During my teaching experience, I attended countless professional learning opportunities, and many contributed to my growth. However, I walked away from just as many feeling like they were disconnected from my classroom and did not elevate my position as a professional educator. Furthermore, I rarely had the opportunity to share my learning with colleagues and…
Dear Friends, How can parents know if their children are ready for the next grade? How can they tell if their students are on track to graduate ready to be successful in college or postsecondary education? For the last few years, our state has taken important strides in order to answer these questions. From setting…
Last year, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to offer seniors a free ACT retake opportunity. As a nationally recognized benchmark assessment for college and career readiness, the ACT has a major impact on student postsecondary opportunities. For instance, a composite score of 21 or higher makes a student eligible for Tennessee’s HOPE…
Four hundred education and health professionals from across Tennessee explored ways to advance student health and academic achievement at the Better Health, Better Learning summit in Nashville. The August 28 convening, sponsored by SCORE and NashvilleHealth and led by the founder of both organizations, Senator Bill Frist, MD, was the first of its kind in…
When we think of early literacy, we often think of foundational skills and phonics instruction—the mechanics of learning to read. But there’s another, equally important task during early grades: building vocabulary and knowledge of the world through engagement with rich, complex text. In order for students to be able to comprehend rich text in later…