Friday, November 14, 2014

SAT-10 appears dead for school year

On Sunday's Inside Tennessee (9:30 a.m. WBIR 10News), we'll talk with (new) state Sen. Richard Briggs, state Rep. Eddie Smith and school board member Tracey Sanger.

We wanted to check back in one last time with some folks who won their respective races earlier this month.

Anyhoo, as expected the whole SAT-10 thing came up in our conversation with Tracey. She said she would NOT vote to bring it back. (Remember, the school board killed testing for K-2 students - RIGHT SMACK HERE.)

However, she said the point was moot. It's not going to be get brought back any time soon.

There had been some some speculation that BOE member Doug Harris - once Tracey came on board - would try to resurrect it in December.

You see, Doug voted to kill it, but he did that because only someone on the winning side of the vote can ask to revisit a vote.

That's not going to happen. (And if it did, it doesn't look like the votes are there, even if Doug switches.)

In an email, he sent to me this morning, Doug said: "I don't have any plans to bring it back up and have sent a few emails confirming that opinion to concerned teachers/parents over the last couple of weeks."

Whether it comes back next year obviously remains to be seen. I'm guessing it will.

The school system - re: the administration and principals - have been pushing testing results and - behind the scenes - trying to get teachers to speak before the school board about how beneficial it supposedly is.

They've also released some stats that show improvements. I suspect that after one SAT-10 free year, the administration will have number that show drops.

Then it goes back to vote.

We'll see.

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