Good evening and welcome to the final post of #TNedcommishmadness. First, let me congratulate our winner, Jason Vance of Loudon County Schools, who triumphed in a hard fought battle over Andy Spears in the final round.
Education Commissioner Madness Champion: Jason Vance
Mr. Vance was made an official statement on the eve of his victory about what we need in our next education commissioner. I highly recommend reading the whole piece over at Loudon County schools, but here’s a segment that outlines what he wants to see in our next education commissioner:
Priorities for a new commissioner must first be student centered. Our students must have the resources and innovative instruction to compete in a global society…
Our state must continue to provide support to teachers, staff, and leaders by modeling a clear direction for student outcomes. Achieving this goal can be supported by focusing on increasing compensation for teachers and leaders as well as providing high quality personalized professional development to support unique learning needs.
In addition, communication with all stakeholders is critical. Our district leaders must be an integral part of developing new state initiatives as they ultimately are responsible for the success of the initiatives. Going back to common sense approaches of sitting down at the table together to address the problem, set clear goals to address the problem, and follow through for success will provide clear guidance to district leaders.
As we close our competition, I wanted to take a few lines to recap what we saw throughout and what it all means.
Overall Interest
First, let me give a big shout out to all those who participated. When we started this competition, Andy, JC and I weren’t sure what kind of reception it would receive. Two and a half weeks later, we’ve seen over 14,000 unique visitors log over 34,000 page views during that time for education commissioner madness. Tens of thousands of votes were cast for candidates across all rounds, with over 2,000 cast in the championship alone. We were very happy with the turnout and enthusiasm to say the least!
Who voted
This wasn’t just a local competition. We saw visitors and voters from across the state. Here’s a quick snapshot of our visitors from November 17th through December 7th (the starting to ending date). You can see a wide spread from across Tennessee, with a huge focus in Nashville. Hope that means some of our elected officials were watching!
Trends
We saw four consistent trends across all rounds:
First, many of the governor’s (assumed) likely candidates were eliminated in the first two rounds (Candice McQueen, Jaime Woodson, Jim McIntyre to name a few).
Second, few “urban district” superintendents (Shelby, Knox, Davidson and Hamilton) made it through the first two rounds, suggesting a preference for smaller a superintendent from a more rural district.
Third, every out of state candidate was eliminated by the end of round one (as you can see from this bracket).
Fourth, we saw a decided home field advantage for JC and Andy as they both made it all the way to the final four. Congratulations to you both!
Meaning
With all that in mind, I want to conclude with three key observations about what I think this all means for our policy makers as they search for our next education commissioner:
First, I think that the third trend I noted above is perhaps the most important as it suggests that those with an interest in the issue, i.e. our voters, have a strong preference for an in-state candidate to be our next commissioner. No out of state candidates made it out of round one, even highly qualified ones. These were not straw man candidates either. They were leaders of big districts, state education departments and strong education advocates. This suggests that if the governor goes this route, his selection could immediately start at a disadvantaged compared to other qualified candidates that could be selected from in-state.
Second, this entire exercise shows me that we have a lot of enthusiasm about the existing talent here in Tennessee. We have some amazing superintendents and advocates living here who are more than qualified to take up the mantle of education commissioner. Personally, I learned a lot about the amazing things going on around Tennessee in different cities and districts, and I’m fully confident we could field a great education commissioner from the talent we’ve grown here at home.
Third, I think it speaks to the fact that people in Tennessee are searching for quality educational leadership. Education isn’t a losing issue. Its one that people care about deeply, so much so in fact that they get excited enough to take the time to vote in a competition that, lets be honest, carries no real weight in actual decision making. Imagine what the voting would look like if the Governor held an actual competition!
In summary, the decision about our next education commissioner isn’t one to be made lightly. Throughout our competition we’ve seen a snapshot of what the people of Tennessee want, and I hope that these preferences are taken into account by those making the decisions.
Follow Us!
Again, thanks for voting, and if you’ve enjoyed it, please take a moment to sign up for our email list on the home page and follow us on Facebook and twitter. We’ll be doing a lot of coverage of state education issues as the legislature heads to session in January, as well as education happenings here in Memphis with the ASD, Shelby County Schools, Common Core and more. We’re even getting ready to start a state-wide teacher voice page in the coming weeks to share the voices of educators across Tennessee. Lots happening in Tennessee education, and you don’t want to miss any of it!
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