Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
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Dr. Register's Remarks to the Chamber of Commerce - 6/18/2009
  
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity today to address questions that you may have about the current status of the Metro Nashville Public Schools and to articulate plans to embark on a major reform of the district beginning this summer.

I am pleased to make these remarks to your Chamber because it is so important that we believe that our community cannot thrive unless all young people receive a high quality education that will give each of them a reasonable chance of realizing the American Dream, regardless of where they are born or how much their parents make. I believe that the successful education of most all of our children is essential for the overall health of our economy and our future success as a nation.

We must recognize the advantage that we have in this community because there is common recognition of the importance and value of making our public schools excellent schools. I see and hear this across our community.

We have a school board that is very capable and that is developing a common vision for our system. We have a mayor that has made a commitment from his first day in office to improving the quality of the schools in Nashville. It is such an advantage to have this common commitment and a will to improve the public schools.

I want to be very clear and direct with my message today.

First, I am not waiting on pins and needles for test scores that will be released in July. Quite frankly, this district needs urgent, dramatic and comprehensive reform regardless of the test scores this summer. We are already implementing reforms that will have long term benefits.

  • Central office reorganization that moves resources into the schools
  • MNPS Achieves: A collaborative change leadership group of 100 district and community leaders that have embarked on systemic school district reform
  • Reconstituting five schools this summer to promote rapid change and improvement
  • Recruiting new principals and strategically assigning school leaders as principals who can turn schools around immediately
Second, to students, parents, taxpayers, and local and state officials, I want to make sure that you know that this entire school system is not broken. We will reform this district by developing remedies and strategies that are urgent and bold, but also surgical, smart and data driven. We are drawn to the negatives that we hear, but there is much that is good in the district also.

Third, every decision made and reform strategies upon which we embark will be data informed. A premium will be placed on learning how to prescriptively and strategically use data. I have been in communication with Dr. William Sanders and have asked him to partner with us in this effort. Dr. Sanders is a Tennessean, a grandparent of children in Nashville, and the nation’s leading expert in using a value added model of data analysis of student achievement. Basically, the value added system shows how much academic gain a student makes each year, irrespective of where they start. We have the ability with this data to literally predict students’ chances of being academically successful as they move through school. It also provides a measurement of teacher impact on each student’s academic progress each year. I know that Bill can help us map out strategies for improving the performance of every child, every teacher and every school in our district.

Test scores are coming out in four to six weeks and there seems to be a lottery like anticipation of what the results will be. From my perspective, I don’t expect to see any radical improvement in test scores, and we may or may not make adequate progress to improve our status as a district. Regardless of the short term outcome, the trends over the past few years show that we have consistently under performed in many areas.

We will not make excuses, but neither do we need to lose perspective. This situation did not come about overnight, and test scores will not change overnight. A sustained and collaborative effort is necessary to achieve the results that we want.

I used my first four months here to do my homework and to identify with the Board, the Mayor, many teachers, administrators and parents key reforms needed, and we have already started.

  • We have moved resources from the central office into the schools to place instructional support close to the classrooms across the district.
  • We have negotiated a differentiated pay plan for ten schools in the Pearl Cohn cluster to recruit excellent teachers.
  • We have begun the implementation of a transformational change leadership model: MNPS Achieves, that is the most ambitious, systemic and collaborative reform model in the history of MNPS. We have started by engaging over 100 citizens and community leaders who are committing time and expertise to improve the system.
  • We have decided to fresh start five schools before they fall further into a failing status that mandates reconstitution.
As we go forward with our efforts, we will follow three basic principles:

  1. Decisions and strategies will continue to be data driven and focused on improving student learning.
  2. We will focus on having a highly effective teacher in every classroom and a good instructional support system in every school.
  3. Principals will be given more control, authority, flexibility and will be held accountable. They are the instructional leaders in their schools whose primary goal is to create an environment in which teachers can be highly successful and where student learning is the driving force.
Here are some action steps that you will see this summer.

  • In July Bill Sanders will come to the district to establish a direction and start a conversation around useful, prescriptive, relevant data to improve the learning for all of our students. I have asked Dr. Sanders to speak to many of our change leadership groups and to begin conversations with our principals and district leaders. He created the value added assessment program in Tennessee and is the best person to help us effectively use data. This is a first step in uncovering and understanding our weaknesses so that we can sharply focus on improving results. There is tremendous potential in using data already available through the Sanders value added model. It is exciting and now possible to use the data that we already have to predict future academic success for students and to support those that are on track and to modify programs and support for those that are headed to failure.
  • We must relentlessly focus on improving instruction and student learning in the district. We must recognize and support efforts that will ensure a highly effective teacher in every classroom across the district. Recruiting the very best teachers for the district, providing a support system for those teachers, effectively evaluating performance, and creating incentives to recruit and reward excellent teaching based upon student achievement must be initiated.
  • Job embedded, on‐going professional development for all teachers must become a part of a new culture. Extensive staff development efforts this summer include inclusionary and collaborative practices for general and special needs teachers that will lead to more inclusionary classroom practices. Over 4000 teachers will receive this training this summer.
  • New principals will start in 28 new schools in July. We have relocated a number of principals, have moved very competent staff from the central office to principal positions and have recruited highly successful principals from outside the district. Good schools can’t exist without good principals.
  • High school and middle school reform efforts are well under way. The development of small learning communities in traditional high schools, two new high schools for students who have fallen behind and cannot be successful in traditional schools and alternative high school programs initiated in cooperation with Mayor Dean will change the look of secondary education in Metro Nashville Public Schools. The two new high schools alone will have a positive impact on graduation rates this year.
  • I am committed to using every resource available to improve performance of our students. I want to commend Mayor Dean and the private sector for working to bring Teach for America and The New Teacher Project to Nashville. We are fortunate they are here, and we expect to increase the quality of our teaching staff in hard to fill areas as a result. Building leadership capacity in the district is very important. We will invest in leadership development of principals, future principals and other potential leaders in the district. We will explore all options for developing the very best principals for our schools, for example, engaging innovative approaches like New Leaders for New Schools (an approach through which the district can “grow and nurture its own” principals).
In conclusion, I have been asked many times why I wanted to come to MNPS. The challenges are significant and success is not a given. But this work is very important. I am focused on big, systemic reform. I am not interested in incremental change or just nibbling around the edges.

Although there is risk involved, I have the will and I am very confident that we can build the capacity in the district to become a highly effective urban school district. With your help, we can get this system on a path for success for all children in the district.

Our focus must not be on test scores that are six weeks out, but on a sustained plan of improvement that will lead to the creation of a successful school system with a sharp vision, a focus on quality instruction and sustained growth in student performance.

I know how to do this. I have done this. We just need a chance to get this plane off the ground, get some air under our wings and start it flying on the right trajectory.

Thank you.