When policymakers and state leaders talk about implementing the Common Core State Standards, you often hear about the instructional shifts that will need to occur in classrooms to ensure that the standards have their intended impact: preparing all students for college and the workforce. The Common Core standards are drastically different from what we currently…
In SCORE’s 2009 Roadmap to Success, we recommended that Tennessee ensure that an effective teacher was at the front of every classroom. We made this recommendation based on research that shows effective teaching is the number one school-based factor in improving student achievement. One way we recommended that the state achieve this goal was by…
A Tennessean editorial takes a look at SCORE’s teacher evaluation feedback report and how education leaders can use the recommendations to improve Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system. This editorial originally appeared in the 6/13/12 Tennessean. SCORE puts ball in educators’ court Kudos to Gov. Bill Haslam for getting the State Collaboration on Reforming Education (SCORE) to…
Includes Successes, Concerns, and Recommendations Following the First Year of Implementation (Nashville) – The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) today released a report, Supporting Effective Instruction in Tennessee, regarding Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system. The report follows a five-month listening and feedback process SCORE led on the evaluation system to identify what is working well,…
During the Spring of my second year teaching it was announced that Tennessee was one of two states to win the federal Race to the Top grant competition. As a teacher who would irresponsibly study the current education policy landscape during times when I should have been supervising my students outside of the classroom, I…