Tenenbaum’s brutal realities

Story and Photo byMike Maddock

State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum speaks to Columbia Rotary Club. SC State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum prefers to use the Stockdale Paradox when discussing the problems of the SC public school system. The Stockdale Paradox is named after the late Admiral Jim Stockdale who was the highest ranking US military officer imprisoned in Vietnam. He was held in the “Hanoi Hilton” and repeatedly tortured over eight years. More recently he was Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 presidential race.

Stockdale said, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

In other words, victory comes to those who maintain faith, but realize and address the realities of their situation no matter how harsh.

Tenenbaum sp-elled out the “brutal realities” of the SC public school system to the Columbia Rotary Club Monday, February 6. She said SC is near the bottom in SAT rankings and high school graduation rates. Over 50% of SC students qualify for free or reduced lunch indicating high poverty rates. Also, according to Tenenbaum, SC schools are underfunded and suffer from a lack of coordination and central leadership.

But, as Tenenbaum says, there is reason to maintain faith in the battle to improve SC schools. According to Quality Counts, the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, NJ, which conducted a series of special analysis of NAEP scores between 1992 and 2005, SC ranks second in teacher quality and third in standards and accountability getting A’s in both categories. SC received a C+ in school climate, which consists of such things as facilities and parental involvement. SC also received a C from the study for equity in funding.

Tenenbaum went on to say SC students are at or above the national average for most standardized testing. Eighth graders are above the NAEP national average in math and are ranked #1 in improvement. SC high school students are improving SAT scores at the fastest rate in the nation. But SC is still not making progress in graduation rates or in the percentage of ninth graders who end up going directly to college.

SAT rankings are not entirely accurate because many states only administer the SAT to 3 to 5% of their students while SC gives the test to 62% of its high school students. But compared with states that test a similar percentage of students, SC still ranks 21 out of 23 states.

Tenenbaum said she has proposed several initiatives to continue improving the SC public school system like alternative routes to graduation including virtual schools, credit recovery labs, and dual credit courses. According to Tenenbaum, her proposals would cost taxpayers $3,782,200. That’s a brutal reality. But Tenenbaum refers to another famous quote when she thinks about the work ahead. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but we never lose infinite hope.” Tenenbaum has hope for SC schools despite the brutal realities so prevalent.