New Open Records Law takes effect in Tennessee

“Providing information to the public is an essential function of a representative government and an integral part of the routine duties and responsibilities of public officers and employees;”
– The Tennessee Legislature

One of the accomplishments of the 2008 session of the Tennessee Legislative was an updating of the Tennessee Open Records Act. The amendments to the act took effect yesterday, July 1, 2008.

SB3280 has been assigned Public Chapter Number 1179 by the Secretary of State. You can get the complete text and the signature page showing where Naifeh, Ramsey, & Bredesen signed by clicking on that link.

There are three significant changes in the law – all of them good:

• There is a new, more comprehensive definition of what constitutes a “public record.”

“public record or records” or “state record or records” means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, electronic data processing files and output, films, sound recordings, or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any governmental agency.”

This is an important clarification. All those office files (word, excel, & powerpoint) are public records. Not just a print-out of the contents, but the files themselves. Public. Records.

• There is a seven-day deadline for public agencies to either produce the records, deny the request in writing, or provide a detailed written response “stating the time reasonably necessary to produce such record or information.”

• A government agency “may require a requestor to pay the custodian’s actual costs incurred in producing the requested material; provided that no charge shall accrue for the first five (5) hours incurred by the records custodian in producing the requested material.” Got that? No more twenty-five cents per page for making copies. The charge has to be the ACTUAL COST that the agency pays for copies. I’m betting that’s closer to one cent per page than it is to twenty-five. And also note that an agency may NOT charge for the first five hours time required to produce the requested material.

The law incorporates and reasserts the principles presented by the study committee created by Chapter 887 of the Public Acts of 2006:

(i) The state policies and guidelines shall reflect the policy that providing information to the public is an essential function of a representative government and an integral part of the routine duties and responsibilities of public officers and employees;

(ii) That excessive fees and other rules shall not be used to hinder access to non-exempt, public information;

(iii) That, in accordance with § 10-7-503(a)(7)(A), no charge shall be assessed to view a public record unless otherwise required by law;

(iv) That the requestor be given the option of receiving information in any format in which it is maintained by the agency, including electronic format consistent with Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 1; and

(v) That when large-volume requests are involved, information shall be provided in the most efficient and cost-effective manner, including but not limited to permitting the requestor to provide copying equipment or an electronic scanner.

Go forth and make use of your newly enhanced rights to request and inspect the public records of your government.

• Rob Shearer
  (aka RedHatRob)

Federal Judge rules ‘Meet Me at the Pole’ constitutional – ACLU, Media claim victory anyway

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Echols issued his ruling yesterday on the ACLU vs. Wilson County Schools (aka Lakeview Elementary). The Tennessean headlined their story this way:

Prayer group can’t get special access at school

Judge says Wilson public school supported religious activity

The ACLU, predictably , claimed victory. The Tennessean linked to Judge Echol’s 59 page MEMORANDUM, but NOT to the Judge’s four page ORDER. It’s easy to see why when you read them. In the MEMORANDUM, the Judge identifies a number of impermissable incidents, where the Lakeview School System may have crossed the line, largely by inaction and giving too much leeway to the group, “Praying Parents.”

But if you read the Judge’s ORDER, what is remarkable is the affirmation of the wide range of activities conducted by the “Praying Parents” that the Judge ruled were acceptable and protected under the 1st Amendment “Free Exercise of religion” clause.

Here are the significant points:

(3) The individual Defendants and their successors and all parties’ officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys acting in concert or participation with them are hereby permanently enjoined, restrained, and directed as follows:

3(b) The Praying Parents group may meet on Lakeview School property in the same manner as other groups are allowed to meet on Lakeview School property . . .

3(c) The Praying Parents group may have direct access to the Lakeview School teachers’ lounge and the mailboxes of Lakeview School administrators, teachers and staff in the same manner as other groups . . .

3(d) The Praying Parents group may distribute materials about their activities and advertise their activities through flyers, posters, “Eagle Eye” notices, and announcements in the same manner and to the same extent as other groups are allowed to distribute materials about their activities . . .

3(e) Lakeview School kindergarten teachers may include in their instruction about the origin and history of the Thanksgiving holiday and the culture of the Pilgrims a short, generic prayer blessing as an example of the type of Thanksgiving prayer that may have been said by the Pilgrims . . .

3(f) Lakeview School kindergarten teachers may include a nativity scene, accompanied by the singing of religious carols, in the annual Christmas program . . .

3(g) Lakeview School may permit the See You At The Pole™ event and the National Day of Prayer event to take place on school property during non-instructional hours . . .

This is not exactly the “victory” that the ACLU and the plaintiffs sought. In each of those six areas, the ACLU and the plaintiffs had sought to have the activities of the “Praying Parents” and Lakeview School prohibited. In fact, Judge Echols ruled in a clear and direct fashion that the activities were permitted.

I shall be praying that the ACLU secures many more such “victories” as this one. They can have the headlines. The “Praying Parents,” regardless of what the Tennessean might say, have had their activities affirmed and protected by a federal judge. Well done, Judge Echols!

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Rush Limbaugh quotes Rob Shearer

Terribly immodest of me, I know… Click below to hear an excerpt from the Rush Limbaugh show on Thursday, 5/22/2008 where he reads from a post by Warner Todd Huston (of StopTheACLU.com) and quotes from the comments I made about the validity of public school diplomas vs. homeschool diplomas.

Hat tip to dittohead Ernie Blevins for the audio file and to Kay Brooks for editing out the pertinent three minutes!

Here’s a sampling of the incoming links on this topic:

Tennessee Mandates Low Quality Graduates Be Employed Over …

20 hours ago by noreply@blogger.com (Bill Smith) Ken Marrero at “Blue Collar Muse” reports that. Recently, the Tennessee State Board of Education ruled diplomas issued to home-schooled students from religious based schools were invalid as proof of the successful completion of High … ARRA News Service – http://arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com/ – References

Good enough for government work

22 May 2008 by Kay Brooks The DOE’s characterization of private school (Category IV diplomas) as worthless made it national this afternoon as it moved from our own TennConserVOLiance writers to Warner Todd Houston at StopTheACLU and then on to Rush Limbaugh’s … Kay Brooks – http://kaybrooks.blogspot.com/ – References

Tenn. Declares Only Dumbest Kids Wanted for State Jobs

22 May 2008 by Warner Todd Huston It’s true. The State of Tennessee has officially declared that from this point forward it will accept only less educated student applicants for state, county and city jobs in the Volunteer State. Why would the kindly folks in Nashville … Default Site Weblog – http://americanewsjournal.com/index.php/site/index/

TN State Education Board Fails Research Test …

22 May 2008 by Blue Collar Muse Editors Update and RePost: Thanks to Rob Shearer at Red Hat Rob and Warner Todd Huston, this story has received national attention. Rush Limbaugh read extensively from WTH’s post on the matter and mentioned both Warner and our own Rob … Blue Collar Muse – http://conservablogs.com/bluecollarmuse

Not worthless

21 May 2008 by Kay Brooks Councilman Eric Crafton and his Save Our Students aren’t the only ones who can crunch the education statistics. Red Hat Rob Shearer has spent considerable time today going through the State of Tennessee Department of Education’s website … Kay Brooks – http://kaybrooks.blogspot.com/

Tennessee Makes Move Against Homeschooling

21 May 2008 by zee It appears that my worst suspicions about public education are continuously confirmed these days. So, it isn’t really much of a surprise that the state of Tennessee prefers their employees to come from the dumbed down ranks of students … Road Sassy – http://roadsassy.com

Tenn. Declares Only Dumbest Kids Wanted for State Jobs

21 May 2008 by Warner Todd Huston -By Warner Todd Huston. It’s true. The State of Tennessee has officially declared that from this point forward it will accept only less educated student applicants for state, county and city jobs in the Volunteer State. … American Conservative Daily – http://www.americanconservativedaily.com/ – References

Homeschoolers – under attack all over?

20 May 2008 We had a small concern going on around here in NH where the Democratic (highly leveraged Teacher Union support) with an encircle and envelope strategy. Well put by Consent of the Governed:. The Live Free Or Die State wants to regulate … granitegrok – http://granitegrok.com/

Socialist “Curriculum” cannot penetrate home schools…therefore …

19 May 2008 by Jenn Sierra Rob Shearer, of Contending with the Culture, reports:. The Tennessee Department of Education has recently defended its decision not to recognize homeschool diplomas with the assertion that because they were prohibited from having … Ft. Hard Knox – http://forthardknox.com – References

Tennessee Education Board Fails Research Test19 May 2008 by Blue Collar Muse
Recently, the Tennessee State Board of Education ruled diplomas issued to home-schooled students from religious based schools were invalid as proof of the successful completion of High School should it be presented for employment …
New Media Alliance – Blue Collar Muse – http://thenma.org/blogs/index.php/bluecollarmuse

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
Publisher, Greenleaf Press

“Dept. of Ed Declares Homeschool Diplomas ‘Worthless'” – Story goes National!

My good friend BlueCollarMuse had an excellent post on the topic of the TN DOE vs. Homeschool diplomas on May 19th on conservablogs.com: The post is titled TN State Education Board Fails Research Test …

His friend, Warner Todd Huston picked up on the issue and added some insightful commentary on May 21st on stoptheaclu.com. The post has the provocative headline,Tenn. Declares Only Dumbest Kids Wanted for State Jobs.

Today, May 22nd, Rush Limbaugh picked up on the story and read Mr. Huston’s post on the air, commented on it, and is now linking back from his website to stoptheaclu.com (with a transcript of his on-air comments). Scroll down to story #12.

This afternoon (still 5/22/2008), Neil Boortz also picked up on the story. I don’t know if he said anything on the air, but he’s now linking back to the stoptheaclu.com post by Huston as well. Scroll down to the bottom of the page – it’s in the fifth paragraph from the bottom.

Kay Brooks summarizes all of the saga on her blog here – along with some very nice excerpts and additional comments.

I’ve got a feeling the Tennessee Department of Education is not enjoying this very much… [heh]

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Public school vs. private school ACT scores

This is a tale of 54,041 high school diplomas. That’s the number of public high school diplomas awarded in Tennessee last year (2006-2007). There are 324 public high schools in Tennessee. The public high schools are operated by 119 public school systems. There are 137 public school systems in Tennessee, but only 119 of them operate high schools.

I got curious this week about tracking down median ACT scores for Public vs. Private vs. Homeschool high school graduates. It turns out, even in the age of public data on the internet that this is not an easy question to answer. If the data to answer this question already exists somewhere on the internet, it’s extraordinarily well hidden. I spent several days searching for it… and I’m pretty handy with google. I did discover a blog in Kentucky which contained interesting articles commenting on the meaning of median ACT scores released for that state. Kentucky’s scores, released by ACT, Inc. of Iowa, give the median for ALL high school seniors, public, private, and homeschool. From the ACT data alone, you cannot tell how the public schools are performing, because ACT will not disagregate the data. Tennessee ACT scores are released in the same format as Kentucky.

But, it turns out, in Tennessee at least, there is a way to calculate median ACT score for the public schools. And if we know the number of public school students who took the ACT, and their median score, then we can calculate the median score for the remaining non-public school students.

In 2007, the median ACT for all students in Tennessee taking the test was 20.7. This is slightly below ( a half a point) the national ACT median score of 21.2. A half a point difference between two individual scores is probably not terribly significant. There are too many variables that can’t be controlled between two individual scores to ever be able to know why one student scored a half a point higher than another. BUT, comparing the median scores of two significantly sized groups IS meaningful… because all the individual variations offset and cancel each other out. 48,113 students took the ACT in Tennessee in 2007. 1,300,599 students took it nationwide. Comparing the averages for those two very large populations does tell us, with a pretty high degree of confidence, that Tennessee students did not perform quite as well as the national average.

But those 48,113 Tennessee students include public school, high school, and homeschool students. I have an inquiry in to ACT, Inc. asking them for the disaggregated data for those three groups, but they haven’t responded to me. The data would be very helpful in discussing some pretty pressing public policy questions about education. I don’t think it’s an accident that ACT doesn’t make the data readily available. I have the feeling that the data are not very flattering to public school administrators. And I suspect that’s why ACT hasn’t made them available.

But in Tennessee, there is another source of data about public school ACT scores – the Tennessee Department of Education itself. The Department has an online database that reports the number of students who took the ACT and the median composite score by school system. Actually, the online database has a great deal more information than that, but the median composite ACT scores are what I was interested in.

I don’t know whether it’s intentional or not, but the Tennessee DOE does not report the statewide median ACT score, nor does it make it easy to calculate, but all the pieces are there, on their website – they just have to be assembled.

So, I spent about four or five hours today, using the free wifi at University Pizza & Deli in Chattanooga, to pull up and copy off the median composite ACT scores for all 119 public high school systems in Tennessee. 35,725 public school students (out of 54,041 who graduate) too the ACT in 2007 – about 66.1% of the graduates. The median composite ACT score for all of them was 20.30. Since there were a total of 48,113 students who took the ACT in Tennessee, we can subtract out the public school students and the remaining 12,388 students were non-public school (private schools and home schools). And since we know the median composite ACT score for ALL students in Tennessee was 20.7 and the median for the PUBLIC school students was 20.30, we can calculate what the median composite score for the non-public schools was: that median composite ACT score in 2007 was 21.85.

So, we can now end the speculation and report with confidence that in 2007, in Tennessee, ALL students averaged a 20.7 composite ACT score, PUBLIC SCHOOL students averaged a 20.30 composite ACT score, and PRIVATE SCHOOL students averaged 21.85 composite ACT score. In other words, in 2007 private schools and home schools averaged 1.15 points higher on the ACT than the public schools. But of course, it’s the private school diplomas that the Department of Education thinks are suspect.

Since I had to compile the data for all 119 systems in a spreadsheet, I’ll post all of the data here – so that others can check my calculations, and so that the data will be available to everyone interested.

There are a number of other interesting observations about the public high schools that can be made from the data.

For example, here are the 10 public school systems in Tennessee with the HIGHEST median composite ACT scores:

	TENNESSEE	REGULAR	% TAKING	2007 ACT Composite
	SCHOOL SYSTEM	DIPLOMAS	ACT	n	median
1	Maryville City	321	76.9%	247	23.67
2	Oak Ridge City	321	68.8%	221	23.53
3	Kingsport City	400	82.8%	331	22.74
4	Greenville City	209	66.5%	139	22.68
5	Williamson Co.	1,966	80.6%	1,584	22.54
6	Tullahoma City	239	77.4%	185	22.35
7	Johnson City	398	73.1%	291	22.34
8	Pickett Co.	46	58.7%	27	22.11
9	Alcoa City	107	74.8%	80	22.01
10	Knox Co.	3,257	66.6%	2,168	21.97

And here are the 10 public school systems with the LOWEST median composite ACT scores:

	TENNESSEE	REGULAR	% TAKING	2007 ACT Composite
	SCHOOL SYSTEM	DIPLOMAS	ACT	n	median
1	Fayette Co.	187	65.2%	122	15.80
2	Memphis City	5,741	67.9%	3,898	17.56
3	Hancock Co.	62	38.7%	24	17.96
4	Haywood Co.	170	71.2%	121	17.98
5	Lake Co.	51	70.6%	36	18.11
6	Grainger Co.	241	53.1%	128	18.41
7	W. Carroll	79	54.4%	43	18.47
8	Campbell Co.	299	58.2%	174	18.63
9	Union Co.	196	53.1%	104	18.63
10	Hardeman Co.	234	56.0%	131	18.66

Here are the Here are the 10 public school systems in Tennessee with the HIGHEST percentage of graduating seniors who take the ACT:

	TENNESSEE	REGULAR	% TAKING	2007 ACT Composite
	SCHOOL SYSTEM	DIPLOMAS	ACT	n	median
1	McMinn Co.	292	92.5%	270	20.33
2	Union City	77	88.3%	68	19.93
3	Kingsport City	400	82.8%	331	22.74
4	Williamson Co.	1,966	80.6%	1,584	22.54
5	Bradford City	41	80.5%	33	19.18
6	Oneida City	83	79.5%	66	20.58
7	Shelby Co.	2,561	78.5%	2,010	21.72
8	Madison Co.	679	78.2%	531	19.27
9	Tullahoma City	239	77.4%	185	22.35
10	Huntingdon City	70	77.1%	54	20.20

And here are the Here are the 10 public school systems in Tennessee with the LOWEST percentage of graduating seniors who take the ACT:

	TENNESSEE	REGULAR	% TAKING	2007 ACT Composite
	SCHOOL SYSTEM	DIPLOMAS	ACT	n	median
1	Hancock Co.	62	38.7%	24	17.96
2	Fentress Co.	60	41.7%	25	19.92
3	Sequatchie Co.	116	44.8%	52	19.71
4	Greene Co.	488	45.7%	223	20.06
5	Trousdale Co.	91	47.3%	43	19.12
6	Johnson Co.	156	47.4%	74	19.81
7	Meigs Co.	94	48.9%	46	20.37
8	Washington Co.	656	50.8%	333	20.68
9	Bledsoe Co.	102	51.0%	52	20.73
10	Jefferson Co.	449	52.1%	234	20.52

Here are the 10 public school systems in Tennessee with the LARGEST number of graduating seniors who take the ACT:

	TENNESSEE	REGULAR	% TAKING	2007 ACT Composite
	SCHOOL SYSTEM	DIPLOMAS	ACT	n	median
1	Memphis City	5,741	67.9%	3,898	17.56
2	Davidson Co.	3,601	64.1%	2,307	19.11
3	Knox Co.	3,257	66.6%	2,168	21.97
4	Shelby Co.	2,561	78.5%	2,010	21.72
5	Rutherford Co.	2,328	66.1%	1,539	20.91
6	Hamilton Co.	2,322	68.0%	1,580	19.60
7	Williamson Co.	1,966	80.6%	1,584	22.54
8	Sumner Co.	1,691	62.9%	1,063	20.81
9	Montgomery Co.	1,644	59.9%	984	21.23
10	Wilson Co.	1,040	67.9%	706	20.70

And here are the 10 public school systems in Tennessee with the SMALLEST number of graduating seniors who take the ACT:

	TENNESSEE	REGULAR	% TAKING	2007 ACT Composite
	SCHOOL SYSTEM	DIPLOMAS	ACT	n	median
1	S. Carroll	31	58.1%	18	20.28
2	Van Buren Co.	37	62.2%	23	18.83
3	Richard City	37	70.3%	26	20.15
4	Bradford City	41	80.5%	33	19.18
5	Pickett Co.	46	58.7%	27	22.11
6	Hollow Rock-Bruceton City	47	57.4%	27	20.22
7	Lake Co.	51	70.6%	36	18.11
8	Fentress Co.	60	41.7%	25	19.92
9	Hancock Co.	62	38.7%	24	17.96
10	Huntingdon City	70	77.1%	54	20.20

The only significant sized sample of homeschoolers with ACT scores that I could find were 1997, 1998, and 2004 data released by ACT (cited on the HSLDA website). ACT reported that in 1997, 1,926 homeschoolers had a median composite ACT score of 22.5. ACT reported that in 1998, 2,610 homeschoolers had a median composite ACT score of 22.8. ACT reported that in 2004, 7,858 homeschoolers had a median composite ACT score of 22.6. These data are remarkably consistent over time AND they are significantly ABOVE the national averages. But remember, according the the Tennessee Department of Education, it is the homeschooler’s diplomas that are suspect.

Now, don’t you feel like you know the public school system in Tennessee much better?

Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. Comments encouraged and solicited. Once again: here is the data. Or should that be, “here ARE the data…”

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Homeschool vs. public school diplomas

The Tennessee Department of Education has recently defended its decision not to recognize homeschool diplomas with the assertion that because they were prohibited from having anything to do with the selection of a curriculum, teachers, or textbooks in the church-related schools which “umbrella” homeschoolers they had no way to tell what a homeschool diploma represented.

So, the current status in Tennessee is that anyone from a public school (or a private accredited school) who presents a diploma in order to be hired as a daycare worker, police officer, fireman (or any other position which state law requires a high school diploma for) will be automatically accepted. Anyone who presents a homeschool diploma will be automatically rejected.

I have some news for the Department of Education officials. When a public school graduate presents a diploma, no one has any way to tell what it represents either. Did the ertswhile young graduate have an A average or a D- average? There is no minimum GPA requirement for graduation from a public high school in Tennessee. See the graduation requirements here on the Department of Education website for confirmation.

The final requirement on that page requiring a score of “proficient” on the three Gateway exams (Biology I, English II, Algebra I) has been altered, by the way. The Gateway exams are gone. They will be replaced with ten standard state-wide end-of-course tests that all public school students will be required to take. But the new tests won’t be high-stakes must-pass gateway exams. Instead, they will count as 25% of the student’s final grade in each of the ten designated courses.

Which only exacerbates the problem of how do you know what a public school diploma represents? Apparently it represents 20 courses, spread over four years (five per year) distributed over English, Math, Science, & Social Studies. In these four categories, only English is required to be taken in all four years of high school. So all you really know about a public school graduate with a high school diploma is that they at least passed 20 courses.

I don’t know of ANY private school, church-related school, or homeschool anywhere in Tennessee that requires LESS than 20 courses before they award a high school diploma. And yet, homeschool diplomas are automatically rejected by the Department of Education, while public school diplomas are automatically accepted.

In TN, 92% of high school graduates take the ACT test. In 2007 (the last year for which data was available) the average composite score for Tennessee high school grads was 20.7. Nationally it was 21.2.

And homeschoolers? The latest and largest study is from 1998, but since the ACT is so closely controlled statistically, it is possible to compare test scores from year to year. Here’s an excerpt from the ERIC clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation:

Home school students did quite well in 1998 on the ACT college entrance examination. They had an average ACT composite score of 22.8 which is .38 standard deviations above the national ACT average of 21.0 (ACT,1998).This places the average home school student in the 65th percentile of all ACT test takers.

The superior performance of home school students on achievement tests can easily be misinterpreted. This study does not demonstrate that home schooling is superior to public or private schools. It should not be cited as evidence that our public schools are failing. It does not indicate that children will perform better academically if they are home schooled. The design of this study and the data do not warrant such claims. All the comparisons of home school students with the general population and with the private school population in this report fail to consider a myriad of differences between home school and public school students. We have no information as to what the achievement levels of home school students would be had they been enrolled in public or private schools. This study only shows that a large group of parents choosing to make a commitment to home schooling were able to provide a very successful academic environment.

The full article is Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998, by Lawrence Rudner, published in the peer-reviewed EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES.

There are specific ACT results for homeschoolers in Tennessee for only one year:

YEAR : 2005
Homeschoolers : 20.7
All Students: 20.5
( ACT report, TN, 2005, page 17)

For some curious reason, ACT no longer reports the homeschool ACT scores separately in its reports for 2006 and 2007.

So, in summary: Homeschoolers as a group have superior performance on every nationally normed test for which data are available, significantly above the public school average. Homeschoolers in Tennessee, as a group, have average ACT scores at or above the ACT scores for all students.

AND YET… the Department of Education somehow BELIEVES that they can’t accept a homeschooling diploma because they don’t know what it represents. Given the incredibly wide variation of skills an achievement that can accompany a public school high school diploma, something about the pot, the kettle, and the color black occurs to me. Class…? Class…? Anyone…? Bueller…?

Colleges and universities across the country have faced this problem for years. What does a high school diploma mean, anyway? Their solution? Require all applicants to take the ACT.

Now, if the POST Commission on police officers and the Department of Human Services regs on daycare workers need to be revised to require ALL applicants to take an ACT test in order to validate and help agencies evaluate their high school diploma, that would be fine.

But DO NOT single out homeschool or church school graduates as if their high school diplomas were suspect, while the public school diplomas are not.

Homeschoolers have every bit as much data to substantiate the success of homeschooling as anything the public schools can point to. For the Department to automatically reject homeschooler’s diplomas is insulting. It could not possibly survive a legal challenge.

If the Department will not overturn their arbitrary and capricious policy, then homeschoolers should pursue remedies in the courts, or in the legislature.

But I am NOT willing to concede that homeschoolers should have to meet any additional testing burdens that are not also imposed on all other high school graduates. A homeschool diploma deserves every bit as much credence (I’d argue more so) than a public school diploma.

The Department of Education’s actions amount to an unsubstantiated, unprofessional, and unjustified attack on homeschooling.

The Department of Education has 1,000,000 students in public schools in Tennessee. Do they really want to pick this fight with homeschoolers?

– Rob Shearer
proud homeschooling dad
Director, Schaeffer Study Center
Vice President, Tennessee Association of Church Related Schools.

HB1652 still languishing in the House Calendar & Rules Committee

Since its favorable passage eight days ago by the House Education Committee, HB1652 (the bill to direct the Department of Education to resume recognizing homeschool and church-related school diplomas) has been languishing in the House Calendar & Rules Committee. This Committee is where all bills go when they receive committee approval. Calendar and Rules decides when to schedule floor votes on bills that have been reported out by other committees. The Calendar and Rules Committee (like all the other House committees) is appointed by Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Here are the members:

Larry Miller, Chair D-Memphis
John Hood, Vice-Chair D-Murfreesboro
Nathan Vaughn, Secretary D-Kingsport
Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, Stratton Bone, D-Lebanon, Rob Briley, D-Nashville, Tommie F. Brown, D-Chattanooga, Frank Buck, D-Dowelltown, Glen Casada, R-Franklin, Charles Curtiss, D-Sparta
Lois Deberry, D-Memphis, John J. DeBerry, Jr., D-Memphis, Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, Ulysses Jones, Jr., D-Memphis, Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, Mark Maddox, D-Dresden, Steve McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroad
Michael McDonald, D-Portland, Jason Mumpower, R-Bristol, Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington, Gary Odom, D-Nashville, Doug Overbey, R-Maryville, Phillip Pinion, D-Union City, Randy Rinks, D-Savannah, Les Winningham, D-Huntsville

There are 25 members of the committee, 21 Democrats and 4 Republicans. That, unfortunately, might be a fair estimate of the odds of getting HB1652 brought to a vote on the floor. The Democrats control the Tennessee House of Representatives with a 53-46 majority. But, with control and the election of the speaker, they are able to effect such oddities as the stacking of the Calendar and Rules Committee with a 21-4 Democrat majority.

I would STRONGLY urge all homeschooling families to call and email the members of the House Calendar and Rules Committee and respectfully request that they release HB1652 for a vote by the full House of Representatives. You might remind them that the bill is co-sponsored by a Democrat (Rep. Dennis Ferguson) and a Republican (Rep. Mike Bell). There is a good summary of the bill and its history at Kay Brooks’ TNHomeEd site.

For the prospects of the Republicans being able to achieve a majority of the House of Representatives in November 2008, I refer you to this analysis by Steve Gill.

Remember, if this bill does NOT pass, then the Department of Education will have succeeded in invalidating the high school diplomas of thousands of homeschool and church-related school graduates.

For everyone’s convenience, here are the email addresses of all 25 members of the Calendar and Rules Committee: (yawl do know how to do cut & paste, right?)

rep.larry.miller@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.john.hood@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.nathan.vaughn@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.joe.armstrong@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.stratton.bone@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.rob.briley@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.tommie.brown@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.frank.buck@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.glen.casada@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.charles.curtiss@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.lois.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.john.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.craig.fitzhugh@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.ulysses.jones@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.mike.kernell@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.mark.maddox@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.steve.mcdaniel@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.michael.mcdonald@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.jason.mumpower@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.jimmy.naifeh@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.gary.odom@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.doug.overbey@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.phillip.pinion@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.randy.rinks@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.leslie.winningham@legislature.state.tn.us

– Rob Shearer

Tennessee Department of Education has declared homeschooler’s diplomas to be “worthless”

The Department of Education has so far succeeded in declaring all homeschoolers’ high school diplomas to be invalid.

Bill Hobbs has a nice summary of what the Department has done:

Cindy Benefield, the Tennesseee Department of Education Executive Director of Field Services, who oversees the state’s homeschooling office, recently declared that a diploma from a church-related school is “not worth the paper it is written on.” That is not just the idle opinion of one uninformed bureaucrat, but has become Department policy. Bredesen’s education commissioner, Tim Webb, told four legislators in April that until the legislature passes a law stating that the diplomas given by church-related schools are acceptable, they aren’t acceptable for certain kinds of employment.

And the state is now preventing people who hold diplomas from church-related schools or home schools from holding certain jobs. For example: a police officer in Roane County, who holds a diploma from a church-related school, then graduated the police academy with perfect grades, has been demoted and prohibited from continuing to serve as a police officer – even though he also graduated from the local community college. The Rockwood police officer has been forced to take a desk job until he takes and passes the GED because the Department of Education says his 2001 diploma from a church-related school is invalid.

The fallout goes beyond that one officer. Suspects he has arrested may be set free because he can not appear as a witness in the case because the state, which regulates the profession, says his diploma is invalid.

Church-related schools (CRS) have been issuing high school diplomas since at least 1975 – and until now, they’ve always been accepted, never been challenged. The bigger irony in this is that the Tennessee university system and the Lottery scholarships continue to accept CRS diplomas. It’s a fair assumption to predict that the Department of Education would like that practice to stop as well.

Rep. Mike Bell’s bill to reverse this stunning policy change escaped the House Ed Committee without being hijacked, but it is now sitting in the Calendar & Rules Committee where it may be quietly allowed to die. If that happens, the Department will have succeeded in disenfranchising thousands of high school graduates by bureaucratic fiat. There are upwards of 40,000 homeschool students in TN. Probably 3,000 of them graduate from high school each year. The Department’s actions not only invalidate the diplomas of this year’s graduating class, they retroactively invalidate the diplomas of thousands who have graduated over the past thirty years.

What’s happening is an outrage. We have a shortage of good police officers. We have a shortage of good daycare workers – but the Department of Education can’t stand it that someone out there might be getting an education outside their control.

– Rob Shearer
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

TN House Education Committee passes bill to require state agencies to accept Church-Related School’s high school diplomas as valid

Longest blog post title ever…

The bill was HB 1652, and you can read the history of how we got here in an earlier post.

The terminology of legislative committees is QUITE confusing… apologies to all. Enacting legislation is messy… today was a little messier than most.

When the problem with the police officer and daycare worker surfaced, the deadline for introducing legislation had already passed, so Rep. Bell made a quick search for already introduced bills which dealt with the appropriate section of state law (sometimes abbreviated as TCA , stands for Tennessee Code Annotated). Rep. Ferguson had originally introduced a bill dealing with the section of state law governing Church-related schools (the so-called “caption” of the bill must state which section of state law will be amended). Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson agreed to use his bill to try to amend state law so that diplomas from church-related schools would be accepted by state agencies, regardless of whether the church-related school was accredited. To do that, they needed to take Rep. Ferguson’s original bill and “re-write” it by amending it and stripping out all of the original language and substituting the new draft that they wanted.

So, Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson were the co-sponsors of a bill before the House Education Committee today, and their first task was to seek to have the committee approve their amendment which re-wrote the bill to do what they wanted.

In the meantime, the department of Ed’s representative (Dr. Opie?)) had informally circulated an amendment to Rep. Bell’s bill. That amendment would have required CRS’s to only hire instructors with baccalaureate degrees. That amendment was never introduced, although Dr. Obee make some joking references to it having been circulated widely around the state. His logic was that if the state was going to have to accept a CRS Cat IV diploma, then the state should have some oversight over what was taught and who taught it. Topic for more discussion later.

So… Rep. Bell and Rep. Ferguson present their bill to the committee. Their first order of business is to request that the bill be amended with their agreed-on new language (which had been reviewed and recommended by a sub-committee). At that point, the Memphis delegation began their hour-long filibuster and proposal of an “amendment to the amendment” of the bill which would amend existing state law. Everybody still with me?

The Memphis amendment would have directed the State Department of Education to recognize those public school students who completed all their course work but failed the Gateway tests as having valid high school diplomas as well as recognizing category IV diplomas as valid if issued before July 1, 2008. Next year, of course, we’d be back in the same dilemma and fighting with the legislature all over again. The Memphis delegation tactic was to hijack this bill for their own purposes. Gateway tests have already been re-defined to count as only 25% of course grades, rather than being must-pass, but they are valiantly attempting to get high school diplomas for kids who have been unable to pass the Gateway tests in years past.

On the vote on the Memphis amendment, the Chairman (Rep. Les Winningham) originally called for a voice vote and then announced that the Memphis amendment had passed. Rep. Bell asked for a roll call vote. He can’t get one automatically, unless a Rep. on the committee asks for one. When one of the committee members asked for the roll call, the chairman directed the clerk to call the roll. Much to the embarrassment of the chairman, the roll call showed that the amendment had failed by a vote of 7-10.

So the Memphis amendment was defeated… now they were back to Rep. Bell and Rep. Fergusons’s original request to re-write the bill with their agreed-on language. That vote was also done by roll call and it passed, 9-7 with one voting present. It was immediately followed by a vote on the amended bill itself, reporting it out of committee (called “sending it to calendar and rules,” which is the committee which actually schedules bills for the full house of representatives). That vote, also by roll call was identical, 9-7 with one voting present.

Result: Representative Bell’s and Representative Ferguson’s bill came out of the Education Committee exactly the way they wanted it, written the way they wanted, without any amendment that they don’t want.

The Department of Ed amendment which would have required a baccalaureate degree for every instructor in grades 9-12 was never introduced or voted on. The Memphis amendment which would have dealt with prior year Gateway exam stopped public school students AND only recognized CRS diploma’s through July of 2008 was also defeated.

This is an important (and surprising) result. The bill which was reported out would require all state agencies to accept CRS diplomas as valid high school diplomas. Period. Regardless of whether the CRS was category II, III, or IV. This was the situation until just this year. In effect, it reverses the new policy of the department this year which began treating non-accredited CRS diplomas as invalid. It would require DHS to accept Cat IV diplomas as valid for work in a day care center, and it would require the Police accreditation commission to accept CRS diplomas as valid for those seeking to be police officers.

Next step: the bill must pass the full house of representatives AND a companion bill must pass the state senate AND then be signed by the Governor. None of these three steps is automatic or easy… though they may be easier than the mountain that had to be climbed today.

UNLESS this bill is passed, the state dept of ed will apparently continue to treat Cat IV diplomas as “worthless.” We need this bill to pass. Ironically, its not so important for homeschooled students who go on to college. Colleges and universities both in TN and nationwide have had NO problems with Cat IV diplomas. They have the ACT/SAT and other criteria to go with them. It’s the jobs that do not require a college degree but DO require a high school diploma where the problems have arisen. You don’t have to have a college degree to be a police officer – but you do have to have a high school diploma. You don’t have to have a college degree to work in a day care center – but you do have to have a high school diploma. It is in precisely those two situations where the problem has arisen. Please stay in touch with your homeschool community over the next two weeks. There is much work still to do in order to get this bill passed.

Footnote: Though the Dept spokesman today did say that they were going to internally review individual cases and would attempt to handle exceptions( like the police officer who had completed the police training academy but was then told he could no longer serve as an officer because his Cat IV high school diploma was not acceptable), I do not find that reassuring. The old homeschool law required a college degree to be able to homeschool your high school student unless you had a waiver from the Commissioner of Education. In 10+ years, despite a number of well-documented and reasonable requests, no Commissioner ever granted a waiver.

– Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Homeschool Politics in Tennessee – HB2975 and the Gateway Tests

A freshman member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from the Memphis area, Mr. George Hardaway, is sponsoring a bill this year which would require both homeschoolers and private school students to take the same “Gateway” end-of-course exams that the state requires public school students to take.

“Why?” is the question that immediately springs to mind.

Bear with me, for the reasoning is somewhat convoluted. The background is bizarre and parochial but it perfectly illustrates Tip O’Neill’s observation that “all politics is local.”

Background: The Memphis delegation has wielded disproportionate influence in the Tenneesee Legislature for over a century. This was partly due to demographics (until quite recently, Memphis was the largest city in the state), partly due to party discipline (Memphis is overwhelmingly Democrat and the Democrats control the state legislature), and partly due to the legacy of Boss Crump. Don’t get me started on Boss Crump. But if you’re going to play politics in Tennessee, you’d be well served to do some research on him.

Where were we… Oh yes, Gateway tests. What are the Gateway tests?

In the High School End of Course Tests Policy, renamed the High School Examinations Policy in August, 2002, the State Board stipulated that beginning with students entering the 9th grade in 2001-2002, students must successfully pass examinations in three subject areas – Mathematics, Science, and Language Arts – in order to earn a high school diploma. These examinations, called Gateway Tests, were intended to raise the academic bar for all high school students and add accountability for students’ academic performance.

– From the Tennessee Department of Education website.

Now, here’s the problem: A disproportionate number of Memphis public school students have been failing the three Gateway Tests required for a high school diploma. Momma and Daddy (and student) aren’t happy when there’s no high school diploma.

Here’s where the politics comes in. Homeschoolers and private school students don’t have to take the Gateway Tests to earn a high school diploma. The cry of “IT’S NOT FAIR!” goes up. Never mind that homeschoolers and private school students have been taking the SAT and ACT tests as a part of their college applications (and doing quite well, thank you very much).

One solution of course would be to try to figure out what the Memphis public schools need to do in order to improve their pass rate on the Gateways. But that would be hard. Simpler solution: Torpedo the Gateway Test requirement! And in order to bring attention and pressure to bear to solve this crisis, require everybody to take them!

Actually, the whole issue is probably moot at this point. Two weeks ago, the Tennessee Board of Education eliminated the requirement that students must pass the Gateway Tests in order to get a high school diploma. They replaced the three Gateway Tests with TEN Gateway Tests (I can’t find a list of the subjects). But passing these tests is no longer required for high school graduation. Instead, the scores on these ten tests will (by mandate of the Tennessee Board of Education) count as 25% of the student’s final grade in each of the ten subjects. You can now fail the test, but unless the test score drags your course average below passing, you don’t have to take the test again. Pretty good summary in this article from the Memphis Flyer on Feb 14, 2008.

So why is Representative Hardaway picking a fight with homeschoolers? Apparently, its a deliberate strategy on his part to get the legislature to focus on changing the Gateway Test rules so more of his constituents can graduate from high school.

A modest suggestion: Somebody ought to try devoting some effort to changing things so students actually learn more.

Oh, and leave the homeschoolers out of it. Of all the groups of students in the state, the homeschoolers are the ones doing the best academically. There are the occasional failures, and stories of kids who fall through the cracks. But I can guarantee you that the success rate of homeschoolers as a group far exceeds the public schools. And the failure rate is far lower.

Just a thought…

– Rob Shearer

PS: For an excellent account of how the first committee hearing on Rep. Hardaway’s bill went, see this account by Kay Brooks: Hardaway Punts.