MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, January 10, 2010 8:00 am

The future of education in Tennessee is in the hands of the state Legislature this week as it embarks on a special session to reform and revamp the entire system from kindergarten to college.

“This year we’ve had a couple of unique, unexpected opportunities drop in our lap that I believe will allow us to focus on the entire education pipeline in one fell swoop and hopefully make some changes that will be felt for years to come,” Gov. Phil Bredesen said when announcing the special session in December.

In the realm of higher education, Bredesen proposed changing the funding formula to tie funding to graduation rates and to also make transferring credits easier.

But the biggest changes will come from reforms encouraged by the Race to the Top Fund.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama Administration offered $4.35 billion to states in the form of a competition. Tennessee’s possible share of the pie is $400 million.

“The $4.35 billion Race to the Top program … is a challenge to states and districts. We're looking to drive reform, reward excellence and dramatically improve our nation's schools,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said about the national competition.

States that enact reforms by adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments for students; recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals; building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices; and turning around the lowest-performing schools will be more likely to win federal money.

The program will allow for early intervention in failing schools, which is currently a multi-year process, and will tie funding to graduation rates, state Rep. Donna Rowland (R-Murfreesboro) said.

State Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas) said Race to the Top’s main possible reform is a change to teacher tenure laws that ties student performance to teacher evaluations.

On its face, Race to the Top seems like a good way to effectively reform education, but the Rutherford Education Association is worried about possible changes to teacher tenure laws.

“We don’t feel like teacher compensation, tenure, incentive pay, retention or evaluation should be tied into test scores, especially one test on a single day,” REA president Keith Cornelius said.

The Tennessee Education Association agrees with Cornelius and to pacify the organization, Bredesen agreed on Friday to let the Legislature hammer out the final details of the tenure reform.

Cornelius, an Oakland High School algebra teacher said REA doesn’t oppose the reforms completely, but feels tying teacher compensation to test scores is a step too far.

“We don’t oppose the testing as an element of evaluation but not 50 percent or greater of the teacher’s evaluation,” he said, adding using a lower percentage and weighted average would give a better picture of teacher performance.

“I’m responsible for the instruction … I own 100 percent of the instruction in the classroom,” he said. He tells his students the same thing and also tells the, it’s their job to learn as much as it’s his job to teach.

“There is zero student accountability to the test and no parental accountability. It’s all on the teacher,” Cornelius said, adding there are too many variables to student performance to place the burden solely on the teacher.

Carr said many things impact a student’s desire to learn including home life.

“How do we capture that as a metric?” he asked.

County Commission Jeff Jordan, who is also a former teacher and principal, agrees.

Jordan said his main concern is tying teacher performance to something out of their control.

“Tenure laws are there for a reason, a good reason, many reasons actually,” he said, adding the rush to implement the reforms may also have unintended consequences.

Tennessee’s application for Race to the Top funds must be submitted by Jan. 19, meaning the Legislature only has seven days to reform education.

Rowland said the headlong rush into the process may create problems, especially if Tennessee isn’t awarded the grant.

“If we pass these (reforms) and the fed grant is not approved, those become state and local dollars that must be spent,” she said.

County Mayor Ernest Burgess asked the county’s legislative delegation to think carefully about any reforms that could cost taxpayer money.

“We are in no position this year or next year to find any extra money,” he said. “At some point we have to ask the taxpayers to pay for these things and we can’t ask them for any more.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.