Latest From the Legislature

Tennesseans for Student Success worked to secure a number of positive outcomes in the General Assembly last week.

• HB647 (Rep. Faison), which would have created a different 11th grade assessment for a student who intends to attend a career and technical college or pursue a career path, was taken off notice in House Education Instruction Subcommittee.
• HB858 (Rep. Powers), which would have expended virtual schools enrollment size, was also taken off notice in House K-12 Subcommittee.
• The House Education Instruction Subcommittee voted in favor of TSS-supported HB1446 (Rep. Hicks), which directs the department to provide career and technical education opportunities for students in middle school. The bill will next be heard tomorrow in the House Education Instruction Full Committee.

This week, we will work to support the Senate companion to HB1446, SB1240 (Sen. Crowe), which is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Education Committee.

On the final calendar in the Senate Education Committee is SB1324 (Sen. Hensley), which was introduced as a caption. The House companion, HB1407 (Rep. Haston), which TSS opposes, is scheduled for K-12 Subcommittee consideration this week. The House version has had numerous amendments filed, the most recent one deleting all of the existing teacher evaluation code sections, replacing them with a teacher evaluation advisory committee to rework the entire teacher evaluation system. The bill would effectively ensure there is no teacher evaluation system in place for the next two years, the same time period after which the committee is expected to make recommendations to the legislature on new evaluation procedures and methods.