Update November 28th, 11:30 AM: I’ve been made aware that some people in Lincoln County were experiencing difficulty voting. I’ve modified the method used to log votes to make it more open in hopes of rectifying it. As a result, I’ll leave polls open until midnight tonight. Please also leave a comment if this didn’t fix the issue for you and you still cannot vote!

Update 11/28/14, 6:09 PM: Going to go ahead and close the polling as planned at 8 PM. Given the outpouring, looks as if everyone was able to get their votes in on time!

The Sweet Sixteen of Tennessee Education Commissioner Madness is in the books, and we are down to our final eight candidates. We don’t get to legally vote for our education commissioner in Tennessee, but today you do! The polls for the Elite 8 open at 8 PM on Wednesday, November 26th and run through 8 PM on Friday, November 28th. Please vote for each candidate race, don’t just vote for one and leave!

Happy Thanksgiving!

One thing that I’m thankful for this holiday season is that we have so many highly qualified education leaders living here in Tennessee. And apparently Tennesseans share this belief, as demonstrated through their participation. In The Sweet Sixteen we saw over 5,000 votes cast for the 16 candidates, bringing the total to just over 9,700 votes cast for all candidates in the tournament thus far.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, what better way to continue showing your thanks than by taking a quick break from food and family to thank these fantastic individuals for their service by voting for them in the Elite 8?

Trends from Sweet Sixteen/Recap

Before voting, here’s a recap and some key trends from the Sweet Sixteen

Close Races: The Sweet Sixteen saw several very close races between highly qualified individuals. Superintendents Mike Looney and Rick Smith swapped leads several times over the three days of voting, as did JC Bowman from PET and Gloria Johnson, former state senator. Kathleen Airhart from the Department of Education went up early on TEA’s Jim Wyre but was down slightly with just two hours remaining. However, she saw a late surge and slipped through with the win by just 10 votes. And Dolores Gresham from the Senate posted a come-from-behind win after falling behind to Candice McQueen of Lipscomb early on.

Quality opponents: A couple of candidates powered through their match ups: Lyle Ailshie, Wanda Shelton, Jason Vance and Andy Spears all handily downed their opponents. However, its a testament to the quality of those that they defeated that they each drew hundreds of votes in their favor. For example, though he lost to Mike Looney, Rick Smith (Hamilton County Supt.) received over 650 votes in his loss.

Voting for Experience: Overall we saw a trend for both established and experienced education names. Our remaining candidates on the Policy Makers and Advocates side are people with a long history of service in policy making in our state in several capacities (including blogging!).

On the Superintendent side we saw a trend towards school leaders from highly ranked districts as all our remaining candidates districts are in the top 33 in the state (as ranked by niche.com).

Looking forward to some of the great match ups in the Elite 8! In this round, we’ve added a picture so you can put a face to the name. Candidates, feel free to email/tweet us an alternative action shot if you don’t like the one we used. Let the voting commence.

How to Vote

Simply scroll down the page and select the candidate in each match up that you believe would be the best of the two in the Commissioner of Education role for the state of Tennessee. Below each match is some additional information about each candidate to help in making your selection. We highly recommend that you also research each candidate yourself. Happy voting, and may the best candidate win! Also, share the page on your social media accounts to let you friends know that you voted! Thanks to Dan for suggesting it in the comments. To clarify; you can vote in each race shown below! You are not just limited to one.

Like what you see? Check out our coverage of the Achievement School District in Memphis and our breakdown of their performance in year 2. Follow ProEdTN, TNEdReport and BluffCityEd on twitter! You can also follow TNEdReport and BluffCityEd on facebook. 

Additional Information

Lyle Ailshie (Kingsport schools) – Superintendent, former Director of Greenville City Schools (TN) – Greenville schools recognized during tenure as a high performing system, past president of Tennessee Organization for School Superintendents, 2005 Superintendent of the year. School district ranked second in the state by niche.com.

Wanda Shelton (Lincoln County) – Superintendent, named Superintendent of the year for 2015 by the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. School district ranked fifth fifth in the state by niche.com.

Additional Information

Mike Looney (Williamson County) – Superintendent since 2009, previously served as superintendent of Butler County Schools and assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Montgomery public schools in Alabama. School district fourth second in the state by niche.com. Additionally, in 2013-14, WCS had the highest TCAP scores in the state, had 26 schools named as Rewards schools and saw the highest ACT scores in the district history. 

Jason Vance (loudon County) – Director of Schools. School district ranked thirty third in the state by niche.com. Received unanimous approval when selected. Holds an education specialists degree from Tennessee Technological University, former principal and assistant director of schools prior to being appointed superintendent.

Additional Information

JC Bowman (ProEdTN) – Executive Director and CEO of PET. Fomer school teacher and VP of the National Association of Professional Educators. Served as chief policy analyst for the Education Policy Unit for Gov. Jeb Bush. Received 2003 SMART award from the National institute for Education options.

Kathleen Airhart (TNDOE) – Deputy Commissioner of Education, prior director of Putnam County Schools since 2007, named TN Superintendent of the year in 2012. Has experience as a classroom teacher.

Additional Information

Dolores Gresham (Senate Ed Chair) – elected in 2008, previously served three terms in TN Hous of Representatives. District located in western part of the state. Served in US Marine Corps. Voted for the statewide charter authorizer, for school vouchers, for testing notification and for a return to the experience-based method of calculating teacher pay this past legislative session.

Andy Spears (consultant, Nashville) – Tennessee Emergency Communications Board, president of Spears Strategy, editor/writer at TNEdReport. Formerly a press secretary in the Tennessee State Senate.

How We Picked Them

We selected individuals who met two criteria: were 1) realistic and 2) experienced and qualified. If someone wasn’t realistic, we left them off. For example, when it comes to experience, Diane Ravitch and Arne Duncan might be experienced, but they wouldn’t be realistic, hence they are not included. Experience was determined based on would have the qualifications to lead the district by their experience as a superintendent or who we thought might be in contention given their affiliations and experience in education advocacy or policy making. Superintendents were selected if they were in the top 80 districts in the state by niche.com. Out of state people were picked based on their similarity to Commissioner Huffman and the Governor’s priorities. If you think we left someone off, let us know in the comments!