Education chief reticent about future
Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen is reserved about her future ahead of the November gubernatorial election.
The state’s top education chief instead pointed to the time she’s guaranteed to have at the Tennessee Department of Education in an interview with the USA Today Network-Tennessee.
“This year I am focused on 2018,” McQueen said, who started in January 2015. “We have a lot of work to do. We want to set up the next governor — whoever that is — and whoever he or she appoints to be in a strong place.”
Gov. Bill Haslam, who selected McQueen, is termlimited, and it remains unclear if any of the candidates to replace him will keep her on. McQueen did say she wants to stay involved in the work she’s done for the past three years.
Her time has been marked by highs and lows.
The state has installed its version of the Every Student Succeeds Act — a replacement of No Child Left Behind. McQueen has helped guide the creation and implementation of new, post-Common Core state standards.
She’s sought to make teachers’ voices heard in state decisions. And she launched a major statewide focus on early literacy.
But she’s also dealt with a standardized test that has been marred by issues. TNReady has dominated conversations across the state, especially after the first-year spring cancellation of tests in grades 3-8, the firing of a testing vendor and, more recently, thousands of incorrectly graded tests.
“That’s all happened in the last three years,” McQueen said.
McQueen said TNReady testing is on track for a smoother year. Online high school testing in the fall went well, she said.