Former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam: Planning for the 2020-21 school year requires urgency | Opinion

After years of educational progress in Tennessee, COVID-19 challenges us to double-down on past successes and sharpen our focus on pursing excellence.

Bill Haslam
Guest Columnist
  • Bill Haslam served as the 49th governor of Tennessee.

Summer learning loss is a perennial challenge that is most harmful to younger, low-income children, but experts predict the COVID-10 pandemic, which forced classrooms to shut down earlier this spring, will significantly worsen the summer slide and have a dismal effect on student achievement nationwide.

New research shows the pandemic will result in students retaining only 70 percent of typical learning gains in reading and less than 50 percent of usual learning gains in math, assuming students are able to return to school in the fall. In some grades, students could be nearly a full year behind.

To try to prevent this “summer avalanche” of learning loss, Crissy and I launched the Tennessee Tutoring Corps, a new program that connects college students with a paid opportunity to tutor K-6th graders over the summer break. But this initiative is just one small step in the race to prepare students to return to the classroom, and we must all work diligently now to ensure our schools are ready for the 2020-21 academic year. 

School district leaders and teachers across the state are tirelessly developing reopening strategies and conducting planning exercises for the upcoming semester, and we are all grateful for their efforts. The ongoing pandemic has created uncertainty for everyone in the education system, but I can tell you this with confidence: it is absolutely imperative that we find a way to ensure all Tennessee children can access quality learning opportunities this fall.

Equity gaps will worsen if students cannot go back to school

Prolonged school closures will have serious and costly ramifications on student outcomes and the U.S. economy. If students cannot return to in-classroom instruction this fall, researchers warn that disparities in access to quality virtual instruction could worsen equity gaps, with the greatest harm befalling low-income, Black, and Hispanic students. This lack of academic opportunity could lead to stagnated academic progress, higher dropout rates, and limit future earning opportunities.

Second graders settle into their classroom at West Elementary School in Mt. Juliet on the first day of school Thursday, August 1, 2019.

Tennessee has come too far in our efforts to raise academic achievement levels across the board to allow this pandemic to undo years of hard work and investment at the local and state level. We cannot prioritize reopening restaurants and entertainment venues over safely opening the doors to classrooms and school libraries. A vibrant and effective education system is far more instrumental to the long-term success of our state and has enormous implications on future job opportunities, revenue, and income and opportunity levels.

We are fortunate that, under the leadership of Governor Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, education has remained a top policy and funding priority for our state. The pandemic has created a new sense of urgency to reassess pervasive inequities in our education system and take action to implement thoughtful solutions that can support students and schools through this unprecedented crisis.

We must maintain statewide testing of student progress

One of the keys to addressing inequities in education is making sure that we have the ability to measure how much learning occurs in a school year. To do so, we must remain committed to a statewide testing program. Without that, we risk a return to the days when Tennessee was one of the lowest-performing states in the country for learning growth. There must be a way to measure how much our students have learned each year. 

The 2019 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show Tennessee’s proficiency has stalled in most subjects except for math, and achievement gaps have widened between white students and students of color, students with disabilities, and economically-disadvantaged students. As we look ahead to the fall semester and each school district develops its own strategy to provide instruction, school leaders must also consider avenues to address these socio-economic disparities.

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We can all agree that there’s no perfect substitute for in-person learning, but should a district be forced to continue with virtual instruction, steps must be taken to make sure every student can benefit – especially those who are most vulnerable. Low-quality remote learning programs can lead to lackluster student performance, reduced attendance, and lower participation levels, which is why it is so important for schools to invest in training and technology to strengthen online instruction.

Furthermore, lack of affordable and reliable broadband access is without a doubt one of the greatest barriers to remote learning. Tennessee has made tremendous strides toward closing the digital divide in recent years, with the number of residents without broadband shrinking from 864,545 in 2016 to roughly 584,279 in 2019. However, it is critical we expedite these efforts to ensure schools can provide remote learning opportunities to students across the state, especially in communities with high poverty rates.

Bill Haslam

Finally, as we all work to make up for lost ground, we should not shy away from exploring proposals to accelerate academic gains, including additional tutoring services, extended classroom time, or even a longer school year. Research confirms states and districts that have deployed these strategies have demonstrated results through achievement gains and decreased high school dropout rates.

After years of progress and student growth, the pandemic challenges us to double-down on our past successes and sharpen our collective focus on pursing excellence. Determining the right pathway to reopen Tennessee schools should be a priority for us all, not only to support greater equity and opportunity for our youngest citizens, but also for the future economic prosperity of our state. 

Bill Haslam served as the 49th governor of Tennessee.