Tennesseans....

[Kelli in TN]

Are you keeping up with HB2795? Here is a video of Rep Hardaway giving his spiel.

Rep Hardaway Video (http://www.divshare.com/download/3907220-443)

I just thought I would offer this up in case you have not seen it. If you have time please watch it to the end. I think the homeschoolers handled themselves very well.

[Musical Belle]

I'm also a concerned Tennessean, so thanks for posting this, Kelli.

Kim

[bkpan]

Did I understand aright that the bill is on hold for 3 wks and then will come up for a vote? Do we continue to make phone calls?

Kim in TN (used to be in NV)

[Kelli in TN]

Did I understand aright that the bill is on hold for 3 wks and then will come up for a vote? Do we continue to make phone calls?

Kim in TN (used to be in NV)


I am not sure. I bet THEA and TnHomeEd will have updates over the weekend or Monday. I understood it to be on hold for 3 weeks as well, I don't know if we call now or when it is put back on the calendar.

What did you think of the chairlady? I wanted to reach through the computer screen and take her microphone away. She sort of came off as if the right to homeschool was some "gift" that she could give or take away.

To me it sounds like they are just using private schools and homeschoolers as pawns because they don't like exit exams in the public schools. Don't use us. We are doing our jobs. Clean up your own mess.

I thought the homeschool dad did a great job!

Okay, who needs the soapbox now?:D

[Kim in TN]

Wow, lots of Kim's in TN. :D

I watched the video last night. That lady just doesn't get it, does she? She thinks that if schools improve, we'll all go rushing to put our children back.

[gardenschooler]

The video keeps freezing up on me, but I'm going to try to watch all of it anyway.

I got an email today that said just to continuing contacting Reps Brown, Towns, and Hardaway.

I realize this was a pawn kind of game, but one question -

Why was it said in the wording of the bill that the tests are required 'in order to recieve a TN diploma' and applied to hsers? We don't get a TN diploma! (Not a diploma granted or approved from the state).

This has been some kind of nonsense. Don't get me started.

[gardenschooler]

Also, if Hardaway's goal in all of this was to not have exit exams be required for a TN diploma, I am *speculating* that this bill will likely die because that's recently been done.

The Gateway exams are now on their way out, being replaced by 'more rigorous' EOCs, but those will only account for 25% of students' grades - the diploma of ps students won't hinge on whether they pass them or not.

If TN public school students had trouble passing the Gateways (that really were designed so that anyone, barring a major LD, could pass them), I don't see how many more are going to pass much more rigorous tests. It seems to me that TN's graduation rate will go down, not up.

I'm going to try to watch the rest of the video now. But Hardaway's statement about the inability of ps students being able to pass the Gateways being the thing that "denied them access to higher education" makes no sense to me. If they couldn't pass the Gateways, they probably couldn't read. I've seen samples of the Gateways (practice exams and such), and it's just an embarrassment that TN has to set the bar that low in the hopes of having *something* to gauge proficiency in the schools.

And then still couldn't do it.

I'm glad to see at least an attempt to turn things around, with the new standards. But I sincerely doubt if the schools can achieve those goals.

They really need to clean up their own side of the street. It's not the homeschoolers and private schoolers in TN that are failing to such a large degree.

Excuse my snark. Someone else can have the soapbox for awhile.

[Kelli in TN]

Oh, gardenschooler, you go, girl!

It is craziness. Do you know where our schools rank? I really don't know, but I know we don't rank high.

I deeply resent being used as a pawn in their sleight of hand game. I am pretty sure that all the private college prep schools are not amused by this either.

If you get far enough in there you will see another rep sort of chide Hardaway for bringing this forth and saying "This will not be the final wording". He says something to the effect of 'My secretary does not have time to deal with these calls, get the wording right before you bring it back' or something like that.:D

And yes, an email I got from Lana said basically what you have said, the Gateways are a thing of the past, why is this resolution even being discussed?

[gardenschooler]

I can't get it to go past the second time Hardaway is speaking.
Can someone fill me in on the last 8 minutes of it?

Another question -

I noticed it was mentioned that Category III private schools (as most of the larger private schools are) will have the option of taking the state EOC exams. Will their test scores then be combined with the public schools to give an average for NCLB purposes?

If so, is it possible that something along those lines is really what's behind this? I just can't get past the fact that one hand they are so incredibly patronizing to the homeschoolers, yet all the while saying we need to 'come together'. But they're not saying come together because *we* need to be tested....so why do we need to come together?

Probably a crazy idea - but I wonder if they're after our test scores! :cool:

[Kelli in TN]

The last 8 minutes is the talk of rolling for 3 weeks and various reps talk about how many calls they got and how nice the homeschoolers were, yada, yada, yada. And the one rep tells Hardaway to get the language right and then come back.:D

Here is a good synopsis TN HomeEd (http://tnhomeed.com/HB2795-SB3412.html).