither of the younger kids, still at home, have caught it.  Yet.

The fear of the flu — at least for those of us without complicating conditions — is much worse than the real thing, in my opinion.  It’s not fun, but it’s not as bad as the hype.

Life in the way of life…

Fall Break is a wonderful invention, one of the things that the school community has embraced as much as anything I’ve seen in six years.

In East Tennessee, late October is unquestionably one of the most beautiful times of the year.  I genuinely enjoy all seasons — skiing in the Winter, dogwoods in the Spring, swimming and boating in the Summer… but Fall, glorious Fall, brings an explosion of color and weather that’s just perfect.

I enjoy camping for Fall Break.  The crisp mornings and evenings are perfect for a campfire; the blue-sky afternoons are perfect for hiking or biking in the mountains and foothills.

This year, the Oak Ridge Youth Symphony scheduled their first concert on Halloween.  It’s a neat theme, with spooky music and musicians in costume, but it’s on the final Saturday of Fall Break.  Okay.  So, we cut the trip short by a couple of days.

Then, I find out that the Pro-2-Serve Math Contest at UT is scheduled for the Tuesday in the middle of Fall Break.  Gamma is competing and I’ve agreed to chaperone, so we’re stuck with going somewhere not too far away.  Gatlinburg maybe.  Big South Fork is probably too far (though an incredibly beautiful place, where we went last year).  If we’re somewhere not too far from Knoxville, we could just meet the group at UT, then return to camping.

Now, I find out that HWTFM has a Charter Commission meeting on Monday.  So, our only real free time is Saturday-Sunday, or Wednesday-Friday.

I already know that once a child leaves for college, family vacations are fewer and far between.  Breaks don’t line up, and other obligations get in the way.  This year is my last with Gamma at home, and I really want to enjoy the few breaks from school that we get.

Not.  Enough.  Time.

Hometown Stew

A week or so ago, the news broke that a former losing candidate for State Rep has filed a recall petition against our Mayor, Tom Beehan.

Mr. Moseley is upset about several things, but those he mentioned were the 5-2 Council vote in July to opt out of the State’s new law permitting handgun carry permit holders to carry in parks — state parks, city parks, etc.  But, the law allows local governments to opt out.  Ours did.   The other hot-button issue was the City’s relatively recent (though before the most recent election) decision to use cameras for traffic enforcement  There are four areas now where you must obey the speed limit, and two where you have to also stop for red lights, or you’ll receive a camera-generated ticket.

Sheesh, the nerve of City Council expecting us to actually obey the law.

Jake had a good writeup over at Jakandybennu, so absorb that to get the full flavor.

Today, I learned that Moseley’s house is on the market.  Reportedly, he’s purchased property and is planning to build a new house off in the far reaches of the county, up by the Union County line.

So, if the guy’s bailing on the City anyway, why bother initiating a recall on our Mayor?  Particularly since he led the ballot in the election we just had in June?

Hate to say it (again), but it sure looks like a ploy just to get his name in the newspaper… and maybe a list of names and addresses to mine for fundraising purposes next year.

Though perhaps uncharitable, my first thought was, “don’t let the door hit you…”

NCLB & Student Transfers

This morning’s Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that hundreds of families are exercising their option to transfer out of “high priority” schools, or those not meeting standards established by No Child Left Behind.

It’s not difficult to see that most of the transfers are out of East Knoxville schools, and into West Knoxville schools — Farragut High is particularly hard-hit, with 155 new transfer students.  Since Hardin Valley Academy opened, Farragut no longer suffers the extreme overcrowding that was a problem in years past, but they do have a shortage of staff to accommodate that many new students.  What will they do with the surplus of teachers in other schools?  Transfer them to Farragut, where more teachers are now needed?

If that’s the case, will anything really change?

I have a lot of unanswered questions about this whole process.  One of those is, if the students transferring out of failing schools are the ones whose parents are most interested in education, does that leave behind the students whose parents are least interested, thereby making the danger of the failing schools falling further behind, much greater?

Another question is, will the transfer numbers sufficiently change the demographics of the school such that it raises the sub-group numbers at the receiving school to the level where they “count,” will the receiving school fail next year?  For those not well-versed in the mechanics of NCLB, a sub-group (economically disadvantaged, african-american, hispanic, native american, asian/pacific islander, English as a second language (ELL), or special education students) only counts for NCLB purposes if there are 45 or more students in that sub-group.  So, if Acme High School only had 35 English language learners last year, but due to transfers, has 50 this year, then those students’ performance will count this year where it didn’t last year.

Those aren’t all of my questions, but it’s enough of a start to make one’s head hurt.

Lastly, Knox County is offering transportation to the transfer students.  Given the distance from, say Carter High School in Northeast Knox County to Farragut in deep West Knox County, it’s probably at least a 30-minute ride by car (without morning traffic).  That means it’s probably a 1.5 hour bus ride… and a whole lot of extra transportation cost for the school system.

NCLB brings some very positive changes to education, most notably, close tracking of data for all students, and making that data very public.  Unfortunately, it also brings more sticks than carrots, and I’m not at all certain that the “sticks” being used are truly going to effect meaningful improvement.   Change, yes — but not all change is good.

You are what you eat

Ever wonder where maraschino cherries come from?  The sickly sweet, almond-flavored ornaments don’t grow on the tree that way.

They don’t taste that way in nature, either.  Actually, they’re much better right off the tree, minus the artificial red or green coloring and various assorted chemicals.  They’re very sweet, just like the larger black cherries, but with a flavor all their own — almost with a hint of banana or something.

These luscious treats are dumped in a pit (the one I’ve seen is about the size of a motel swimming pool) filled with a brine of alcohol or sulfur dioxide.  The color is bleached completely out, then they’re dyed and artificially flavored.

I haven’t eaten a single one since I saw how they’re made.  I do, however, enjoy the real thing.  This afternoon, I skipped lunch to save room for fruit as I picked in the orchards.

My two weeks on the farm is at an end, but as always, I wish I could live this way more of the time.   The fresh air, exercise, and fresh foods are inherently healthier, but too often so hard to obtain in the hustle and bustle of ordinary life.

As summer comes to a close, I’m going to try to incorporate more of these things into our lives.