In separate letters to Senator Lamar Alexander and Education Commissioner Candice McQueen, Steering Committee members and Coalition members urge for strong regulatory guidance in the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act to intervene in ways that prioritize the needs of underrepresented students.
Yesterday, the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition Steering Committee and members sent a letter to Senator Lamar Alexander and to Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen urging for strong regulatory guidance in the areas of: accountability, effective teachers for every child, support for English Learner students, and equitable access to resources and supports during the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
In the letters, Coaliton members share their united committment to continuing strong accountability for all schools, ensuring access to high quality teaching, and equitable access to resources and supports for students and schools.
"We can only address the needs of our underserved students when equipped with data to assess how well they are progressing towards preparedness for success in the college or career of their choosing. When districts and schools are not able to demonstrate an ability to advance achievement for all students - and particularly students of color who are also disproportionately economically disadvantaged - states and districts like ours must have strong regulatory guidance to intervene in ways that prioritize the needs of students over the comfort of adults."
Some takeaways from the letters:- Tennessee has made and sustained historic gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). However, we are compelled to action by the fact that only 9 percent of African American and 21 percent of Latino students score at college-ready levels in at least three of the ACT's four subject areas.
- States should not only encourage steady improvement towards ambitious long-term goals. We must make sure we are not only raising achievement for all students, but doing all we can to eliminate gaps between subgroups as well.
- The size of the subgroup matters, and the ideal N-size of a sub-group must be 20 or smaller.
- All students deserve to recieve instruction from a caring, culturally competent, highly effective teacher.
- State and federal governments can provide leadership to address the teacher diversity gap by creating financial aid or loan forgiveness programs for low-income students to help cover costs of teacher preparation.
- Raising the profile of English Learners through inclusion into accountability in ESSA reflects their growing importance and will send a signal to districts and schools that we must pay closer attention to their performance.
- Tennessee must ensure that districts evaluate inequities not only between schools, but also within schools, and between groups of students within those schools.
