The Tennessee Education Commissioner, Dr. Penny Schwinn, made a stop in DeKalb County last week as part of her 50-school district ‘Accelerating TN 2022 Tour’ across the state. The Commissioner visited Smithville Elementary School, where she had a chance to talk with some young students as well as teachers and school officials. The three-week tour is meant to highlight summer learning opportunities.

The Commissioner and her staff were greeted at the school by DeKalb Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, members of the central office staff, SES Principal Summer Cantrell, teachers, and State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver.

During the General Assembly’s 2021 special legislative session on education, legislators passed the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act, which set forward a path for all districts’ current and future summer programming opportunities to benefit students and accelerate achievement. 

This year, the General Assembly passed the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act, which updates the way the state funds public education for the first time in over 30 years and prioritizes the needs of each individual student.  

When asked about her tour, Commissioner Schwinn said she gets to hear what’s wrong with the school systems, but hears a lot more about what is right. “The tour is going so well,” Commissioner Schwinn said. “We are able to talk to students, teachers, and district leaders about the great work they are doing in the public schools in our state and frankly it’s an opportunity to celebrate the great work of our schools. We talk about a lot of things that are wrong but there is so much more that’s right and you get to see that on tours like this.”

Schwinn had a chance to talk to some of the students attending the summer program and what they liked about school. “I just asked the students what they like about the summer programming, what was their favorite subject. Some liked math, some liked reading and some liked STEM. Everyone liked recess and snacks. Then I just wanted to learn more about them.

“We had a couple of students talk about what it meant to them to be in summer school and how important it was and how successful they feel. You can’t measure that on a test, but you see there is more impact besides just the economics and that’s lovely,” she continued.

When asked what she was hearing across the state during her tour, Commissioner Schwinn said getting back to normal was a big topic. “I am hearing a lot of really strong excitement about early reading. There’s a lot of focus there. People are loving summer school and wanting that funding to continue because they are seeing great results. We are seeing some kind of stress around getting scores back and what that means. I am feeling very optimistic about achievement and what we will see in our state tests. I am also seeing a lot of relief to get back to normal. A lot of folks say it feels like we are back to who we are and what we know how to do, and we can do our jobs and see great results with our kids,” she continued.

Commissioner Schwinn said the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act will mean more funds for districts like DeKalb County. “It’s the largest investment, especially in recurring dollars, that we have ever done in public education. I am very grateful to the governor and general assembly. It will impact districts like this [DeKalb County] which will get more funds to do this great work and do it even stronger than they have before,” said Commissioner Schwinn.

It’s good that she is putting her boots on the ground and seeing what’s going on in our summer camps.

She is seeing the great work that our teachers, administrators, and students are doing. She got to go into the classrooms and see some of the work the students were doing. She enjoys visiting with kids. You can tell that just by talking to her, that she likes to see things from their prospective as well,” said Director Cripps.

Summer school is a state mandated program, which goes up to seventh grade, but student participation is voluntary. “We have to provide it for students up to seventh grade but in our case, it goes up to the high school level where we use federal funding for that program. It gives kids the opportunity to work on skills to get ready for next year. At the high school level, it helps those kids that may not have passed a class to recoup that credit and take the next class available for them,” said Director Cripps.