Public education is not “broken.” Public education policy is “broken,” and neighborhood public schools are suffering the consequences. Here are nine of the most critical and challenging issues in public education we should address in 2019 in Tennessee.
Read More
by Senator Lamar Alexander When I wrote the law fixing No Child Left Behind, I was thinking about Tennessee teachers like Candace Hines, who teaches kindergarten in Memphis. Earlier this year, Candace wrote that the new law “empowers Tennessee with the responsibility to decide how to close achievement gaps,…
Read More
His biggest piece of advice is to “get out of the office, get in the hallways, in the classrooms, in the community. No school in Tennessee has changed its culture more than ‘The Mount’. This school culture is an example of a strategy that other schools and districts can duplicate.
Read More
We need to address some of the more critical issues many educators in our public schools face: chronic discipline issues with students with behavior issues that cannot be easily addressed in a classroom setting, with a non-supportive school climate
Read More
Our founding principles are critical as our country moves forward, if we are to survive as a nation. It is one area in which Americans are likely to find agreement. We celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th every year.
Read More
Labor Day has many meanings, but one meaning is that we must recognize the incredible effort and work it took to build this great country.
Read More
by Jonathan Butcher Teacher unions and progressive special-interest groups cried foul earlier this year when the White House suggested that federal directives on school safety could be rescinded. But if a recent hearing held by the Federal Commission on School Safety is any indication, state and local policymakers don’t need Washington to micromanage…
Read More
by James D. Agresti The famed SAT, or Scholastic Assessment Test, is a college readiness exam taken by more than 1.6 million students per year. In May of 2018, the College Board, which owns and operates the SAT, required test takers to read an article that claims: the cost…
Read More
“If you don’t understand — from the school district to the superintendents — that we want our teachers held harmless, then I’m sorry, you’re tone-deaf.” —-State Representative Eddie Smith (Knoxville). That message was heard and understood statewide, right? Apparently not. We are receiving reports from across the state that some districts are denying their teachers their justified and earned bonuses, which harms the educator.
Read More
All stakeholders want to get testing right. However, the emphasis on testing misses the bigger issue: student academic growth measured by flawed testing. Then the results being used in educator evaluations. This is certainly more problematic to educators than the actual tests themselves.
Read More