You're stuck with me a little while longer. [laughter] Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. James, for um, uh, communicating to us as we walked in the door today, all of this late breaking news. Uh,
certainly been a pleasure to serve up to this point and look forward to continued service alongside all of you all. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Darl. Now, this change does mean one other thing is that Mr. Ryan Holt, who has so aptly served that
district uh for the last five years, uh his position uh is vacated or whatever history, Mr. Chairman, it uh the situation is that while a member normally would be able to serve until their successor is appointed, under this
circumstance, that that isn't authorized. And it also has the effect of changing a quorum to five members and a majority of members entitled to vote to five where it was six all the last several years. >> Thank you. And I think uh every one of us who've been serving on the board
would say what a strong member Ryan Holt was to this board and and what a great job he served on the board. And I'm sure we're going to hear a lot from Ryan in the future of what he's doing and etc. So Ryan, if you're out there watching, thank you. We look forward to seeing
you. uh soon. Hey, the hour is now 12:30 and I call this meeting to or order. Casey Griffin will call the role in to establish the quorum which is now five. >> Mr. Common >> here.
>> Mr. Jansen >> here. >> Miss Cole >> here. >> Miss Maxwell >> here. >> Miss McInur >> here. >> Mr. Molenower, Mr. Rollins >> here. >> Miss Sap
>> here. >> Mr. Chairman >> here. >> Mr. Chairman, you have eight members present. >> I declare a quorum as present. We're duly convened. U also uh uh Mr. Parliamentarian. So our ninth uh
district representative is vacated at this point in time and be one that would be filled sometime in the future. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. [clears throat] And until that point in time, your quorum is five. So >> Mr. uh Mr. Gentile.
>> Ah, >> didn't see you there. >> Welcome. >> That's great. We're always glad to have Dennis Tekk here and uh Victoria Harpool always does an excellent job, but we're
great grateful that you came here. Um, any other members? Actually, uh, Dr. Morrison, would you like to say anything about Miss Sap or >> Not without getting sappy? No. Is that a bad joke? [laughter] We really, I mean, I think Chairman Eevee said it well. You've just been
such a strong student member. And I think seeing the way that you've been able to bring other local board student members together will leave an impact beyond your time with this board. And to me, that's really a telling um a testimony to the the time that you've spent with us and the the impact that you're leaving. So, we wish you all the
best and can't wait to follow your career and your life story, but thank you for spending the last year with us and um again for the the legacy that you're leaving behind. >> Any other comments about anything that before we get started? >> Vice Chair Comments,
>> I would like to thank Miss Sap for her service. you've been a a shining example for those that will follow you and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors and continue to be the leader that you are. So, thank you so much.
>> Would you like to say anything? >> Um, yeah, it's been such an honor to um be a part of this board and just get to know everyone. this has been such a cool learning opportunity for me and um I think I've been able to expand it across the state and have them be involved in
um their state law and their education and so it's been such a cool experience and one that I think I'll look back on very fondly for the rest of my life. So thank you. >> Thank you. Let's give her one more round of applause. P pursuant to section 8 of policy 1.400
400 the board meetings policy workshops or meetings of the state board sitting as a committee of the whole. I ask unanimous consent that the state board then dissolve itself into committee of the whole for the purposes of conducting our workshop. Is there any objection?
Hearing no objections, I then declare that we are in the committee of the whole for the purposes of conducting our workshop. I want to remind presenters to identify themselves by their title and position for the record when presenting. Also to remind presenters that the use of acronyms and jargon should be
explained when uh they use them so that all Tennessans can readily understand the subjects being discussed regardless of their individual background. With that we will get into the agenda. First item on the agenda is AP access for all.
Miss Deb Null. Good afternoon. Deborah Null, assistant commissioner who oversees post-secondary workforce CTE in military readiness at the Tennessee Department of Education. And I have the pleasure to introduce Good afternoon. I am Gina Pavlovich. I'm
the director of AP Access for All. I work for the Nwonga Foundation. Thank you so much for having us today. Today we are so pleased to present to you about just some findings, some results that we have um had with
advanced placement access for all which is otherwise known as AP access for all over the last couple years. So today we're just going to give you a quick overview. We're going to talk about the vision, mission, benefits and trends, the structure, some really
exciting program outcomes, some of the challenges and opportunities that we still have. We're going to talk through um a pilot that we're really excited about for the fall, and then just kind of ending with some resources and some time for you all to ask any additional
questions that you may have. So um Apex is for all was launched way back in 2021 by the Tennessee Department of Education really in collaboration with the nice longer foundation. Initially we were funded through the ESR dollars. We are now funded solely
through state recurring funds and really it's designed to expand equitable access to college level coursework. And what I'm really excited about this is that our our students that are really in those rural areas who may not have those opportunities to engage in AP coursework
now have the opportunity to do so. So that is really exciting for us and that really is a foundation is about the strong outcomes that we have for students and the strong opportunities um that follow. So APX for all really offers free online
AP placement courses across the state to every student across the state. It really ensures that our students in rural and underserved resource schools can take AP courses they otherwise wouldn't have access to. It also really builds on our teacher capacity. It
provides AP teacher training by strengthening district capabilities to ensure high quality instruction. and it really supports all teachers with their professional development that can really help foster those sustainable AP programs locally. The most exciting part
is it removes those barriers for our students. It eliminates those financial obligations such as course and exam fees for students um and gives opportunity in particular for schools that don't already offer those AP courses promoting equity and advanced learning opportunities.
Tennessee is one of only 13 states in the United States with a fully funded statewide AP program. And what's really interesting to note is there are programs out there such as there's one in Florida that kind of offers the same thing, but they really limit their students to four or five courses that
they can traditionally take. Here in Tennessee, there is no limit. So, our students have access to no matter how many courses that they take. I know that Gina is going to touch on that here in just a little bit, but this what this truly does is it highlights the state's commitment to expanding post-secary and
workforce readiness for all students. So, when we talk about the vision and the mission, so it's all about expanding opportunities and removing barriers. So, at the core of this work, it is simple but a powerful idea. Every student in
Tennessee deserves access to rigorous, high-quality academic opportunities like advanced placement. This vision is much more than just about access. It's about meaningful engagement. We want students not only to enroll in AP courses, but to
be challenged, supported, and empowered to pursue at their highest aspirations, whether that's college, career, or military or military or beyond. The mission is all about removing barriers. The mission focuses on identifying and
removing the barriers that often prevent students from participating in AP. These barriers can include things like financial, geographic, or structural, such as smaller schools not being able to offer a full range of AP courses.
through expanded access, targeted support, and resources, we ensure that more students can step into rigorous coursework and succeed um once they're there. Um one thing that we really want to clarify, this is a next best option.
I want to clarify around that this is not intended to replace traditional in-person AP courses. instead is it serves as a next best option when those courses simply aren't available. It expands opportunities for students while
also helping build their local capacity through that teacher training, that instructional support, and shared resources. These supports strengthen overall AP programs and help schools grow their own AP offerings over time. This work is about increasing access while strengthening and expanding those
opportunities across all schools. So, why does this matter? AP courses expand students to college level expectations while they're still in high school. They can build those critical skills like time management,
analytical thinking, and academic writing, helping students transition more confidently into post-secary education. Research from the College Board shows that students who earn scores of two or higher are more likely to enroll in college and persist once they get there.
AP participation helps students see themselves as capable of succeeding beyond high school. Earning a score of three or higher can translate into college credit at many institutions. This gives students a head start, saving time towards college and degrees and potentially reducing the
overall cost of college. When AP excess increases, more students can participate in rigorous coursework. This not only broadens participation but also helps ensure that students from all backgrounds have the opportunity to challenge themselves and pursue those
advanced academic pathways. So we're going to start with just some state AP trends and then Gina is really going to focus in on some outcomes and some trends that we find with just specifically AP access for all.
So, it's really important before I dive into this that this data reflects all AP participation across the state, not just the AP access for all program. I wanted to first, you know, ground this conversation in giving more a broader picture of where Tennessee stands and
the progress being made overall. So, when we look at this, we've got rising participation. Over the last 10 years, we've seen an 8.2% 22% growth increase in graduates taking AP AP exams. This steady growth shows that more students
across the state and across all student groups are accessing AP opportunities than ever before. At the same time, the performance remains strong. In 2025, 63.2% 2% of AP exams earned a score of three or higher
with more than 48,000 qualifying scores, an increase of nearly 15% from the previous year. Notably, these gains are outpacing the national trends, which signals real progress in both access and achievement. This growth translates into tangible
benefits for students. Last year alone, students earned approximately 184,000 college credits through AP, representing millions of dollars in potential cost savings to Tennessee families while also accelerating students path through
college. The key takeaway in all of this is that Tennessee is not only expanding access to AP, but in doing so while maintaining strong outcomes is an important foundation to continued growth and opportunity. Thank you. I um so I want to dive in to
talk about the structure of the program a little bit more. The teachers, how does this work? How do we teach college level classes fully online? Um I I'm going to be talking kind of quickly. So please if you have any questions, I will answer any questions that you have. Um
but to just first dive into Oh, yes. Pull that mic over. >> Oh, I can. Uhu. Is that better? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, to dive into the structure of the overall program, um
like we said, this is led by a collaboration with the Nwonger Foundation and the Department of Ed. And uh we are so thankful for that collaboration and all the support that we've gotten from them in the past and that we're still getting through them uh with them today. Uh the base of this
program is really founded on that plus um an wonderful administrative team that I have in Northeast Tennessee. But you can't serve the entire state just in northeast Tennessee. So we talk about our four regional relationship specialists who are key to our work
because when a school in Memphis is having an EPO night and wants somebody to have a table for AP access, I can't do that. I live in Johnson City and so um we have someone who lives an hour outside of Memphis. And so those four regional specialists are really the face
of our program among our all of our high schools that we serve. Um when a school system comes on board, we ask every um high school to um to nominate or to put up a person to be the AP liaison. And that is our go-to person at that high
school. When we have information, we share it with him or her. when we have flyers, when we have anything that we want to share with them, that's our main contact. And that has been such a great relationship with all of our high schools. And then, of course, you can't do anything in education without some
amazing amazing educators. And we just this past year had over 140 adjunct teachers who were teaching our 2,200 students that were enrolled with us. um a mix of that dedic dedicated school
support along with the um administrators and the central office, those AP liaison. All of those partnerships have really helped to grow the AP access program, but more importantly to make it successful and make it something that these students are um really getting a
lot out of with our um teachers, our AP access for all adjunct teachers. They're all Tennessee licensed teachers. We're very proud of that and that is something that we will continue to um to have. They're trained through the AP summer institutes which is a collegeboard back
training to to know how to teach these courses but they're also trained through the Niswonger Foundation in what it's like what does good online pedigogy look like. Um so these teachers are just top-notch 18 years on average experience. uh 88%
of our teachers have a master's degree or higher. And this last little note um uh we're very excited when we have any teachers who are able to um be a part of the AP reader program and that is the college board. They hire thousands of
teachers each summer to grade and to read AP exams. That's how they get all of these essays graded. Um, and so we have a number of teachers who have been through that, still doing it to this day, and they're bringing all of that expertise on how the AP exams are
graded. They're bringing that to us. They're helping better our courses with it, and they're of course helping to better the students when it comes to those AP exams. Um, looking at just the instructional model again with our teachers, 140
teachers, 22 online courses, but when you're talking about those 22 courses, um, you could, for example, have an AP psychology course that has 25 sections teaching almost 500 students. And what
we need to make sure that we have is a consistency in which these students whether you get in section one or you get in section 24 you're having that same level you're you're taking the same course you're having the same active
feedback you know helpful feedback on your work and and a big piece that is helps us to maintain that is we we have lead teachers for every course for some of our larger courses in which there are 20 or 5 individual section teachers. We
um we have more than one lead teacher. We also have secondary leads to help support that lead. And and again, we're just making sure there's a consistency in grading. There's a consistency in course and in resources and all of that that's needed. We also do not let
courses go over 20 students because you never want a kid to get lost in a hundred kids. and we have these online um discussions and things like that and and if a student were to log in and see that there was 80 other discussion comments that could get overwhelming,
right? And we want these kids to know that we're there for them. We want this to be very personalized. And one way in which we do that is we keep those class sizes at that 20 those 20 students. Um and then yeah, the key of our all of these online teachers are the feedback
that they give. They have to give that actionable feedback so that these students can learn and grow as they're moving through the course. And that lead teacher is mentoring them and helping them to understand what is good feedback, what does that look like? also
mentoring them in the sense of how do we keep these students engaged and logging in and working and and so that is really just a a very short overview of that instructional model and how we're able to serve so many students in this online
environment. And then here, this is one of our teachers. I could spend all day bragging about all of our teachers, but this is Josh Barry. He teaches at Science Hill High School. He's an AP pre-calculus teacher for us. He also um helped us develop our AP pre-calculus
course, which is a a newer AP course in the standards of college board. His his course is phenomenal. The success rates are phenomenal. And and what he says here is what we hear from a lot of teachers. They they really understand the benefits of AP. They've seen
students locally grow and go on to bigger and better thanks to the confidence that they've gotten in an AP course. And and something that's really neat that I love hearing from all of our teachers is just that for many years, Mr. Barry has been making a great
difference at Science Hill High School and with his local community. And now he can say that he has been making a difference in the lives of students all across the state. And so that's just that's the neatest thing. I hear that from the teachers and I hear that from students who just they're so excited
that they got to know a teacher. They live in Memphis and they got to know a teacher from East Tennessee. So it it's just such a neat thing. Um so let's look at some of the outcomes of the program. Um first off
uh we have seen consistent growth throughout the five years and our enrollment has already opened for next school year and it still continues to grow. Um 2498
students are currently um enrolled and uh again it shows a over a doubling since year one. this time year one during this time period almost 6,500 AP exams have been taken by AP access for all students and again it's so important
to know that that's students who five years ago this was not an option at all and so you're looking at 6,500 students who had that ability to take an AP exam and hopefully earn that college credit and then also our rural access is
growing and continues to grow and 1581 students have been served from the um rural commu communities across the state. So let's let's take a look at um what these students are doing. What are they into? Um so performance when it comes to
the AP exam uh this past year in 2025, let me quickly share. So, our our school year ended May 1st and the following Monday on May 4th, AP exams started for this school year and we will not get those exam scores until July. So, all of
this that we're now going to be talking about is of course last school year or the over the last um since the beginning of the program. But last school year in 2025, we had 49% of our students earn a qualifying score of three or higher,
which was so exciting. Um, the college readiness score of a two or higher, 77% of our students earned that score. A three, four or five on the AP exam, that's the score that these students are really trying to reach for. That's the score that most universities will give
some kind of credit for. I say most, there are IV leagues that they only take a five, but the vast majority of these universities that these schools that our students are going to want to go to, they will take a score of three, four, or five, and they will grant college credit for it. The score of two is what
the College Board calls a college ready score. And that is just saying that this student is ready to go to college and take a course like this and be successful at that course. Um, with those three or highers, we've had 9,700
potential college credits earned, which is very exciting for these students. Um, we pay the AP exam fee. So, when we say that we're breaking down barriers to a AP, we're breaking down all the barriers, um, including the AP exam fee.
So, over the last four years, we have paid half a million dollars in AP exam fees, um, to help the local families or the schools in in those savings. And then um with those 9,700 credits, students have potentially earned uh
almost $4 million in savings in college tuition. So all of those are just very exciting outcomes for the program. I do want to note um just in a little bit more detail, you look at those first two bullets and you see that 49% AP access
for all students earned a qualifying score um compared to 63% statewide. We are very proud of the 49% and what I and I can explain this later if anyone you know in more detail but it it's really
not comparing apples to apples with AP access for all. We really are serving all students. A lot of school systems and and there's no problem with this at all, but a lot of school systems you only take AP English language if you
your freshman year had honors English and then your second year you had honors English 2 and then you move into an AP English class. A lot of our students, they don't have access to honors and so they're going from a gened English one English two and they did well, they were
successful in those classes and the counselors are saying come on, you can do this. let's do AP. And so it it really does it's a it's different for all of the students. And so when we say that, you know, half of our students this year earned that qualifying score
or last year earned that qualifying score, it is just it's a phenomenal number for us and we're we're very very excited about it. When looking at the statewide uh participation and reach of the program,
we are at uh 99% of all the eligible school systems are um on board with us, which is so exciting. Uh when this started, right before we started this program, all the data we were getting from the department of ed was well
roughly only about half of our schools offer an AP course. And and so we definitely wanted to to change that. And with that number, with that half, that was including schools who maybe only offered one or two. And now 99% of the
high schools in the state of Tennessee can say they offer 22 AP courses to their students. And that that's just a phenomenal a really that's a huge number. I I've seen numbers from the college board of statewide, you know,
who what states offer the most college uh AP offerings on average, and we are definitely up there within the top 10 um because of the the 99% who are now on board with us. Um [clears throat]
the high school participation, so we have 99% of our school systems have signed anou and they are on board with us. And now all of those individual high schools have the ability to enroll with us. Of all of those individual high schools, we've got 57% who are currently
actively enrolling with us. And and that's a huge number. So again, think about that. 50% we already knew had some AP that they were offering locally. And now the AP access for all program is really helping out for the most part
that 50% that didn't have those AP offerings. Plus, we're even helping some of those schools who did. Maybe they offered only offered one or two or we have some schools who offer every AP class you can think of, but because of scheduling conflicts in the past where a
counselor had to say, "Sorry, you have to choose between orchestra or AP human geography second semester, they no longer have to do that. They can say you take orchestra and then you do AP human geography online with AP access." So, um, we're very excited about our participation and each year we see, u
more and more high schools. You, you know, think of school systems like Hamilton County with 20 plus high schools and in those first few years they probably had three or four enrolling and now we've got 15 enrolling from those school systems. So, that's super exciting to see them all come on
board and us to be able to help. Even if it's just a small number of students, that's all. We we just want to help whoever might need our our services. the rural participation, 48% of those eligible high schools are actively enrolling with us. And um you can see
there the first year we had 179 schools enroll with us and I'm going to tell you we were so excited about that. We were so happy with that. Um and now we have reached um you know almost 250 high schools across the state who are um
enrolling their students with us. So, from the beginning, we we knew we were going to have this online program and we were going to have these online courses for students to take advantage of, but we also wanted to help local school systems build their own programs.
If you really want to have, you know, a school system jump on board and be really into offering AP and understand what AP can do, then let's help them be able to also offer their own local AP courses. And and that's what this here is talking about. Um, we are training
teachers across the state to then be able to go and teach AP locally for their students and those are very expensive trainings. You see there 500 to 900,000 uh $900. Um, those are very expensive trainings and these teachers are getting those trainings so they now
they feel comfortable going back to the school and and you know teaching to their own local schools um to their students. And then what else do you need? Okay, we never had an AP biology course. Well, now let's have one. So, what do you need? You need AP biology uh
supplies and materials and things like that. And so, in addition to training teachers, we also have many grants. They are up to $500 and and these are mostly used by teachers who they want to get supplies for their classroom like lab
supplies um or also they want to get study materials that um students that may help students on the AP exam. So, we're we're very excited that not only do we have this online program to support all of our students, but we're also helping to create that mindset and
help them to be able to in at least in some part offer um online courses locally to their students. So, as you can see, we have um I see it's out of order. We have uh a
lot of great growth and but I did want to talk a little bit about our challenges. Um one is going to be very familiar to all of us here which is the um teachers. We uh at the end of every year we have students left on what we
call the weight list who we were not able to get a seat in a classroom for them because we just don't have enough teachers. We're we're continuing to do all we can to reach out to teachers all across the state. The schools help us. The our local AP liaison will hand out
flyers to their local AP teachers. Uh we really the most of our teachers come to us through word of mouth from other teachers who have already been working with us. Um but that is a limitation for us. We I gave some examples of AP
psychology. That's our most enrolled course. This past school year, we had almost 500 students just in AP psychology. So, just finding those teachers who have to have a license in a a very specific um you know, subject
area, that's difficult to find. our art histories. Um, this slide says AP Computer Science, which we do need more AP computer science teachers, but it it is great to note that thanks to the endorsement pathways and things that
were brought together here, um, we're able to have more teachers who are able to come to us and say, "Yes, I have that endorsement and I'd like to train and then teach those classes for us." um some things that we really don't have any control over, but we want to um
always be in the know of and see do whatever we can to help schools just general um enrollment fluctuations. It any school will tell you, you know, some years you have a a class that's just full of STEM kids and they love the sciences and they love the math and then
the next year you have the classes that are full of the English students and the arts students. And so we do see fluctuations up and down in our enrollment uh in individual courses because of things like that. But again, overall enrollment just continues to
grow and grow. Um another piece is uh I talked to you about how we are actively helping school systems develop their own AP programs. So where maybe in the first two years of this program, a high school enrolled 40 students in AP English
language with us, the third year they might not have any students in AP English language because we trained a teacher for them and we helped them get all the resources they needed so they could offer that in-house. So that does cause some fluctuations. Um but again, all manageable and all things that we
just keep the communications open with the high schools. Uh it's the end of the school year right now and I already have schools reaching out to me, Gina, I'm going to need at least 40 seats in computer science, AP computer science. Okay, we will work on that. You know, so just having that line of communication
open and thankfully having all of these administrators and these AP liaison, you know, very happy and and easily able to to reach out to me. It it definitely helps us. And then the final thing, just some logistical barriers that again, we have no control over. I I'd have no
control over what kind of is the student using a Chromebook or an iPad or an actual desktop, but I do I'm constantly learning from our school systems on what they're doing locally that is giving them such great success rates. And then
I'm sharing that with all of our high schools that enroll with us. And so, you know, students who get a short period during the day to work on their APA class, that is um such a great help for them, right? But we also have students
who are extremely successful who have a full schedule of AP and dual enrollment in the classroom and then they come to us and they only work in the afternoon or the evenings. So all of those things I'm just again constantly working with schools and and just learning from them
on what are they doing especially our schools that are so successful which is so many high schools across the state but those that enroll a large number of students and they're very successful I'm reaching out to them saying hey talk to me what are you doing what is the plan here and then I am sharing that far and
wide with all of everybody everybody that'll listen to Okay, >> great. So, thank you. What we're also looking on the horizon and looking ahead for is something called a second chance opportunity pilot that Nicewonger is going to be pushing out in the fall um
in collaboration with Modern States. And so what this does is, you know, you saw the data behind the number of students who just barely missed that number three on the qualifying exam score. So, what this is going to allow them to do is really um go through the Modern States
coursework and and then to kind of take that exam in order to earn college credit. So, it's really intended for those students who are really committed to this advanced coursework, who did the hard work, who went through the AP course and just um slightly missed it. So, they're going to have the
opportunity um to engage in this pilot. Um it will start in the fall. Um and um we're just really excited about that because at the end of the day it's about the student and at the end of the day it's about getting this student what they need, giving them the opportunities
they deserve um so that they can have access to that meaningful um college credit um that they so richly work so hard for. So we're really um very excited about that. And do you want to um
let me quickly go back to Payton here. I mean, we talk a lot of numbers and I showed you one of our AP teachers. Um I also just want to introduce you to one of our students and in a moment I have some resources for you. I have last year's impact report that gives some
great detail into our enrollment from uh last the 2425 school year plus our overall enrollment for the first four years. And then because our courses just closed on May 1st, I was also able to create a little one-pager for you that
gives you some insight onto what this enrollment, this past school year's enrollment looked like. And so I I'd love for you to be able to take a a glance at that and you will see some more beautiful student faces. But this here, this is Payton. Um he goes to Campbell County High School. He has
actually been doing online courses with us since his eighth grade year. In his eighth grade year, he started taking Niswonger online courses to um as an eighth grade enrichment program. That's something that we do also to help um middle schools and to help them provide
enrichment programs for their students. Um but he took a math class with us his eighth grade year. And then his freshman year, uh AP access came along. And during these last four years, he's took seven classes with us. in addition to
some AP classes at his local high school and and he just received a a full ride scholarship to MIT. So, it it's just so exciting to hear stories like that, especially from these rural counties. I remember years ago talking to his
counselor that when he was a freshman and she said, "Gina, he wants to go to MIT and I just I hope we can get him there." And I was like, "We're going to do it. We're gonna and I mean we didn't do anything. This precious child right here did everything but but you will see
um other stories like that. The the one pager we have is um there's a little girl named Claire who has taken Lincoln County has taken 11 AP classes with her since our um since we began. She uh just made the very difficult decision of what
college to go to because not exaggerating, she was admitted to just about every Ivy League you can imagine. And um the LA uh right before I got here, I I thought it was she'd either narrowed it down to Stanford or Harvard or Stanford or Yale. And a few days ago,
I learned that she chose Stanford. So, and she's just this precious girl. Um but I just had to share some faces and some names with you guys. And you will again, you'll see that in those those resources that that we hope that we can get out to you.
>> Thank you. This is absolutely awesome. I'm sure we've got some questions for him. Dr. Maxwell, >> thank you, Chairman Eie. Thank you both uh for your presentation. I'm just wondering as I'm sitting here, how is
this or how can it be communicated to our counselors in uh pre high school, the seventh and eighth grade where that high school and beyond plan is being developed so that they know what opportunities are available for those children who come in and say, I think I
want to do this, but we don't have that here in our district or county. >> She's back. That's a great question and it is something that we work with because we serve a number of freshmen which means their eighth grade year we need the middle school counselors who we
do not have that very close relationship with like we do all the high school counselors but we need them to understand that listen those exceptional students who may dream of Vanderbilt or or anywhere like that we need to get some AP credits under their belt and and
so we do my regional specialists they have quite often gone on to middle schools to go to parent nights to talk about listen your eighth grade student could go ahead and start thinking about enrolling in this online AP access for all program if it's not um offered at
the local at the local high school. >> Yeah. And also at the department we work really hard um to ensure that that is communicated through our newsletters and also when we talk about our four-pillar work you know the individualized advising pillar ensuring that they
understand all their opportunities when it comes to early post-secondary opportunities and that seamless transition pillar to really work collaboratively and make sure our communications are streamlined they're pushed out in all avenues you know through our you know um co you know career coach collaboratives through our
guidance counselor newsletters through our, you know, commissioners update for directors, all those places as we're really trying to communicate and we do that in partnership with Nicewonger to make sure that our communications are also very streamlined so we're talking the same message at all times.
>> Mr. Chairman, Mr. Johnson, >> um, I have several questions and some of them you can answer later. So, uh, um, there's been some push back on the AP in the education landscape. How does that
>> from a macro level impact what you're doing? >> Um, to be quite honest, I'm not hearing a lot of push back. I think the biggest thing that we get is um and we try hard to share this message also is we're not
here to to me you know these schools have done exceptional jobs to create these dual enrollment partnerships and and these these pathways that involve all of this dual enrollment and we are the only kind of uh push back we get with AP is sometimes a school will say
oh well we don't need AP we have dual enrollment right >> and and and so we just let them know how AP P differs from dual enrollment. >> That was my second question. >> Um and and really the the key there is and and the schools, they do exceptional
at this, but you just really need to know your student. You know, this this little girl Claire who is on this, which you'll receive, um she's going to have a very difficult time getting into Stanford or Yale or Harvard with just
dual enrollment credits. Um, and so adding that, you know, their transcript is like their resume, right, when they're trying to get into a university. And so a a university seeing all of these AP credits, which is a College Board aligned national, actually
international courses, they're taking the exact same test to earn that three, four, or five, you know, all of that is aligned. And because of that, the universities really hold that to a very high standard. and and that's why they are very willing to give um credits,
college credits for those three, four or fives. Um but what what we share with with schools who just say, "Oh, we're dual enrollment." is um one like I was saying earlier, we have students begin APA courses their freshman year and and
imagine students their freshman year already getting that rigor and and that college, you know, um content experience and then they move into those dual enrollments their junior and senior year and and they slide right in. there's no
just there's no wakeup call because they've already been taking these very difficult AP courses before they even got to that dual enrollment. So, we make sure that schools understand that. And and then also, like I said, you know, they they know their students much better than we do. But if you have a
student who want who is hoping for an an Ivy League or uh also even hoping to go out of state, you know, imagine all of my students, all of our students who um they're right on the border of Kentucky. So going to UK would be just as normal
as going to UT sometimes. And and again, those AP credits are going to um align and and they're going to be offered more um college credits for that AP test than they could possibly offered for some of
those dual enrollments. >> One more if you don't mind. >> Um thank you for what you're doing. It's really exciting and uh glad you're here and being a part of our school system. >> Is this public school, private, charter,
any and all? >> So, right now we are currently just public and public charters. Uh I do get I do get private schools who reach out to me. Um I also get home schools who reach out to me. Um that was the original
grant and and it's how it has stayed. We definitely have no problem serving all um homeschool students. It's difficult just because you um I have moms all the time emailing me and say, "Hey, I want my kid
to take AP biology." And I say, "That's great. Go to this person at your school." We do not the only people who are allowed to enroll with us are people at the school. And I'm not going to mess up a a counselor's four-year plan, you know, because somebody's parent calls
me. And and so logistical things like that um could be an issue, but currently we are public schools and public charters. >> And one final thing is, is there a place I can go and just see what the curriculum is? Is it on your website? Um
I'm just curious. The courses, >> right? Um you can go to our website. Um when you get these, you'll see it. You'll see our website on there. um go to our list of courses and you can see all the courses that we offer. And then when you click on it, you can even look at a course syllabus which will even
give you details of down to every module what what the students are being taught in those modules and um and then of course it always it completely aligns with college board. >> Thank you. >> I have some questions too. Um first if
Oh go ahead. Oh, sorry. Also, >> Mr. Chairman, I apologize for that. If I can I only have eight questions here. [laughter] >> That beats my nut. >> No, thank thank you for the presentation. Um, uh, I do have several questions, but I'll just try to whittle
down to a few here. Um, first of all, the courses online, are they asynchronous or synchronous? >> They're fully They're asynchronous. >> Asynchronous. Okay. Thank you. Um, >> sorry, did I see that one from you? >> That was wrong. >> So, they're fully asynchronous. Okay.
Um, I I definitely understand the why AP would be better for some students than all. I used to work at college admissions, too. If I'm a guidance counselor, why might I steer someone away from AP access for all online AP towards dual enrollment? What's what student might be best served by dual
enrollment versus AP? Um well, for example, let's say um in my area, the student already knows I want to be a nurse and I'm going to get that degree from Northeast State, then do all your dual enrollment at Northeast State, you know, and and I don't if they want to do
an AP course, wonderful. Let's do it. But that is a situation where that student should just do all the dual enrollment they can because they already know and they have access to it. you know, the school is right there with them and and they can do it with that
school. So, that that's probably the best example I could give. Um, and again, it's just it's based on every, you know, every kid is different. And we do we have a I would say the vast majority of our students do a mix, which I love because then they're getting all
of the different experiences. >> Yeah. And I was I'll just piggyback off that. I really do think it's important to do a lot of different opportunities when it comes to early postsecary opportunities having those experiences um because they're getting different things from different ways whether it be
asynchronous or it be an AP course or it be dual enrollment these are all opportunities to grow into growing their understanding growing their coursework all of that um but I think it's it's a lot about transparency with a student having those discussions and I think it really starts with that high school and
beyond plan to really have those detailed conversations to really see what is best for that student. Is it a dual enrollment track at the local community college? You could take also some AP courses, but it's having it's having that conversation to see what
that student is aspiring to, where their strengths are, how do they best learn. I think that needs to also come into play. This is all asynchronous. >> I think, you know, one one of my child would, you know, excel with that. another one of my children would have a
hard time with that. Um, [clears throat] so it's just really understanding those children and I think that starts at the basis of having those detailed conversations in that individualized advising. >> Well, [clears throat] I'll I'll stop my questions there. I'll just say um I have great concerns with uh almost an over
reliance on dual enrollment and the growth and expansion there. Like if you ever need some help and helping advocate expanding AP access for all, thank you. Please let me know. >> Thank you. Yeah, I had a couple of questions. Um, so if 99% of the districts are
participating, what's wrong with the one or two that's not? >> So there's three. >> Okay. >> And and two of them are very much a we have dual enrollment. We don't need AP. Uh now I I don't take no for an answer. So we're still reaching out to them. My regional specialists of those areas are
still going there a few times a year. uh just letting them know, hey, this opportunity is still here. If there's ever a student, we can help. Um but those are the two that we really cons are concerned for and just for the fact
that they the local system does not offer any AP classes. Um so we know that the students are not getting that opportunity. Um, the third one is a um a a very good school system that offers every single AP class that you can that
you can think of. And and so I would love for them to come on board and we again we still go and we meet with them and we say, "Hey, if there's ever a student I said for a schedule conflict or maybe you have that student, there's only seven hours in a school day, right?" and and some of these kids are
phenomenal and they're doing all of these AP during the school day and they're saying, "Oh, if I could just get one more, you know, that would look great on this college application." So, um we are still reaching out to that school system, too. But those kids, we do know that they are getting the uh the AP experience and that opportunity.
>> Thank you. Um so, you said this is asynchronously, uh but you have a shortage of teachers. Um, so help me understand do the teachers I mean I know they spend a lot of time obviously grading etc. Is that is that the issue there?
>> It is and and you know imagine in an AP course they're always so writing intensive and and so these teachers are are writing are reading and and grading these longer essays and it's just very time consuming. They're also the vast
majority of my teachers are working as an AP teacher during the school day and then working for us on the evenings and the weekends. The ones who aren't, they are recently retired and those teachers do get multiple sections. So instead of just teaching 20 students, they may have
40 students. Um but just that time commitment. We again I I I cannot have a a teacher teaching a hundred students kind of halfway in this environment because then the their chances of success are going to are going to go
down greatly. So I need them to be able to have that personalized that individual and our teachers even though it is asynchronous. If I'm in a calculus class and I need help with a problem they can reach out to their teacher at any time and say hey can we meet? and
that teacher will have Zoom meetings with small groups of kids and help explain different concepts and do things like that. It all has to happen outside of the school day, of course, but um they're they're just trying to give these kids the best most personalized,
you know, education as they can without being standing over them in the classroom saying get to work. >> So that leads me to my next to last question. Last one is just a comment is that with such a high success rate that you have getting a two plus and even
three plus, what can we learn about virtual learning in these classes that we can that we can take to the rest of virtual learning classes across the state? >> I love this question and anytime you have like three days to talk about it, I
would love to go deeper. Um, I mean for us, so I've been with the foundation for 15 years now, always within the online learning program and and we've grown, we've learned. You know, we we joke that we were building while we were flying the plane and and things like that, but
just, you know, some of the key things and this is with life, like the number one thing is communication and and keeping that open and trying to keep those students engaged. that when you have a student who doesn't log in for a week, that's a really big deal because
during that week they probably had 30 assignments in that especially in that AP class. And so just constantly staying on top of engaging, keeping them logging in, keeping them communicating with us, with the teacher, with that local AP
liaison, all of that communication, keeping it wide open. Um, and then just the courses in general. We're constantly updating these courses with, you know, trying to make it something that nobody wants to sit and read five pages on a
screen, you know, and so we're like, okay, how can we make that better? What can we create? What can what video can we develop? What how can we do better assessments? All of those types of things are just so key in any classroom, but especially key in the online in the
virtual world because again, she talked about her I have three kids in high school right now and one of them would be fine in an online class and the other two would never do anything and and it's you know it's that whole thing of like them when you get into that online
asynchronous environment there's no you could be an exceptional student but there's no longer somebody standing over your shoulder saying put your phone down and get to work and those types of things. And so we have to be that from a virtual place. And it's not easy, but
we're we're constantly doing all we can to to be there. >> Well, every year I get to go up to Upper East Tennessee and participate in the Niswanger Foundation activity when they have the representatives, the legislative representatives come through and I'm always impressed. But uh
certainly we thank the Nice Wonger Foundation for this for this uh because it it's not cheap. I know that. But uh the opportunities that our students have across the state because of that are just outstanding. >> It's a it's a tremendous pride for us to
be a part of this. So thank you >> Miss Cobb. >> Yes. Thank you for the presentation. I just have to say coming from a rural background myself, we had nothing like AP classes. We had a graduating class of 26. So that tells you how strapped we were just for offering four years of math and English. And so anyway, I was
just curious because I'm such a data person to this point. I always show my students where they started and where they are now. >> I noticed that you're a 49% achievement. Do you have and I'm sure maybe the information you're going to give us later on shows you where you were in year one all the way up to year five
>> as far as percentage of achievement. >> You know, I I don't know if it's on here. I do not have it with me. I'm so sorry. And I don't want to guess. Uh I mean it's grown every year that three plus. >> Um but I do not
have it with me. I can get it for you. Definitely. >> I'd be interested to see it. >> Yeah, I would love to. I'll get it for all of you because it's I mean it's a another piece of pride and I apologize that I didn't put it on here. >> And just one other thing you said you were having trouble with your computer lab access, your limited uh access for
computers. I'm sure you've already thought of this, partnering with local businesses to see if they can offer th those opportunities of computer use in their businesses. >> Yes, that's a great idea. Uh yeah, that's something that we talked to schools about. Um and I I love I could
definitely share that and make sure that they're thinking outside of the box on that. >> Thank you, Miss. >> Yes. Um so I have personally benefited from the AP program and know several people
um who have also benefited from it especially the online I'm actually friends with Claire and so I can say yes I can say firsthand that she is all around [clears throat] me >> I will she is just precious in every way [laughter] um but um
>> yes and so I also really appreciate um the pilot program that you guys um have started um with students who might need that extra time and stuff like that. I was just wondering um and this might not be under your jurisdiction, but um if
you know if any consideration has been put into incentivizing AP whose students may need more than one opportunity to um demonstrate mastery because currently AP only offers one um opportunity and it's
could be considered a little bit intense for some students to um get that credit. And so if there's a way for students to still like achieve that credit in other ways like might um be available in like
a real college class. >> Yes, that that's a wonderful point and I think that's where we're really going to start with this pilot here in the fall with Modern States is that second chance opportunity because you're you're absolutely right. They went through the coursework. you know, it may have been something as simple as test anxiety that
may have prevented them from getting that three. And so, this is just another opportunity for them to earn that college credit they so um rightly deserve after that that hard work. So, thank you for that comment, >> Commissioner Reynolds. >> So, this is I don't know if it's really
a question, but so part of the four-pillar work obviously is building the and right and I think this kind of came out a little bit with um Mr. Jensen's comment about the push back. I think what he's talking about and what we need to do a better job with and this
is accountability right here is really emphasizing that this program isn't just for your four years, right? >> And that sometimes becomes that push back, that barrier that the adults put on the kids because they're like, "Oh,
no, these are the AP kids. These are the four-year kids." And so thinking even about the school that offers everything. Well, what who are they offering it to? Everyone or are they just saying here you took an honors class, you can go
here. So really even emphasizing to them there may be kids that are on the outskirts that would like to participate but maybe they don't feel like they can and this can offer them that opportunity. And I think we need to really think about the fact that this also offers co, you know, you can still
demonstrate college readiness, college preparedness in this getting a two. So you can go to a TCAT or a community college that is um without remediation, right? Because we hear I hear from parents and from grandparents
about [clears throat] how their kids went to a TCAT and they weren't ready. Um, so I think we need to really broaden the conversation around AP access for all and the fact that it is for all kids and it and it prepares you in the writing space like my son who did AP
went to community college after graduation. He's going to now transfer to a to a four-year but it also he was ready for that writing that intensive writing portion. He went poly he's you know wanting to go polyai god help us all. Um but going into government
classes where the writing was very intensive but he was ready to go right he understood it. So I just want to be really you know I I want the world to understand that this is for all kids. AP is for all kids. It's not just for a
certain sliver of kids. And I think this program gives us that opportunity to really open those doors for kids that maybe thought they weren't >> that [clears throat] potentially they were. And then if they want I I agree though if they're going to go nursing I'd go the two two-year route. You get in you get out like you pay nothing,
right? Let's go for it. Um but there's still opportunities that may be in that pursuing of the nursing degree. They just they figure out they don't really like blood or they don't like certain aspects of nursing, but there's so much
more in the health care space that may require that four-year pathway. So, >> or a two-year pathway plus whatever, you know, two-year and then the high hospital pays for the for the the actual degree because there's also, you know, you're just getting that initial degree,
you can go get that advanced um, you know, whether nurse practitioner or whatever once you get into, you know, into into employment. So, I just really wanted to emphasize that point moving forward because we need to do a better job communicating that potential for all kids. when you call it AP access for
all. It should be AP access for all. Mr. Chairman, one of them. >> Mr. Jens, I I just want to underscore that. I know y'all are surprised I didn't bring up CTE in this uh discussion, but it it's just so critical. We got 50% of our children
that are are not going to college >> and I hope every last one of them goes. But the reality is that and I just underscore what you're saying that we and I know you're doing it but just this uh opportunity for the last six or seven years we've worked real hard across the
state to get the the CTE elevated people to understand it. uh we I think we decided we would not use college as a word anymore but postsecary and so I just I want to underscore and and what she what the commissioner just
said. Thank you. >> Well, we will continue to scream that from the rooftops right alongside of you. I promise. And one thing I do hear all the time from our students is how they were scared to go into an AP class, especially these students at a rural
school or a very small urban school, and and they're like, "Oh, I'm not going to be able to do this." And then they get into one of our courses and they're successful and and they they are talking about how now they have more confidence in themselves and you know, you can't
that's the best thing ever, right? Hi, Chair Cobins. >> Thank you uh for sharing this great public private partnership with us today. Um results are phenomenal. Uh just one question. Over the years, we've heard a lot about um counselor capacity
and them being overtaxed with so many duties >> that sometimes students who show the aptitude for dual enrollment or other opportunities may not uh be referred. And so in your experience, how has that
gone with counselors and their ability to handle all the duties and make sure that these students are aware? >> It is um you know it the counselors are overwhelmed and the vast majority of our AP liaison are a counselor usually the
lead counselor at the school. Um, we do have some school systems that are changing that and moving that because they're trying to really make sure they can prioritize their counselor's time and and I love that. I love the thinking behind that. Um, when it's not a counselor who we're working with who's
our direct liaison, it's usually an assistant principal or a testing coordinator if the school has a testing coordinator. Um, one thing that we did in the beginning and we still do when when it when the need is there, but we
we um work with and when I say re we, I mean my regional specialists, they work with the counselors on helping them understand a lot of the um programs and a lot of the resources that they have
out there to be able to get a basically a bird's eye view of the students work and I'm so sorry I cannot think of the name of one of these right now that uh I know a lot of our school systems use but
it it's it's basically a program that helps the schools see that okay this student is not a a 3.5 or higher student they're they're a solid 3.0 0 maybe even a a 2.5 student, but look at their TCAP
scores in science. Look at their EOC their freshman year like the it helps them identify that student that may fall through the cracks because I was that student just to be honest with you guys. I was I loved math. I loved science. You know what? I don't know if I went to
most of my English classes and I apologize for that. But, you know, I was like, I don't want to learn about Romeo and Juliet. know my my grades in English were low. You know, if I got like a low B, I was like, "Yeah, look at me." But then I had this exceptional scores in math and sciences, but because the
overall GPA wasn't there, and this was a hundred years ago, but because that overall GPA wasn't there, I was never offered any kind of advanced course in a math or a science class. And so we are really and again still to this day but
was very much focusing on it when we were bringing on all of those new schools in the beginning of how let's look for those students. Let's try to find those kids that might fall through the cracks and and but like you're saying that's another job we're putting on the counselor. And I think too I want
to add you know through our work with the four pillars with the you know we talked about the high school and beyond plan our career coaches they're brought into this conversation as well. We really streamline all of our communications in line with nice longer through our career coach collaborative. So they're they're having the information or you know alongside our
guidance counselors and things like that. So we are trying to build up this capacity because it is about transparency about what is available like what are those options are. Our role is to really ensure that students have all the options at their fingertips and it's up to them to walk into what door they want to walk in, but we have to give them that information and so
we're really trying to build up that capacity especially through the high school and beyond plan work, the individualized advising and our career coaches as well. >> Thank you so much. A great discussion. >> Thank you.
Hey, >> next is workbased learning framework, Mr. Matthew Spanella. Good afternoon and thank you for having me. My name is Matthew Spanella. I'm the director of workforce partnerships and experiences uh for the Tennessee Department of Education and uh I'm here
today to share with you some information about work-based learning. Um as you can see, this uh presentation is titled intentionally accelerating students careers. Before I get started, um I would like to share we were uh presented with a few questions from the board.
Specifically, tell us what is work-based learning? How are students taking advantage of it? What are some challenges you have? And what are your plans? Uh and so what we've put together in this presentation is an agenda that covers not only that, but a little bit more. um including kind of how
work-based learning being one of the four pillars of our prioritized work, how it connects with um the entirety of what the the department is doing as a whole. And so what I would like to start with is kind of just showing the
interconnectedness between work-based learning and each of the four pillars with work-based learning being being that fourth pillar. And in terms of credentials of value, uh work-based learning as defined as you will see down the road, it is um really essentially
something that leads to and often in many cases a highly recognized uh highly in demand credential of value that really allows students to accelerate their careers uh toward what their end point is desired to be.
um many are listed on there and uh obviously there are obviously many more that the department has for our students in terms of its individual advising connections. Work-based learning is really just a way for a student to have added layers of support when it comes to
those uh future decisions. Um for individualized advising students in elementary and middle school, they start to think about their high school and beyond plan. They have career coaches as they progress through middle and high school as well as educators who are highly knowledgeable across all areas of
the curriculum. But when a student's enrolled in a work-based learning course, they have a specific work-based learning coordinator that connects them to those occupational opportunities as well as at those job placements, codified in policy, a mentor that's
going to provide them with the ins and outs and and kind of what to look for that an immersive experience can provide that you really just can't get from the classroom. So those two additional layers of support from a coordinator in the school as well as a mentor on the job site and any other uh employers or
employees that they interact with in their placements. It's really where the individualized advising really takes it to the next level. Next is our seamless transitions. Um I was really pleased to hear a lot of these questions about whether AP dual enrollment um and other
options are ideal through work-based learning opportunities. Many of our students are able to earn both post-secary credits seamlessly metriculate from high school to post-secary in some cases earn some post-secary credentials while still in high school. Um, and I'm not just
talking about credentials value actual post-secary credentials. And lastly, work-based learning is the fourth pillar. And what it is is just hands-on work experience, immersive experiences where students take what they've learned in the classroom and actually put it to use. Um, we heard Commissioner Reynolds
earlier say if someone's pursuing nursing and then finds out they're not really pleased with seeing blood, what other options along that um through that actual career sector might be available where they don't have to expose themselves to seeing blood but also
might work in a healthcare capacity. Where do those dispositional characteristics that the student has along with those interest translates elsewhere? Uh, and so that's the beauty of what work-based learning will do. So to the initial question of what is work-based learning, first we must
define it and our federal government as well as our state government uh have their own definitions of work-based learning. And the strengthening career and technical education uh in the 21st century act defines work-based learning as well right there in bold and italics
sustained interactions with industry or community professionals in real workplace settings to the extent practicable or simulated environments at an educational institution that foster in-depth firsthand engagement with the tasks required in a given career field that are aligned to curriculum and
instruction. And that is a mouthful. So what Tennessee has done at the state level is it has really taken that definition and simplified it. Um in in Tennessee code annotated 491191 workbased learning is defined as the application of academic and technical
knowledge in a work setting that involves actual work experience. Those words in bold and italics on both the federal and state levels are verbatim as written. Um, as you can see, Tennessee really just says, "What does that actually mean? How are we in line with
what the federal definition is and how do we accomplish that?" This these broad definitions are intentionally broad. We can see that work-based learning is a continuum, as you can see on that slide, of experiences. But when a student gets to a work-based learning opportunity in
high school, that could be on or off-campus, that could be paid or unpaid, and that could also be in person or virtual. There's nothing in those definitions that says it must be one or the other. It can encompass all of those. And once a student gets through
that continuum of experiences, we have to be mindful that it does start in preK. Um, in a lot of our workbased learning coordinator trainings, we have a nice little slide that shows an arc. We call it from preK to J. From preK all the way through to jobs. And that's what
the J stands for in there. Career awareness. It starts in elementary school. It could be something as simple as what do these people in your community do? What do your parents or guardians do for work? It could include someone from the industry sector that's related to what they're learning in the
classroom as early as prek and up through fourth and fifth grade. This is how this applies and that's where the career awareness piece belongs. Career exploration starts in that three uh grade three and four where the student might show interest. We'll we'll figure out what do you like? What are you good
at? How do we merge those into into something that you can actually pursue? So the exploration does happen and that's when you start engaging with those school counselors at the elementary school level. In the middle school level, they take a a career interest and aptitude assessment where
your school counselor, your career coach at the middle school and other staff members that are supportive of you help you formulate the high school and beyond plan so that you can get to middle and high school and get that career preparation. We have a lot of elementary, excuse me, entrylevel,
firstear uh career and technical education courses taking place in middle schools. That's an accelerant to taking higher level CTE courses in high school and then starting that work-based learning experience as early as age 16 and grade 11. And lastly, career training. That's where the rubber meets
the road. our students who demonstrate those skills and that work readiness are able to uh transition into a work-based learning placement where they're able to have the great experiences and we'll speak more about that on the next slide. How are students utilizing work-based
learning? Well, as I just explained, we have a continuum that starts as early as prek. But the way that we calculate our workbased learning participation, the way that we can best determine how well the career awareness, exploration,
preparation, and training are getting the students the opportunities they need is through course enrollments where our standards and requirements align with the federal and state definitions for what work-based learning is. Um, as you know, it's paid or unpaid, it's in
person or virtual, it's on or off campus. All of these experiences are including but not limited to the school-based enterprises that you see on this slide, part-time paid employment, and and the further down this list we go, the higher the level of rigor, and the more closely
it aligns to those high wage in demand careers, high school internships, health science clinicals, Tennessee certified pre-apprenticeships, that is an official title codified by the state uh workforce board, and registered apprenticeship programs. And these experiences occur
again when those students are enrolled in those work-based learning courses. So all of these are what encompasses work-based learning. I said we count it through those work-based learning enrollments.
On this slide, I would like to share that these numbers are reflective of the total number of credits a student takes. So across all schools in the state of Tennessee, when we say the aggregate credits earned, that enrollment number
means that some students might take more than one credit of work-based learning in a school year. Tennessee code annotated 49119 specifies that students may take up to six credits of work-based learning per school year. Um earlier years in this
slide, 2021, 2122, and 2223, that that number was up to three. Um and so obviously if we see a number uh that starts in 2020221 of 30,49 that means that there are students
who've earned 30,49 credits not that 30,49 students have participated. We take a look at the time invested in work-based learning very greatly to make sure that we can see what opportunities and and how much of that opportunity can
be as immersive as possible. related. We did receive a question of exactly how many hours do students work? 491199 in the same way that it specifies a student can take up to six credits per school year which started in the 23 24
school year. Um we wanted to know how many hours per week are they working on average the 202425 school year um excuse me 2526 school year. So we don't have our final enrollment numbers but we have 14.4 4
hours per week for our students across all of the credits that they are earning. And uh we have over 30,000 students that have been enrolled in the workbased learning courses. So the number of students Eclipse is 30,000. The number of credits earned Eclipse is
51,000 for that past school year. And then the number of hours that they're working is 14.4 hours per week. So that's a lot of hours earned, hours worked. And we have some districts that boast of the number of dollars earned by work-based learning students and that's
often in excess of 100,000 in your larger districts. So just a great point of pride there. On this slide, we're talking about our special population. Again, this is the number of time invested, the credits earned that these students are are taking work-based
learning courses. And this number when we say special populations, I have to be very specific. my office ever since I took took over in 2018 in April. I said, "Okay, I need to know disagregated. It's wonderful to see how many students are taking and how many credits they're
earning, but what are our most uh important populations? We have economically disadvantaged students. We have students with disabilities. We have black, Hispanic, Native American students. We have English learners. And so when we talk about these numbers for special populations, that's encompassing
of all of those. We do have a disagregated by population. uh and and that is something that we can share uh separately if you wish. But when we see if we look at the previous slide and this slide the trend lines are con consistent
as we grow the number of students we are not leaving any students behind especially those in those disagregated populations. So now that we see work-based learning what is it now that we see okay how many kids are doing it is it even good? So when we take a look at the success at
long-term students outcomes, this is not something that came from the department of education. Department of finance and administration, office of evidence and impact conducted a longitudinal study about students who graduated uh between
the years uh 2015 and 2024. I believe that was uh the time frame. Um and in that comparative study they they bucketed the students into two different sections. One students that enrolled in
work-based learning and then the other the students that did not. And as you can see uh those students who participated in work-based learning have tremendous outcomes as compared to their contemporaries who didn't. They're nearly 25% more likely to seamlessly
enroll into post-secary education after graduation. They have a 12% higher post-secary completion rate than students who did not participate in work-based learning. And lastly, an 11% higher median wage than students who did not participate in work-based learning
six years after high school graduation. And then again, a point of pride. As you know, not all um industry sectors or career pathways require that post-secary uh education, just lifelong learning. among students that did not complete
post-secary education, it's actually a 14% higher median wage than students who did not participate in work-based learning. And we very often engage with the Office of Evidence and Impact to to tell us with numbers, okay, this is good. So, we think, can you tell us
something that can actually validate that? Um, because there's only so much that perhaps preaching to the choir can do or or or speaking the good word of work-based learning. Some people like to see numbers and those are the numbers that they've shared. So when we dig down
into the actual personal experiences, we have workbased learning employers that are very complimentary of it. One of our best and highest performing employers is Valmont Industries, Carrie Smith. Uh she oversees HR not only for southeastern Tennessee but many states where Valmont
operates. She says, "Work-based learning is foundational to our mission at Valmont, not only as a strategy to build a skilled and sustainable workforce, but as a commitment to the people and communities we serve. By partnering with local schools, we're able to spark student interest in high demand careers,
provide hands-on experience that build confidence and purpose, and equip students with skills that support both personal and economic mobility. The impact of work-based learning reaches beyond our walls. It strengthens families, fuels local industry, and shapes the future of our region. So
that's from the business itself. This is an investment that they're making not only in the students, not only in the schools. They don't just do this for the press. They do it to build the economics of the community of itself. And really, this is the one that really gets me is one of my most favorite quotes. This is
from a student that's graduating this year. This student who works at Valmont says, "I always knew college wasn't for me. When my son was born, I thought my fate was sealed. Working long days, hard work with little pay for the rest of my life. Belmont and this pre-apprenticeship have
given me the skills and confidence to not only live in my hometown, but also live well and be able to provide for my family. I can still grow and live because of the opportunities given to me through this program. And this student, I'll be happy to tell you, at age 18, he's already making uh $20 per hour.
This student has not even graduated high school yet. um you know, a lot of opportunities thanks to Carrie and the structure of Belmont for this student to make over $30 an hour in a matter of five to six years. Um it's just a matter of how much he dedicates himself and
he's well on his way. So work-based learning is good. We see it in the data. We hear it from the students and from the employers. How can we make this better? What challenges are we facing? Everybody knows there are challenges. We need to scale not only work-based
learning but quality work-based learning through clarity, access and employer alignment. So we would like to define clearly what constitutes quality for work-based learning. We need to address where work-based learning might not be readily available and we also need to
increase employer awareness of the youth employment benefits and legality. Too often we see a lot of employers that say, "I'd love to do this, but we can't hire a 16 or 17 year old to do it." I've shared a link to a video of uh Kamasu,
small business, operates throughout the globe, does many billions of dollars in business, and they have programs that 16 and 17 year olds are participating in right now. We love to use them as a trailblazer and proof that yes, whether it's uh uh advanced manufacturing,
skilled trades, agriculture, you name it, you can do it. And we partner with the department of labor and workforce development uh st labor standards unit to provide you with those asurances as well as all the challenges of operating in our dynamic landscape metropolitan,
rural and suburban. So we need to scale this. Our current state board policy codifies the work-based learning framework in terms of student supervision, program coordination, and district evaluation. We believe that if
evaluating quality of a program is something that the state in partnership with both national organizations as well as employers across the state can help provide districts with that evaluative tool and uh that is something that we hope to accomplish in the near future.
We also want to address challenges in work-based learning. This framework I've kind of touched upon earlier. This is not the work that my office of two has done independently. We've worked with large organizations, education strategy group, advanced CTE. We've consulted
with employers like Valmont, but over a dozen employers throughout the state across six or seven different industry sectors to determine what the employer believes makes a quality work-based learning placement as well as a district uh perspective so that we we don't just
hear from one person or just one side of the coin. We hear from all. Um, we're also very fortunate to be participating in a grant in which we're uh our our national partners are helping create employer facing resources to address those questions that businesses might
have to do work-based learning. Uh they're doing some poly re policy research as well as employer grants. Uh again, we are not going to just run with something that we think is going to work because we've heard from a lot of people. We need to stress test. We need
to pilot and we need to get some forward thinking trailblazing districts to validate what it is that we're setting forth as a quality framework. We want support from all stakeholders and we don't want to just immediately assume that everything is going to be perfect. We need to test it and we need to make
it uh important for everyone to be able to use effectively. And uh let's see. So moving forward in terms of what we wish to accomplish that pilot is going to be our 26 and 27 initiative. We have this framework that
we've heard from a number of stakeholders on what dictates what quality looks like. We have this data collection system that we think can work. Now let's see if we were to put it into action how well it works. Make
in-game adjustments as is a a nice analogy I like to use. so that when we do scale it statewide, we know what to expect and to make sure that we we have a nice sturdy framework to work with. And then additionally, you know, this is
something that I don't want to just speak about very briefly and move forward. [snorts] This earn clinical pathways pilot is an idea that was introduced from uh our partners at business engagement uh division at the department of labor and workforce
development. our healthc care students that pursue uh certified nursing assistant, medical assistant, patient care tech, pharmacy tech, a lot of our healthc care related
credentials of value that are tied to work-based learning courses, they unfortunately are tied to placements that are unpaid. The student volunteers his or her time. The student gets training directly from the employer and
as a result they get that CNA which accelerates their progression to an LPN and later an RN or a nurse practitioner. Fantastic. But in some cases and I experienced this myself teaching at Clarksville Northwest High School. Imagine a student wishes to
pursue uh a career in nursing but in a title one lowincome school. They need to help their parents keep the lights on. Student A might forgo the opportunity to pursue the CNA even though he may one day be want to become a nurse
practitioner or RN because he has to go work at Hardies. And so this earned clinical pathways pilot is designed so that students who pursue these high we we call them tier three our highest regarded credentials of value. Even if
that placement does not pay you, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development is uh appro approaching an opportunity to earmark funding such that any student in the uh pilot area will be rewarded with a stipend just for their
hard work. And ideally, the the goal is to address obviously your labor market gaps, entry- level nursing to to then close the gaps in the higher level positions. and they're going to try and use that as a proof of concept to target different prioritized whether it's high
demand currently like advanced manufacturing and IT or our emerging sectors such as energy or otherwise identifying placements that may not be paid um but perhaps through a stipen or some sort of compensation for the
student to to pursue that. Um, and I understand in the interest of time looking ahead, it's all about collaboration. It's really not just coming from this office of two. It's not coming just from my superiors who say this is how we do it. We're working with different agencies, employers, and other
stakeholders to really value work-based learning to pre-apprenticeship to registered apprenticeship. Work-based learning to pre-apprenticeship to post-secary education. Tennessee on uh May 1st was announced as uh one of 10 states by Career-Wise uh to be a future
ready apprenticeship state. I hope I'm using that title appropriately, but um that's thanks to the hard work of inter agency partnerships such as what uh assistant commissioner Depp null, chief um uh our chief academic officer as well
as our wonderful commissioner are all doing together with uh commissioner Thomas over at Labor and Workforce Development. We see the value of work-based learning, how it contributes to the big picture and what it does for our students. And I apolog I I tried to run through this. I might have gone over
time. So it's >> No, you did well. Mr. >> Well, questions. >> Well, I have some questions. Yes, sir. >> So, um I sit on the states, it's called TN2, the nuclear network, uh council, which
Tennessee has now been named the nuclear state of the country. Uh there going to be a report coming out soon and I'm not sure how many jobs are going to be needed in the next 10 years, but I've heard it's pretty substantial. I don't know how we're going to educate them.
>> The University of Tennessee has started a K through they developed a K through2 awareness program for nuclear work. Uh they're developing they got a high school program they're developing. But when you talk about work-based learning, a lot of your examples are in sort of
the TCAT uh career and technical education. What about professional jobs? Are we doing anything in work-based learning? Uh I know when I was at UT, I was a co-op student. Yes. >> You know, which was great. Do we have anything like that in high school for
students to go out into the professional worlds, maybe work in an engineering firm to get experience there? >> Yeah, most certainly. So we do have many mechatronics engineering um under that STEM career cluster. We have many placements uh specifically in Clinton,
Tennessee. Oh, I want to say it was about four or five years ago. There was a a student uh out of Clinton High School. Uh her name was Cheyenne. Um and she was involved in a megatronics specific registered apprenticeship program. And and the employer name is is
evading me. But to your point about the post-secondary outside of our technical and community colleges, when I was a classroom teacher, and this is something that I emphasize in our coordinator training, I made it a point to ensure that at least, you know, many of our top 10, including the validictorian, as well
as perhaps student that just barely made it across the stage at the end of his high school career, uh, were all in the same class with me. Uh I have students who are now surgical oncologists uh who used the work-based learning placement to get into Vanderbilt down the road um
despite only being seventh in his class. Right? So this these these opportunities are uh for any and all students and in partnership really that's where that high school and beyond plan is so critical as well as those career coaches
that network of career coaches because for every possible pursuit there is an appropriate work-based learning placement whether it's what Cheyenne did in mechatronics and engineering whether it's what um you know my student uh who he graduated high school in 2017 So he
must be somewhere along the lines in in in this professional career. But uh what those students do workbased learning is a piece of every uh pathway for a student. >> I think that's really important that we continue to communicate that it's not
just for once that goes back to your AP access for all. Yeah. This is for all students what's best for their career path. Exactly. You know, and that's that's what you're bringing to the to the students. So >> yeah. And what I wanted to add to Matt like again this is accountability on me
to have to to really emphasize this and right we really need to be talking about it. We need to be messaging more about work-based learning is for all kids. And again, we should be I mean, this also gets into the conversations and I know some of y'all have heard me say this
over and over adnauseium, but our kids that are again that are on the so-called we're the four-year pathway kids. They should be taking CTE courses. They should be applying their knowledge to their skills. They should be participating in these work-based learning opportunities to get the skills
necessary. You know, I brought up the the the example of my son over and over again again. Oh, he was on the four-year track. He wants to go polyside. He spent his whole second semester of his senior year sleeping until noon because there
was nobody offering that ability when there was a legislative session going on. My husband and and I have extensive contacts in in the capital. Could have gotten him a job. could have been applying that knowledge, that government, those skills in that space,
but nobody said anything to him because everybody's focused on, okay, CT over here or you're over here. We've got to stop that. It's an and it's for every kid to figure out what those opportunities are and decide, do I really like this? Gosh, I don't really know what. So then we should be
supporting them on a different path to find out those on and off ramps so that they can be successful. like we really got to have these conversations about every kid in this state has the best opportunity moving forward and we're going to give them that. They're going to be ready to do whatever it is they
want when they graduate from high school whenever it is they decide to do it. >> Our mission is prepare students for postsecary success no matter what. Mr. Gintel, >> um thank you for your presentation. I my chief [clears throat] academic officer has called me a dog with a bone recently with workbased learning and I was
furiously messaging her on that. But I've got a couple questions related to that. Sure. >> Um I I want to make a push for uh all postcary students to have some work-based learning um opportunities [clears throat] and something I've been running into
without even considering that is the capacity issue of employers. uh with you moving forward with wanting to expand internships or or work-based learning, are are you seeing an opportunity or or something that we should think about what work-based learning looks like for
college students versus K12 students? Is there a difference in your mind as we seek to get more employers into the space? No, I I happen to believe whether it's the level of rigor um the qualifications of the student and or the demands of the occupation really in the
same way that our our high school and beyond plan really is tailored to be optimally efficient. You must do the same for the for the career path uh for the level of rigor required as well as each individual. So we might have often we have our high school students in
those technical and community college pathways in advanced manufacturing working side by side and in some cases you know the there's a a nice level of uh uh competitiveness among those students whereas in a more professional
setting such as uh pre-law. Okay. So, for example, whereas a high school student might be able to uh start his or her internship in a shadowing a clerk and then performing some of those duties and not getting coffee and picking up dry cleaning as much as you want it, right? You need those high school
students to get those foundational concepts that align with what they're getting in the classroom. Whereas, you might have at TEKC especially, uh, year three, year four students that are preparing to take an LSAT so they can go to law school. And so th those students
whether it's a high school or post-secary might not be working in the same uh opportunities. So it's really it's tailored to level of rigor for uh the occupation the advanced how knowledgeable the individual student is and then what the needs of the employer
are at that time. So yeah. >> Okay. And my last question again thank you for that response. Um I've been thinking that we need to better define work-based learning so that we can measure it. Um but you made a good point that the definition and and statute is vague intentionally. Yes.
>> Um are you able to track >> how are you able to track who's getting work-based learning? Like what what's the definition that you apply for that when you're actually tracking that through a data system? >> Yes. As soon as the federal definition came out and the state definition followed suit, we at the time and by we
I mean assistant commissioner uh forgive me senior dire my senior director and I uh sat with the chief at the time and we said what defines work-based learning in words. In what ways can we ensure through course standards and
requirements that at a minimum if a student earns credit for this that codifies that they have met this standard. So there are many states that say if Johnny goes off to work and has a a great experience work stocking shelves
at Publix which is an a perfectly appropriate placement for a high school student. Well just by virtue of leaving and knowing that Johnny got paid well he did work-based learning. There are states that do that. We hold ourselves to a standard in which uh throughout the course code management system, every
course code has standards, has requirements, and if a student fulfills those obligations and earns credit, that's how we know that they've gotten that whether that placement was in person or virtual on or off campus or um you know, paid or unpaid. >> Okay, I'll stop grilling you. Thank you.
>> Yeah, you're good. No, I wasn't grilling. That's great, >> Dr. Morrison. >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the great presentation and appreciate all the questions. I just following up on that as you were talking about defining the quality framework. I think you said 26 27 this coming school year would be sort of the timeline that you're working on sort of fleshing that out. Did I hear
you correctly? >> Yes. Our draft is uh in partnership with all of our partners. Uh is to be vetted by leadership uh between Assistant Commissioner Null uh Chief Brown as well as Commissioner Reynolds. Um the month
of June is going to be huge for us because we really wish to be able to present something for the board to review um expand and share their input obviously as as stakeholders uh and then hopefully potentially codify that again
to make that definition in policy and that framework in policy far more robust. >> That's great. Um well we'll look forward to that and I was just thinking I could imagine some of the things that came up around you know so how you evaluate these experiences how you track them all of that would be part of what you're putting together but >> yes >> yes
>> so yes and so here's the thing when if you look back that office of evidence and impact slide where it talked about 25% more or nearly 25% more likely to seamlessly transition and then their persistence and completion and then their and their earnings at no point had
we ever been able to say well we've always known if you do this then these outcomes are there and that just validated that our existing standards and requirements and what we hold our educators accountable to for those students was good. But now we have to
figure out well what makes these students that went to Valmont so much higher earning and so much less in debt and so much improving the the economic outcomes in Marian County where at one point it was at risk. It's no longer.
How do experiences like that lead to those outcomes? How can we then influence those that are at risk or distressed to take that model and replicate and scale and then hopefully build that out? So like that's the importance of being able to measure as
opposed to do this because it's good. We're saying which of these are best where can we allow those best practices to then take place and and that's why quality needs to be a part of it not just an evaluation at the local level. It's great. Thank you. We'll look forward to continued conversations. >> Thank you, Mr. Jensen.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to u make sure I understand how you're interfacing with employers. >> Yes. >> Um, as you're probably aware, in West Tennessee, North Mississippi, Eastern Arkansas, massive investment in AI
facilities. >> Yes. And uh it just seems I mean they're doing Google's across the river in West Memphis and uh XI's in Memphis [clears throat] and North Mississippi. Uh they just entered into a partnership with Anthropic.
Uh so there's just a lot going on there. The second is what St. Jude is doing uh with their billions of dollars of investment in downtown. And so what I my question is
how do you interface with these entities that are coming into the market which they're coming somebody's got to be out there going oh we need to go get in touch with them. Is it are you working through the chamber or local people that
understand what's going on? some sense about how you're monitoring where that workbased learning ought to occur and then asking these new companies to the region to to participate in it. I would say inter agency partnerships are very
critical for such things as our department of economic and community development recruits these businesses in town in town in state um and as they are then informed of the opportunities of what what does the talent pip what are the sources of talent look like what does the talent pipeline look like and
how can I make sure that I'm connected to it so economic and community development as an agency obviously works very closely with labor as well as education so that data about who participates in work-based learning in each of these districts, what the CTE as
well as uh nonCTTE course work, the other courses look like, and then what the local post-secondary partners are. And so the picture of the talent pipeline really starts with ECD and then it obviously moves on to what they provide to the business as well as
working in partnership with uh Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Reason why I named them is because there's a business engagement division. Uh, assistant commissioner Kenneth Neely, very, this is just he and I since we've been working together for uh about eight years now, nine years
now. He and I uh have met with assistant commissioner null, as well as the director of uh apprenticeships for the state of Tennessee, Brandon. We've sat down together and said your business engagement talent, your your team at in
each of the regions that engages not only with employers but also with chambers. We're going to identify what employers are participating in workbased learning, to what extent, where are our gaps, and how do we address them. So, in the past, it was very organic.
ECD would ask us for data. We'd give them a spreadsheet. Maybe the businesses would hear about it and then I'd inform the local school and say, "Why don't you communicate with ABC Corporation or XAI or whoever is coming into to town?" Now, it's far more coordinated to the extent
that we know what businesses exist. We know who's participating. And then the action steps from the business engagement team is what's going to inform us on how we should operate and how to engage with businesses. There's also a slide that says we have employer facing resources being created from our
national partners in addition to just knowing about work-based learning information a fact sheet you can hire a minor this is what workbased learning contributes to at scale for the state of Tennessee this is how your uh involvement can also improve that so
we're we're far more coordinated now than in the past but we like to think even in the past when it was more organic um we were somewhat effective follow up. >> Um, so we're relying on ECD
to interface with the local is that did I hear that correctly? >> No, the >> they're going to drive it or I'm just trying to find out who's going to be in front of the XIS and the Googles and the folks that are coming in and obviously very interested in what the work training force looks like.
>> Yes. On the front end, ECD gets the data on what programs are available at the both secondary, post-secary and outside uh sources for where the talent comes from. So that includes your K12 workbased learning, K12 CTE, K12 professional. So that information is
provided by our agency to ECD when when asked and that is part of what draws our businesses in. Once a business is there, the opportunities for engagement come from a business engagement team at the Department of Labor and Workforce
Development. And so working in coordination with that group to inform them of the benefits of work-based learning is really how the the contacts are made. So they'll have a background knowledge. Hey, there there's a work-based learning program that exists.
X number of middle schoolers will be able to staff your open positions in 10 years. X number of high school students, X number of post-secary students. So that's the data that ECD provides that gets them in board. Once the commitment is there, whatever business engagements
take place, that's where um the Department of Labor and Workforce Development staff informs based off of information that we have on what workbased learning is. >> So let me let me help a little bit here, too. Um too, I also we we can't you know, Tennessee works now has come into
play. Um so that basically is a collaboration of TBR, TECK, ECD, labor and workforce and now um the department of education. So again this is work that needs to get done. I absolutely agree we're not taking advantage of the
opportunities that are being provided and part of it is I think it's also a communication problem and and trying to help these businesses understand we are your successors. We're your succession plan. like at some point y'all are going
to age out and we need to build the succession plan for for the for the pipeline that is going to come into your communities and into your jobs. And so have we mastered that conversation? I don't think so. And I think with the the the the development of or the I don't
know the the establishment there of Tennessee Works, I think there's going to be a lot more opportunities and better coordination for us to get in front of these employers and really start helping communicate because one of the goals of Future Ready Tennessee right from the initial start when I
first started when I first realized that the department wasn't engaged in these conversations with employers is the fact of the matter is ECD is going out globall globally recruiting companies to come into the state of Tennessee and then we're like, "Okay, where's the
pipeline?" And so the goal is to flip this flip that narrative, right? ECD goes out and they're they're recruiting I don't know any they're recruiting a d what is not politically incorrect at
this point. [laughter] Um, so a teddy bear manufacturers, right? And so they're like, "Okay, well, where is my pipeline?" Well, guess what? You can go to Clarksville, McGomery, and they have a whole advanced manufacturing
uh war uh pipeline that high school, you know, a high school is actually developing the the kids with the skills necessary so that you when you come over here, they're going to be ready to make those teddy bears. So, so it is it is a
very intentional effort and collaboration where we're all at the table together to really have these conversations. So, are we have we mastered that yet? Have we are we there where we need to be? No. But that is something that is a goal of this agency
in collaboration with all our partners so that we can get in front of these employers and let them know we're ready for you. >> Just Thank you. I would be careful with a teddy bear though because >> Oh gosh. Okay. [laughter] >> Theodore Roosevelt did not shoot a bear in Tennessee. Well, that's true. Just
wanted to let you know. Um, nothing. >> Just to follow up on that a bit, >> I guess what I would advocate for is that we're ECD. >> Yes. But also there's local leadership >> absolutely >> in the business community that knows
what needs to be uh developed uh to some extent. I don't know that we can rely on we can't wait in a way. I mean, we're we've got huge opportunity with with the the AI and we've really
got to be thinking aggressively right now. Not unlike what you're talking about, Mr. Chairman, in in Middle Tennessee, it's a very similar opportunity that really puts this state and frankly, and this is part of my vice chairman will know this that we
live in a three-state region that's an economic market. And so we've got to have the cooperation of of our uh workforce folks along with Mississippi and Arkansas, frankly, because it's that's the economic market we're in.
>> And so I just encourage us to Yeah. >> to think about it's now. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> So I'm just advocating for whatever the business community can do. I think between the vice chairman and I, we probably can stir some of that up
effectively. So always welcoming your help. Absolutely. >> Any other comments? Again, another great discussion and and a lot of work, a lot of opportunities for our students. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> We're going to take a short break. It's
uh 2:24. Let's reconvene at 3:35 and 11 minutes. >> Yes. >> You ready for me? >> Yes. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Click one more.
>> There we go. Great. Um, good afternoon. My name is Diana Burton. I am the senior manager of non-public school programs for the division of choice. Oh, is that better? I do have I'm just going to say this. I have a partially paralyzed vocal cord. So, if you can't hear me, just let
me know and I will try to speak up. Um, I'm the senior manager of non-public school programs in the division of choice for the Tennessee Department of Education. And I appreciate you inviting me today to share information with you about the non-public school approval and
monitoring process. All right. So, I'm going to start with a current snapshot of non-public schools. Um, I'll talk a little bit about the authorizers and approvers. Um, and then I'll get into the reporting and monitoring for each type of non-public school. And lastly, at the request of
the board, I will share a little bit of information about the non-public school advisory council. All right. As you likely know, there are six types of non-public schools in Tennessee as defined by the state board of education. Categories 1 through five
and independent home school. Categories one, one special purpose and five non-public schools are approved by direct application to the Tennessee Department of Education with category special purpose schools. Category 1 special purpose schools um providing short-term medical or transient care um
to students in specific types of facilities uh like residential mental health. Categories two and three are approved by authorized accreditation agencies as listed in state board policy 3.50.
Category 4 church related schools are approved by an authorized membership agency or by the state board of education. And then independent home schools are registered through the local education agency or the LEA. This table provides information on how
many schools are currently approved under each category of non-public school. Um, for a total of 715 non-public schools currently approved in the state. And I actually think that number is about 717. We've approved a couple of schools since I developed this slide.
These are the enrollment numbers um for independent homeschool and categories 1 through five non-public schools from the 202122 school year through the 2526 school year as reported to the department by LEAs each year. [snorts]
We are in the process of collecting the um last report for the 2526 school year. So we'll get that well we have those um we're just calculating those. They were due May 15th. Um, so the most recent report on this slide is from December of
2025. Um, indicating a total of 176,994 students enrolled in these school programs, which demonstrates a 48% increase in total enrollment over the last 5 years.
Potential reasons for this increase. Um when I came on board in 2022, we started working to improve um reporting from non-public schools to LEA. So we were able to get um uh better reporting in place. And then of course, as you know,
we have new choice program options available to families, the education freedom scholarship and education savings account programs. And then with the COVID pandemic, um, parents became more aware of their school choice options, including online and homeschool options.
[snorts] The approval process varies depending on which entity is conducting that process. So for category 1, 1 SP, and five, school candidates can apply directly to the department between January 5th and May 15th each year.
Um, they participate in a pre-approval conference with our team to review next steps and deadlines. And then they begin submitting requested documents and safety permits. Once all items are received, the non-public team conducts a school site visit and
interview and issues findings if needed. And when all findings are addressed, final approval is awarded. Categories two and three usually start in another category first. Um and then they begin a candidacy period with their selected accreditation
agency. That candidacy period can last between 12 and 36 months um depending on the agency and the school's speed at completing the steps to demonstrate they meet accreditation standards. Um at or near the end of the candidacy period when the agency has determined
the school is going to be accredited. They may also have them complete Tennessee specific asurances or some other process to confirm compliance with state board of education approval rules. Once they're accredited and they are approved for their category, either two
or three, the agency notifies the department of the school's category change. Um, category 4 church related schools uh follow their selected membership agency or the state board of education's process for application and approval.
Agencies in the state board each have their own deadlines. Some membership agencies may allow new members at any time of the year. The agency or the board notifies the department when a new member school has been approved. The non-public school program team um we
assist all categories of school applicants regardless of authorizer with submitting their request for fire safety inspection for educational occupancy. So regardless of which category they need to reach out to us to get help with that process. As required by state board rule, the
department has developed reporting procedures and corresponding deadlines for submission. A monitoring guide book has been published on the department's website [clears throat] containing general information about what that process looks like. Categories one, one special purpose, five, and four state board of education approved non-public
schools participate in an annual tier one reporting process in the department's e-plan platform in the fall and spring each year. a small selection of schools that demonstrate a need for additional support through their fall or spring
submissions or through verified um non-compliance outside of the reporting process may be asked to participate in tier 2 monitoring. Tier 2 monitoring includes the standard reporting cycle which occurs in tier one but also includes submission of additional
documentation, school interviews, and participation in a virtual or an on-site visit. The tier one fall report is collected in the e-plan portal from September 1st through October 15th and is reviewed by the non-public school program team for
compliance. It includes submission of updated school directory information collected annually to ensure accurate information is available in the department's directory of non-public schools. Schools may also use the directory form on our website to share changes between reporting periods.
Enrollment and attendance data showing the number of classes for each approved grade level and the number of students enrolled at the time of the report. Facility annual inspection reports. Food safety and fire safety. Schools that meet the definition of educational
occupancy are required to maintain annual inspections by the state fire marshal. Food safety permits are only required in schools where food is cooked and served on site. So, if a school does prepare and serve food, then they must maintain an annual food safety inspection as
required by the Department of Health. School handbook and policies. I'll talk about that one in just a minute. Um, staff roster covers the school staffing so the non-public team can verify appropriate coverage, curriculum assignments, and identify who should be checked for teaching credentials.
Um, teacher credentials. The team verifies that the teachers listed on the roster have the appropriate credential for the school's category type. Category 5 schools must provide a copy of the bachelor's degree for teachers, whereas category 1 schools must provide
an active Tennessee teaching license. Category 4 state board of education approved schools are not required to submit teacher credentials or a staff roster um as they are exempt from regulation on selection of faculty by state law. Assurances um evidence that is not
collected as part of the submitted documentation is covered through the assurance statements. For example, schools are not required to submit all their background checks every year. So, they check off an assurance that um says that they complete that requirement as required in state board rules.
And then an attestation of accuracy. So, this is a confirmation statement that the school's authorized representative has checked off to say the information provided in the report is true and accurate. Okay. Okay. So, as I mentioned, the part of the submission includes the school handbook and policies. The policies the
non-public team reviews in the school handbook are specific to the school's approved category and based on state board of education approval rules. For all three categories, we review the hours of operation to ensure a six and a half hour school day or four hours for kindergarten. The enrollment policy as
it pertains to kindergarten enrollment. Students need to be five by August 15th. um and whether the school has a policy for testing students for early entry for those students who turn five by September 30th. Immunization requirements to ensure compliance with vac vaccination or
exemption requirements and the school's criminal history record check policy for category 1 and five non-public schools. We also look at the school's assessment policy to ensure that it meets requirements to administer a nationally standardized achievement test annually in English language arts and math for
enrolled students in grades 3 through 11. And then specific to category one, we also review student records retention policy, promotion and retention policy, which is required by state board rule to be in the school's handbook, progress
report policy, and class size policy for uh the spring report for tier 1 is collected in the e-plan portal from March 1st to April 15th. The spring submission is smaller and focuses on the school's operational calendar for the upcoming school year. It includes directory changes to let the department
know if anything has changed since the fall submission if they haven't already shared those changes. Um completed non-public school calendar template. The non-public team provides a calendar workbook template that schools can use to help calculate their instructional days. A published version of the school
calendar. Uh they upload their draft calendar to match the workbook template. This is the version that would be shared with families and staff and possibly published to the school's web page. Again, we have asurances. This time, the asurances in the spring consist of um
confirmation that the administrator has reviewed the state board rules for the school's category and attest that they remain in compliance, that they will notify the department of substantive changes to their program like moving locations or adding grade levels, and that they understand stockpiling
requirements because the spring report is focused on the school calendar. Um, and again like in the fall submission, there's an attestation of accuracy, which is a confirmation statement that the school's authorized representative verifies the information provided [clears throat] in the report is
accurate. The non-public school program team reviews each fall and spring submission and issues results to the school within the e-plan platform. If there are corrections or areas of non-compliance that the school must address, the teams available to provide support. phone,
email, virtual meetings. Um, we hold office hours to help the school address these areas by the specified deadline. [clears throat] Once findings have been resolved, the reporting instrument is closed out for the year. The last step in the annual reporting
process is to determine which schools, if any, will be selected for tier 2 monitoring. This process is completed at the end of the reporting cycle in June and July. Up to five schools can be selected for tier 2 monitoring if needed based on the results of the fall and
spring reports as well as any substantiated areas of non-compliance the school may have had to address throughout the year outside the reporting cycle. A score is assigned to each school through a points deduction process that results in a final score and this
information is available in the monitoring guide book that I talked about earlier. Um points are deducted for late report submissions, number of corrections required, indicating that they may need some assistance with understanding the um the requirements and substantiated areas of
non-compliance. Schools that score below 80 points may be selected for additional support through the tier 2 process and are notified in August. The selected school will schools will participate as usual in both fall and spring reporting and e-
plan, but they also must do a few other things. Um, they'll have to submit additional documents for review based on their approval category. So, for example, category 1 schools um are required to have an evaluation procedure for teachers and principles. We would look at that. Um, we may request
curriculum inventories, graduation requirements if they're a high school. During the on-site visit, the team conducts interviews and reviews appropriate records such as the criminal history record checks we talked about earlier to make sure that those are on file or attendance records. And again,
this is according to the school's designated category. This process is more in-depth, which looks a little more like a new school approval uh to ensure sufficient support is provided to the school. A findings report is issued to the school at the conclusion of the tier 2 monitoring and
with deadlines for addressing any findings if necessary. So the majority of the monitoring happens within the reporting cycle this the fall and spring process. This is an extra step if a school needs extra support. U category 2 and three non-public schools are accredited and therefore
they are monitored by their accreditation agency. Category 4 church related schools are monitored by their authorized membership agencies unless they are approved through the state board of education in which case the department's non-public schools team monitors as we described on the previous
slides. Um some agencies require schools to renew membership and or sign asurances on an annual basis. Schools that are accredited must renew their accreditation according to the schedule established by that particular agency. And in addition to any standard
requirements the agency may have in place, they may also uh the agency is also responsible for addressing any reports of potential non-compliance by an approved school since they're the authorizer. Um agencies submit an annual fall report to the department through
e-plan just like the schools. Um but they're providing specific information that's required in state board rules. They submit agency directory information of course so we have the most current contact on file. A list of current approved non-public schools. We can
verify that we have all their schools listed. Links to the agency website containing a list of member or accredited schools and their accreditation policies. And then lastly, they certify receipt of uh notice of applicable state board of education rules and laws. So that is that's a
quick overview of the monitoring and reporting cycle for nonpublic schools. So before I talk about the advisory council, I just wanted to stop and see if you have questions about that process. >> Any questions? >> I have uh one question. So the category
2 monitoring, is that selected by random or is that selected by need? >> The tier 2 is by need. So it's based on how they do in their fall and spring reports and then if they have verified areas of non-compliance, we use that deduction system. Uh well, that's what I would thought,
but then I didn't understand that uh up to five non-public schools may be selected. So, what if there's a need for more than five non-public schools? >> Well, that would be unusual. I've been in this role for a few years and and it's usually the schools do pretty well and they understand the requirements,
but um that five is put in place. We have a team of three. So we would have to look at um you know our capacity to be able to do more. But we would look at the lowest you know the lowest five. And schools can also be selected that next year too. So if they if there's a need
we can we can do another cycle. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. The um I think the board just wanted to know a little bit about the
nonpublic school advisory council. So um state board rules require the commissioner to appoint a nine-member advisory council tasked with advising the department on policies relating to non-public school administration. Members serve a three-year term and they
may be reappointed by the commissioner. Members are encouraged to serve out their term, but of course they may resign from the council at will. Um, council members are asked to be available for two in-person meetings in Nashville, once in the spring, once in the fall. Additional in-person or
virtual meetings may be required when necessary to perform council responsibilities. So, like for example, um, members of the council were asked to provide input on the uh, revision of the non-public school rules back in 2022, 23, and 24.
Advisory council members are asked to keep informed of issues involving non-public schools in order to collaborate effectively with the department and other members of the council. They may be asked to explain the availability of non-public school services in the state, participate in discussions and make recommendations regarding changes in the rules for the
approval and administration of nonpublic schools as well as work collaboratively with the nonpublic school program team or other teams at the department regarding processes and procedures that affect non-public schools. um members actively participate in council meetings by helping to set the agenda, reading
the agenda and other materials prior to meeting and being present and engaged in scheduled meetings. And so a couple of examples of recent um advising I guess that they did was at the um federal programs and oversight team Michelle Harris from the federal
she's our federal programs on budsman completed a survey with our non-public schools and so um she attended our last council meeting to talk with them about the results of that survey and get some input on helpful professional development for non-public schools. And then the school safety team often comes
to our meetings to provide an update to the council and get feedback on what resources would be helpful to non-public schools. Like um they recently developed a non-public school safety plan template. You know, we had one for public schools and it was helpful for our non-public schools to have something
similar. Here's a list of our council members currently. Um these are the the nine members of the council. We have Matthew Bullington from Middle Tennessee Home Education Association. Shauna Druffner is from the Catholic Dascese of Nashville. Jennifer Oslin with Business
Leadership for Independent Schools. Don Halwa with Edgesource. Debbie Landers from the Tennessee Association of Non-public Academic Schools. Randy Scallions with Tennessee Association of Christian Schools. Dr. Patrick Schumer with the Independent School Leadership
Masters Program at Vanderbilt. Kim Thompson with the Georgia Cumberland Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist and Sarah Wilson from the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools. Randy is the council chair, Randy Scallions, and Debbie Landers is the vice chair and the current term is May
2026 to May 2029. >> Okay. And do you have any questions about the council's work? >> Any questions for Mr. B? Dr. Marson. Well, first, thank you for the timely presentation because I know our board is going to be voting on some category 4 schools and that is still
relatively new work for the board. Is there anything just based on your experience and your kind of vast knowledge about the various categories that would be helpful for our board members to know about the category 4 schools that are approved by the state board or just anything in anticipation of tomorrow that you think would be helpful for them to know about those schools in particular?
>> Um, situated. I I'm sure you're aware that it's it's unusual for the so many schools to apply to the state board for approval. Um I think that change kind of happened when the rules were updated a few years ago and it specifically says in the state board rules now that they can apply to the So we get a lot more
questions from schools asking about what their options are. Um I think having a solid timeline in place for applications and making sure you give yourself enough time there. they have to come through our team to get their state their uh fire marshall inspection. I talked about
that a couple of times and the reason for that is because that is usually the biggest hurdle through the process. It takes the longest. They have to find a a place for their school um know where it's going to be and it's helpful if they can find a location that was previously approved. So just having
enough time and and then of course our team is always available to answer questions or provide support if you all need it as you're working through that. Yeah, thank you. No, it's been very collaborative and I should just assure our board that we've been working really closely with Diane and her team because they really are the experts in this nonpublic space and we're kind of
treading lightly in this, you know, carveout. So, yes, thank you for the partnership and appreciate all the assistance your team has given us. >> If they've been approved by the other means previously, why would they come to the state board for approval? Why would they change the process?
>> Um, I I don't they haven't really talked with us too much about that, so I'm not really sure what the motive is. I know um you know one thing that comes to mind is there a membership agency would be charging them an annual membership fee. So that could be a motivator. I'm not
sure. Um I know there are a couple of schools I think that are changing categories. And so they are moving into category 4 and my conversations with them really were stem stemming around that requirement that schools have 10 full-time students enrolled by the 2627
school year. And they do not think that they will meet that minimum. And they don't have to have that minimum in category 4. >> Is the expense you say cost may be a moto? Is it >> possibly? I I mean I don't want to speak for schools.
>> I didn't know what it what it typically. I mean >> they're not membership agencies are not required to provide us with that information. So I'm not sure. I would have to reach out to them. >> Okay. Other questions? >> Thank you. >> Sure.
Next, Mr. Nathan James. Legislative wrap-up. Not a lot going on this this session, was there? [laughter] >> No, you know, just pretty routine all the way around. Nothing all that interesting. All right, so it's time for our
legislative report. Think I'm doing the right thing here. Right. So, uh, I kept this slide from last year because we've got some new members. Uh, you might have heard we've had, uh, a little bit of a shift up with some of
them. So, but I think it's important to ground us in where we try to be with the legislature. Remember that this board is now twothirds appointed by the legislative branch. So, every year it becomes more and more important uh, for us to maintain the
reputation of being truth tellers. of having some institutional memory. This board provides continuity between administrations. It provides continuity over time. And so uh that means we we strive to give accurate information. It also means if we mess up, we we own it.
If we find information that's wrong, we uh we come back with the right stuff. And uh that's important. We try to be trusted partners and uh and uh and advisers. And what does this mean? It means taking you all to
meet with your legislators, making sure that we're available to them in their districts, understand the lay of the land, getting into their schools and going to the places that they go. That's uh that's very important. Thank you to each of our members for your willingness
uh uh to share your days in the district with your local legislators. Uh that's been very very helpful. All of that work keeps us keeps us on the right uh path there. We try to give straightforward analysis
about the consequences of legislation. There are a lot of good ideas that come up rather perennially and u you know I I was uh I was thinking with the retirement of Lieutenant Governor McN uh we've only got Senator Crowe that's
actually been up on the hill uh longer than than I've been around this process. And so it's it's nice to be able to sit down with him and say, "Okay, great idea. We tried it in ' 08 and this is what happened. So, let's think about
tweaking it this way or that way because uh nobody can unsolve a problem the way education law can sometimes. And it's uh it's good to try to find our best way there. We try to be independent in an approach and method and always guided by
what's best for students in an everchanging education and career prep world. Try to follow through. And I I want to take this chance right now to thank you, Commissioner, to thank also my colleagues with the state board of education. They know when legislative
session starts, they're going to get calls from me. And those calls will not be at convenient times necessarily because it's it's about information in real time. And that's uh that's a big deal. Every one of these folks behind me has been of great help. And I I feel
personally indebted to them for that. So, let's get into the themes of the session and take a look first of all by the numbers. Over the course of the last two two years, we've seen 3,385 total bills and resolutions filed. Now,
that's a tremendous number, but I will tell you 10 years ago, 15 years ago, those numbers were often in excess of 4,500. Okay? So, so things are are moving in the right direction uh in terms of having uh less legislation of that. This
year we had 221 uh K12 education bills tracked and o over that was uh 95 of those passed and I want to want to thank the the department for for providing those numbers. I'd talked to three or four
different groups uh TSBA and some other some other groups around u and they all kind of came up with with different numbers but I think this was the consensus uh that we we came to. What are the themes? Fiscal constraint and revenue collections down. I've uh shared
with many of you a number of reductions that occurred in the final budget. Uh the governor's response and recovery fund reused by 60 56 million. THDA starter home revolving loan fund uh 30 million redirected 10 million in rural
development grants were reduced. uh focused deterrence 15 million work centered training 15 million these are reductions not increases and I've got a whole page of them from top to bottom this is a uh it's a different fiscal
environment than we've seen very much in the last 10 years and it's important to put that into context and and understand while we're used to large increases in a lot of things uh it's possible that we're headed into a time of of some austerity and uh and to be ready for
that. Uh education freedom scholarship program expansion was a big theme. Uh we very much a changing environment with the certain retirements that have are taking place in the general assembly and uh trying to fit things into a tight
budget. Also remember this is an election year so the legislaturator's headed uh for the doors uh a little more quickly. There was a lot of consolidating of legislative authority. uh again and that that we saw that in
the uh higher education sector with the uh I guess they didn't reconstitute the board but they did uh change how the higher education commission was appointed to reflect the same model that you all have with three from each speaker and three from the governor plus
your constitutional officers. Uh and of course Memphis educational oversight um [clears throat] Mr. Combins, Mr. Jensen. Uh we've obviously spent a lot of time on the phone and in conversations with the the senators and representatives
down there. Um and I'll tell you that's uh that's an area that there's been a lot of conversation about. What were our priorities? As we usually do, the the legislation that we actually bring around stays right in in our lane. Uh
Senate Bill 21106. Uh this was carried by uh Senator and Representative White. Uh this legislation prevents districts uh from reporting breach of contract cases to the state board of education. For you
new members, you will see a lot of educator license discipline cases. Uh but breach of contract, that portion of the law dated back to the 70s. And otherwise in this state, it's a right to hire, right to fire state, so people can
change jobs without it being a big deal. But, uh, it's it's caused an awful lot of, um, reports to come in that the legal team doesn't necessarily, uh, take a great deal of action on. [clears throat] But the the other part
on this that was very strong uh was it made clear that teachers and re recent graduates should avoid sexual relationships for 12 months after graduation. Uh so that was um that was one that we passed. I I want to thank
our two sponsors on that and also Rachel Zupe and Alex Anderson, two of our very competent attorneys. Alex went up with me to the capital, I think no fewer than six times, only to have the bill rolled and switched around and us not get to it. And so he learned the legislative
axiom of patience uh this year and we found ourselves in uh in very good shape at the end. Also, public chapter 798, uh Senator Watson and Representative Moody put that together for us. This allows our TISA review committee members to
have non- voting design so that uh not everyone necessarily has to be at all of those meetings. I want to take a moment right now to publicly thank Chairlady Moody who is retiring from the House of Representatives. She was longtime chair
of one of the House Education Committees. you could not have asked for a better friend to this board over time and uh so to see her retire something I understand but u but I'm sad to see her
go and I wanted to take this moment to to thank her for that new member confirmations. This was a this was an interesting and and uh and fun year in terms of the confirmations because we had to do an
awful lot in a short period of time. Um Miss Cobb from the uh seventh congressional district had a little bit of time between her appointment and her confirmation. By contrast, when we got notice uh of Mr. Rollins appointment, it
was Thursday of one week. We scrambled to get his binder put together. Went down and saw him uh the next day. This was Friday of week one. And then his confirmation was Wednesday following uh that week. So he he got all of five days
in office before facing the uh uh Senate committee. He was uh both of them were appointed by Lieutenant Governor McN. And uh you know if there's someone in legislative history that's made much
more of a impact than Governor McN has. I don't know who it is, but uh Governor McN has been a tremendous friend of this board. Uh I can say definitely over the last 10 years, there's a lot of things
that have uh that have happened because he wanted them to happen. And uh he's made his announcement that he's retiring. Not only is he has he been a public servant of immense import to this state for decades. He's a former Senate education chairman. He's a former
finance ways and means chairman. All of you state employees that appreciate your retirement being solvent. Uh he's got a huge hand in that to be fair. He was the first elected by the way to the House of Representatives when I was three just to
to put it in perspective. So, I also want to take this opportunity to take to thank Rick and Debbie and Chase and Pam and Adam in his office because they've always been accessible and they've always been kind, always taken the time when one of you all have a concern and you share it with me and I got to find
the answer in a hurry. Sometimes it's those folks that I call. All right, so let's see here. All right. So, House Bill 2532 was the educ education freedom scholarship expansion.
I think most folks are familiar with that was signed to law 5626. And uh Senate Bill 1585 removed the TCAP test requirements for ed savings accounts and education freedom
scholarship students. the Educational Oversight Board. So, this is Senate Bill 714. Now, the thing that was interesting on this is, you know, I was the question was posed to me by a couple of different
folks. How long has this been talked about? And I I remember some early conversations, frankly, when uh back when Governor Bredesen was still in office about the creation of a similar board to this. It's been a long time and
uh this legislation passed its separate houses last year and then was put on hold. And so what you had was a series of back and forths between the two houses on it and it went to a conference committee. And so when when a bill goes to a conference committee, it can be
rewritten whole cloth. What comes out of the conference can have almost nothing to do with what went in. So you always have to watch your conference committees. It paves the way for this appointment of this educational oversight board for Shelby County and that board enjoys very broad discretion.
Uh and uh so there are members appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house with similar compensation to a local board member. So this uh next few slides are going to be bills that are related to the state board of education. They may be ones
that that um we we were asked to help with or in some cases they're they're bills that directly affect us. Um so this first one prohibits eleas and public charter schools from using state local dollars to sue the state including
the board related to enforcement of accountability measures. So, while clearly the main issue there was uh an attempt to forestall litigation related to what happened in Shelby County, it also uh was something that that u we had
conversations about uh to make sure that it was broad enough to cover all accountability measures which includes the work of the um oversight committee of this board. We look at uh public
chapter 795 changes from the department of education to the state board of education upon the commissioner's recommendation to be the party responsible for selecting the intervent intervention option for priority schools receiving tier three interventions
through the progressive tiered system. Uh House Bill 2485. This legislation requires the TISA review committee to study whether or not Medicaid enrollment data should be used in the TISA formula. This was one again a lot of
conversations had to take place. And if you were to take it about 5 days to to maybe 7 days before the legislation was amended to send it to the TISA review committee, they were going to require the creation of a whole new study organization to be attached to the state
board of education. Uh so interveneed got that stopped. Chairman Eie um chairs the TISA review committee and that will be an issue Mr. Chairman that we will be taking up heavily at our next meeting. So this is about local testing
transparency. Uh folks have certainly talked a long time about the question of is it uh is it statemandated testing or is it testing at the local level that puts the greatest burden on the students. Uh this this requires uh the
local governments to be very transparent about the tests that they require. No, this doesn't require every time sometimes uh that a uh teacher might have a spelling quiz or something like that to be disclosed, but it does say
that the districts have to put up on their website the testing they require by grade level. It further creates an assessment review board consisting of nine public school teachers again with the three appointment structure from the
uh speakers and the governor and it is attached through the department requires the commissioner to convene it and uh further requires that both the board and the department uh provide staff
uh or persons representatives I guess they say uh who are experienced in the development and administration of the TCAP tests. So, that'll be another one of those things that we take on jointly.
Senate Bill 2404 creates the Early Educator Workforce Development Resource Task Force and requires the board to create a pathway to permit qualifying privately operated child care programs and childcare agencies that serve children from birth till kindergarten.
uh to be able to be approved as a uh clinical practice site for an educator prep program offering the pathway for students to receive an early childhood education to birth uh birth to kindergarten endorsement on their initial license.
So this legislation is about math and there was a lot of discussion as the commissioner will share as Dr. Morrison could share that uh maybe the state of Tennessee needed to do the exact same thing with math that they had done with
uh literacy. And uh that approach wasn't really what the state needed. And so what the the legislature came up with was this and that is to say that we would establish a pathway for eighth grade math teachers to teach algebra.
that seventh grade TECAP students who scored exceeds expectations will be placed in algebra in the eighth grade unless their parent or guardian opts them out in writing. And it further recommends that the standards recommendation committee make changes to
the academic standards to offer advanced math in grades 5 through 7. Now, it's important that it came out this way because a lot of times what legislators will do is bring legislation forward to make immediate changes to what is
taught. Now, we all understand that if you were to do that, first of all, you'd be trying to circumvent a standard review process if you're talking about ELA, math, social studies, or science. And then, what do all the districts do with the books that are on contract?
Right? So it causes a number of problems when when that takes place. This is an example of a legislation crafted with that knowledge in mind. So this legislation was brought by the Goodwill Excel Center and uh to create
they're what they were after was creating an adult charter high school. That is for students who are 18 years and older. It requires the Department of Education to create a public charter framework and application. And it doesn't allow any of these
schools to open sooner than 29 or 30. And I I'll tell I'll tell you board members as well as others that there are a lot of questions that persist about how exactly this will work. So I think ourselves, the Department of Education and certainly others will be working
with uh with legislators and each other to to figure out the best path forward here um to to move move on that cuz it's a kind of an undiscovered country in in some ways.
All right. So this uh this next one, public chapter 284 allows a masters in media and tech to count the same as library science for the purpose of an info specialist endorsement. Uh public chapter 873 is about letting 16 and 17
year olds work and workbased learning programs work in child care centers. Uh that came out through some conversations um with with some legislators over the course of the last year that dependent on what sort of school it was whether it
was associated with a department of education or it was uh children's services school that would would u define the minimum age that someone could come and and work there. This permits folks who are 16 and 17 that are
in a specific program and have gone through some proper training to to work with these uh young folks in the in this program. So public chapter 629 uh
is an example of how when we are able to work with legislators we can avoid some problem situations. Uh, Representative Renault came to us the early part of last summer and what she
was originally proposing would have paused the entire social studies standards process to have had to have been repeated. And so what she did was get creative. and that is to say she wanted to have a a couple of videos that
could be shown uh dealing with the issue of the founding fathers and their religious viewpoints. So, as it was structured, instead of revitalizing or redoing the standards, which would have
cost over a quarter million dollars and taken years to put in place, uh she found some uh some videos and an organization that that would provide them. So, they will come to the textbook and instructional materials commission who will review them and then their
final selection would come to the board and those would be shared with students around the state. But again, something like that is is u much better way than going after the whole standards review process. Once more, here's some
uh select charter legislation. I'll just hit these u rather quickly. The first one allows private universities to operate a public charter school. Lots of states have done this in the past. Minnesota early on uh um Arizona, others. Uh the second one, public chap
chapter 842 creates a report regarding opportunity public schools and also requires officials to share information with eligible students. Uh that is students who are uh fall into any number of categories that would uh that would
send them there. And House Bill 2177, again, this this bill hasn't been signed or rejected yet by the the governor, so it looks like it'll be signed. It changes the default charter school renewal time that is for high performing charters to 10 years. So that's uh
that's a considerable change. Senate Bill 1713. You might recall that last year the general assembly passed a prohibition on any entity of state government, any uh local government, that is to say
political subdivision of the state uh from engaging in diversity, equity or inclusion programs or discriminatory preferences. This legislation requires each agency, including ours, to certify
annually to the comproller of the treasury that we are in compliance with that and do not engage in that behavior. House Bill 1729. This one's been offered a few times over the years. When Representative Slater came to the general assembly, he's he's
a fascinating man with a very interesting past. Uh he's an attorney. He's a dean of education at Welch College. He's gone to public and private universities and he has a great deal of interest in the classic learning test.
Well, when he first brought it up, and I was I was going to thank our executive director from THECK, one of the main concerns was that the classic learning test and the ACT and SAT, there wasn't a really good crosswalk. So, you couldn't be confident in a student's score. uh
that since then has been addressed and it's been addressed rather thoroughly and so this this year that legislation moved forward to allow that test to be used. It also allows some other earlier um or test and earlier grades related to
classic education to be used. Let's see if I'm going in the right direction here. There we are. Okay. Public chapter 764. As many of you have heard, especially with those going to the days in the district, school bus drivers uh around the state have been
complaining about people running stop signs with the flashing lights. A lot of dangerous situations there. And often if a bus driver records an incident with their phone, they can be charged for distracted driving because the cameras don't show the cars actually passing the stop bar. And so, uh they run through
the stop stop light. The the bus driver tries to do what he can and he ends up in trouble. he or she does. So that means few folks have been charged. This legislation allows cameras to be placed in better places around the bus. And the
big part here is that it allows the SRO's to review the footage and issue a citation. And that's not been able to happen before. So this is a pretty big step in terms of student safety, especially in our metropolitan areas.
We look at um Senate Bill 1912. This is one we've had conversation with with members about. This one revises the internet use policies and allows young people to have email addresses that can't be emailed. This is for identification purposes. One of the
things that would come up is that especially those that are on devices, they'd have to have a schoolbased email address and some uh rather unpleasant things were taking place with that. And so this this legislation addresses that
public chapter 685. Uh this one allows your English language learners to get translators for their TCAP exams unless having a translator would specifically compromise the test. But uh in every other case that that
would allow them to have that. And public chapter 5433 allows student athletes who transfer to another school to be immediately eligible for sports participation virtual schools. So this legislation
I will say was very much informed by uh the work of Dr. Maxwell uh Mr. Cobbins Mr. Chairman Eie and the final day of the hearings that this uh that your committee undertook.
When those concluded, we sent out the videos from the whole week's worth of hearings and along with an email that went to each and every member of House and Senate education committees and it said, "If you don't do anything else, watch Vice Chairman
Cobbins, he was chairman of that committee, watch Chairman Cobbins give his opening speech, 20 25 minutes. It's a little less than that, but it was very poignant and very powerful and it sent the message. And then I said, "You need to uh take some time and watch the final
hour." Well, the the final hour of those hearings was related to a virtual school in Union County and a lot of things came out there. Let's put it that way. Um,
so the very next week in the House Education Committee, this legislation was up and it requires an LEA. Now, in the final version, requires an LEA to close any virtual school demonstrating student achievement growth significantly
below expectations for any three consecutive years of the school's operations as represented by the Tivos for a period of three years beginning with a current school year. It further prevents leas from opening a new virtual school if they've had one that's closed down. It requires parents
to be notified of that virtual school attains a school composite uh achievement level of significantly below expectations for any two consecutive year period beginning with the 2526 school year or that has been identified in the bottom 10% of schools in overall
achievement. any virtual school that's had that parental parent parental notification requirement triggered cannot enroll new students. That was put on there by Chairman White on the House side and I don't think a lot of people necessarily realized that
on the way that it was going, but that locks it in place. Now, as we discovered in those hearings, the worst offenders among the the virtual schools that are on the bottom end, they have a tremendous turnover, right? So, if they
get caught in this position, that means the students can disenroll, but no one can come in to replace them. So, that's uh that I would say is another impact of of the work of you as board
members. This was going to be its own discussion today, special session on redistricting, but I I think we've uh discussed it rather thoroughly earlier today. So this is the uh new set of congressional maps
and um the the only other topic which we didn't put a slide about but uh wanted to briefly go over our agency budget as it was finally passed by the general assembly.
Our above the line, that is to say, salaries and benefits are $2,96,000 uh500 and below the line is $569,000 below the line. And that means all the operational expenses of the state board
of education and all of the other things that we pay for and we do. That is down from 62,700. So 569 now was 6027. We like all the other agencies in the state of Tennessee were asked to field a
1% reduction and that was our 1% reduction. >> So with that, Mr. Chairman, I hope I've been thorough without putting anyone to sleep. >> Thank you, Mr. James. Questions or comments?
>> I do have one question on that Goodwill Excel schools. >> Yes, sir. Um, >> can you go back through that? >> Yeah, I'll quickly pull it back >> and then I have a question. >> So, this computer is not actually controlling that. So, I got to I got
find this >> approximately right. [laughter] >> Yeah, here we are. >> 1759 There we are. Okay. So, uh the bill uh established authorization for an adult public
charter high school. Um we were engaged in conversations with the uh with the sponsors with Goodwill Excel folks. Um you know, in in those conversations, I made it clear. I said, I know I have at least two board members that are
lifetime fans of Goodwill Excel and absolutely appreciate uh what they do. And on the other side, we have to balance that with the ability to create a policy that is workable and a a rule,
a set of rules that would be consistent because adult high schools work very differently than than other schools. And um you know, typically they've been the uh the purview of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, right? your high
set programs and your GED programs and some others there. So, I'm going to tell you this this one is going to take uh a lot of meetings. It's going to take a lot of brain power and uh and I'm happy uh happy to keep you, Mr. Cobins, and any other member or anyone else that's
that's interested in keeping up with with what happens. But there is a reason that there's language there that says one won't open before 2930 and it's 2026 now. So, a lot of things need to need to be worked out.
>> May I comment on on this? And Mr. Cobins, Vice Chairman, may want to add to this. Good Excel Schools opened a school in the Shelby County Correction Center last week. They have graduated
over 1,700 adults. You go [snorts] to the school and it is not a GED program, right? not a high set program. It is a school that I think the average age is 27. And these people have come back
voluntarily and they're being offered an opportunity with to get a high school degree. You It's so interesting. You go in on the ground floor and there's a nursery and the and so to me this is a
a Goodwill has done a marvelous job of this and I it sort of hurts me frankly that we got to wait for they're already doing it and they intend to continue. It's just to me I don't again I hear the
reservations etc but the what they're doing in our community is just I mean frankly I don't know anywhere else it's happening but it is you it is a high school degree right the average age is 27 years old and they've graduated
[snorts] 17800 people and there and these are folks who voluntarily have said I'm tired of not having an education and they go back and they go to school and they go from 8 to 3 or whatever the time is and they're diligently working. uh and there's
interfa interface with the TCATs and it's just a model that we need to I think we need to figure out how to be very supportive of it and I I would welcome those conversations and because you're impacting a lot of people in
their lives and so I just you know underscore uh the importance and my from my perspective on what they're doing and finding ways to Indianapolis has 10 of So, I I don't know what we got to do to
get there and I know there's this and that, but I mean, we got I guess we have three in Memphis now, and I'd like to see us get to 10 as well. >> Commissioner R. >> Yeah. So, I'll just tell you, I actually was on the board um of the Central Texas
Goodwill Excel Center in Austin before I came here. Had to resign obviously because I moved here. Um but I think there's definitely some lessons learned from the way um that iterated as a
charter school um from a a a high school with your traditional accountability and then it pushed into really recognizing how to determine whether or not the adults were actually reaching outcomes. So there was still a level of
accountability but it was different and then it became a pay for performance kind of system where at the end of the day the school was paid based upon the actual outcomes of those students. So I think there were some conversations that we tried to have with some of their
lobbyists that um that made it really difficult for this to really come into the form that they wanted it to. So, I absolutely welcome the conversations, but at the end of the day, it is a high school and there are opportunities to
demonstrate performance that we absolutely should require when it comes to these um students because they are students and they're seeking a high school degree. And so, happy to have conversations and really be part of the conversation based upon my personal
experience. Um but at the end of the day we have to ensure that it doesn't and and it isn't I have visited the program in Memphis. It's a wonderful program. Um they are and and I understand the difficulties that they're having with
respect to how they're operating. But there is a middle ground here that I think we need to really look at and really have conversations around. So >> I I I would I'd welcome that conversation and be a part of it because I just
I just want to figure out what the obstacles are to get the opportunity that these people are voluntarily coming back. They're not they're 20 average age is like 27 or something. So anyway, thank you for that opportunity. >> Bless your cousins.
Just briefly, in addition to the high school diploma, they do a good job of connecting those graduates with opportunities at companies like FedEx and others where it's not just about getting a diploma, but they make sure that they transition into a career
pathway that, you know, is conducive and um beneficial for their long-term success. So, as the conversation continues, look forward to that. >> Mr. Chairman and members, James, >> I would tell Mr. Jensen and Mr. com is that there were several meetings where I brought you up specifically and I said,
"Look, there, you know, I I have two board members who are the biggest fans of Goodwill Excel." I I think it's a matter that the the program in in Memphis is directly with the school system, and it's uh it's set up differently than what this legislation
contemplates. And so it's a matter of trying to create a new process that gets to what we all know is an amazing thing that happens there. But it it it just it was
um like I said, there's just just several questions that that have to be answered. But at no point in time did we try to do any harm to that legislation. Um be [laughter] I remember I told the the Senate sponsor
I said look I'm I'm I have two board members who are just uh who would never forgive me if we were going in the wrong direction on Goodwill Excel. Um but it is a it is a matter of making sure that what we call a high school diploma is a
high school diploma and and being able to have the means to assure that that's the case. and a lot of structures exist for other portions of K12 that maybe are not quite as articulated in the adult high school area. Um, so that's really
what that comes down to, but I will u I uh was not going to let you down either. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions for Mr. James? I would like to say one thing. Uh we've
thanked uh various senators and all who are leaving. >> I got in on my notes. I was going to thank you. I was going to thank Chrissy. I want to thank [laughter] Dr. >> No, no, no, no, no. That's not who I'm going to thank. >> But they've been great. >> We want to thank you, Nathan James. Uh
if you have not had the opportunity, uh we talk about the importance of board member engagement. If you haven't had the opportunity to walk the halls of Cordell Hall with Nathan for a day during legislation, I strongly recommend it. I mean, the the state board has an
outstanding reputation with uh our legislatures, both the Senate and the House, and with the governor. And of course, we know a lot of that is because of the strong staff that we have led by our executive director. But uh I think
the one person who really makes a big difference has made a big difference for us with regard to legislature is Nathan and I think we ought to give him a round of applause for another Mr. Chairman I'll tell you um I I just didn't get down to those notes. I I
wanted to thank Dr. Maxwell. I want want to thank Darl uh especially for and you of course for coming up making presentations the legislature to Chrissy for that thankless task of being on the
innovations committee and all of your hours behind the wheel to come into town and sometimes it was frustrating and sometimes uh maybe a little more fruition there but you were very persistent and I want to thank Alex Anderson
uh for being with me and learning all the patience that comes with trying to be there to testify and also Bob for being my wingman three or four times up there. I could say to him, "Hey, do you mind now? I'm talking to my boss's boss here." I say, "Hey, do you mind watching
a committee for me because I got to run down the hall and talk to them over here." He's like, "Oh, yeah. I got you." [clears throat] >> Thank you so much. >> Our pleasure. It's a team and but thank you. All right, next item. Ler discipline. Todd Madison,
Alex Anderson, Jamie Foreman, and Ryan Shenahan. Good afternoon, members. Todd Madison, Deputy Junior Council. Jamie Foremont, Alex Anderson, Ryan Shanahan, associate councils for the board. We will be presenting to you at tomorrow's meeting
the staff recommendations for licensed discipline. Uh [clears throat] wanted to note for you that we will have an educator uh coming to speak um and provide public comment. That is item L,
Miss Key Spain. Uh she will be joining us to provide public comment on that item. So that item will need to be pulled from the rest of them for separate discussion. Um at this point we'd like to take any clarifying
questions and note any other items that should be pulled for further discussion. Are there questions? I I do I have a question, a comment uh specifically as it relates to Miss Spain
and um the uh recommendation of formal reprimand u I think you and I have talked and there was a case very similar uh back in February 2020 [clears throat] where the board was formed uh presented
with a formal recommend recommendation for a teacher who allowed a 15year-old unlicensed student to drive the teacher's personal vehicle from the back of the parking lot to the front in order to low uh band equipment. The board voted to amend the consent order for a harsher discipline and approved a
three-month retroactive suspension at that meeting. And so, as I look at that, I I I try to look for differences between those two cases, and I kind of struggle with that. Well, the difference um for Miss Spain's
case versus that one that you're speaking of, I don't think the previous case had any criminal charges involved in it. Um and it was u kind of a case of a first impression for us and dealing with it. So, I think that was part of the reason why we were um struggling on
landing on a certain recommendation. Um, in this one, I know that uh we've discussed before that there's um a little nuance in her criminal charge and the fact that it was set to be dismissed, but for a um ancillary matter
kind of triggering uh the uh dismissal to go away. Um and she did have a lot of uh support from um her previous superintendent uh who whom I spoke with um which I don't the previous um case
that you mentioned I don't know that we had um any sort of um support uh in that instance. So um those are some of the distinguishing factors um but probably
not all of them. I think it's important as we look at each one of these to look at as much consistency as we can which you do but also to look at precedents that we set because we look at
consistencies in the future for future issues etc. So that's that's one I think uh I would encourage this board to look at and can talk about tomorrow. Any other questions or comments?
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh just wanted to take one u before we go. I know we're the last thing standing between us and uh a break before dinner. Uh but did want to take an opportunity to introduce formally to the board our summer legal intern. She's a 3L from
Belmont. Um she's going to be with us all summer. Uh she was a former kindergarten teacher at a Montasauri school. Um and Miss Lzanne Katani who's in the back of the room. Uh like I said, she'll be with us all summer. So you you might be u seeing her name on a on a couple things or working with her
occasionally. And then also I'd like to thank Mr. James for the kind words twice on the record indicating that I have patience so that my wife can go back and reference this video. [laughter] >> Thank you. Any other comments about Dr. Morrison comments about the board
meeting about the workshop? >> No, I don't think so. It was another full great afternoon of discussions. I always just love to hear the questions and the perspectives that our members bring to the presenters and appreciate everybody's engagement. I know tomorrow will be another full and fun day. So looking forward to it.
>> Yeah, I think this is always these workshops are very informative. we uh go into a lot of detail and and understanding and this gives us an opportunity to have those conversations and so if uh no other comments the purposes of the committee the whole have been fulfilled I declare it and the
board adjourned [clears throat and cough] >> I'm against the fact that I sent