The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced its Accelerating TN 2022 Tour, a statewide bus tour that will cover 50 school districts over the course of three weeks to highlight summer learning opportunities for students.
TDOE said department members, elected officials, and other education partners will have the opportunity to join the various events to learn more about how schools are “accelerating student achievement.”
Legislators passed the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act, General Assembly’s 2021 special legislative session, “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 additionally passed the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act during this year’s legislative session. The TISA Act updates the way the Tennessee funds public education and, according to TDOE, “prioritizes the needs of each individual student.”
TDOE Commissioner Penny Schwinn, as well as department staff, state and local elected officials, and other community partners will be visiting 50 of the state’s school districts this summer to connect directly with the public.
On June 6th, as part of the bus tour, there will be a “special statewide celebration on the TISA public school funding formula and the new $1 billion recurring investment in K-12 public education.”
“Tennessee has led the nation in implementing innovative and student-focused strategies to accelerate student achievement and outcomes,” said Schwinn. “The Accelerating TN 2022 bus tour will support the essential work continuing this summer — highlighting best practices, facilitating key discussions on strategic initiatives and the new TISA public school funding formula, and connecting the many stakeholders who want to help all Tennessee students succeed.”
By engaging, listening, and learning during the tour, we can help ensure Tennessee continues to lead on behalf of our children,” added Schwinn.
According to the statement released by TDOE, highlights of the bus tour include roundtable discussions, visits to Summer Learning Camps and a Reading 360 Early Reading Training. Other events will discuss state, regional or district work.
From June 1-3, there will be stops in the Northwest, Mid-Cumberland and South Central CORE Regions.
From June 6-10, stops at locations in the Upper Cumberland, Southeast, East, and First CORE Regions are scheduled.
From June 13-15, the tour will go through Southwest, South Central, and Mid-Cumberland CORE Regions.
TDOE will make weekly media advisories as to schedule changes. More information on the stops can be found on the TDOE website.
“We are so excited to implement year two of our summer learning camps in Cheatham County,” said Dr. Cathy Beck, director of schools for Cheatham County Schools. “Students are meaningfully engaged in daily hands-on learning activities and purposeful academic lessons designed by our dedicated educators. All students are able to participate in multiple STREAM activities, which encourages them to create innovative projects and develop critical thinking skills.”
“We are honored to host the department along their summer bus tour. We continue to be grateful for all the educators, community, and staff whose hard work has made the implementation of our summer learning camps possible,” she said.
“It was exciting to have the Commissioner and those on the tour visit us last year and have the ability to interact with our students,” said Dr. David Martin, director of schools for Tennessee School for the Blind. “We are looking forward to her stopping in this year and having the opportunity to share information about all of the student-focused initiatives we have in place and how we are exemplifying our Best for All District status.”
“Our summer learning camps across the district are focused on an opportunity to learn, and we are looking forward to our second year of the camps in Haywood County Schools,” said Joey Hassell, director of schools for Haywood County Schools. “Based on last year, we saw a positive impact on our students’ performance.”
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Pretty simple, dump all at risk students to alternate schools. that’s what I’m seeing. Definitely improve grades and mitigate absenteeism.
What a waste of time and money. Schwinn needs to get the boot.