The Tennessee General Assembly is considering legislation that may dismantle Tennessee's Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), the pioneer system in the nation to instill school, district, and teacher accountability for student achievement. SB2542, sponsored by Senator Thelma Harper (D-Nashville), and HB2270, sponsored by Representative Mike Turner (D-Nashville), would simply delete TVAAS from Tennessee law. Last Tuesday, Turner's bill was moved from the K-12 subcommittee for consideration by the full House Education Committee scheduled for early March. The trouble began when the superintendent of Nashville schools, Pedro Garcia, didn't like the looks of Nashville's TVAAS scores, which showed significantly lower gains than other test results that the district had gotten.

Despite the world-wide heralded attention that the TVAAS receives, this may signal a real effort in Tennessee to turn back the clock. Over the past 14 years, critics have challenged TVAAS repeatedly only to have their charges proven largely untrue. While many scholars object to the fact that the architect of the TVAAS system, Ted Sanders, has not fully revealed his patented methodology, no evidence has surfaced that the system is not valid or reliable. Just last month, a report by the Louis Gerstner's Teaching Commission recommended it as the best means of objectively measuring teacher performance.

Professor J.E. Stone at East Tennessee University is leading an effort to bring more attention to the legislative threat against this program.