Search Results for: "common core"

  • SCORE Prize 2013: The Mt. Carmel Elementary Story

    Success at Mt. Carmel Elementary, a 2013 SCORE Prize finalist, starts with alignment and collaboration.

  • Building Leadership at Multiple Levels, Grounded in Guiding Tenets

    Summary: Kingsport City Schools’ leadership model includes leadership positions found in typical school systems, but also goes well beyond the norm, including opportunities mostly found at the school level, where they are most needed.

  • SCORE Prize 2013: The Covington High Story

    The community in and around Covington has been hard hit over the past several years by the economic downturn and the factory closures that accompanied it. The recipient of the 2013 SCORE Prize for high schools, Covington High School, has raised the bar for its students, and the impact is seen throughout the community as…

  • How We’re Building PARCC: ELA and Literacy

    I recently spent a week in Orlando, but I didn’t hobnob with cartoon animals or traverse any kingdoms, magical or otherwise. In fact, the only mouse ears I saw were in the airport gift shop.  Instead, I spent five days with educators from across the country — including fellow Tennesseans — reviewing test items for…

  • A+ for New Teacher Common Core Implementation

    At 9:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, I find myself walking into a South Memphis classroom taught by a second-year middle school English teacher who is determined to “make a difference in the lives of children.” My initial thought was that within the fourth week of a new school year, I would hardly see any…

  • Statement from SCORE about Tennessee’s Performance on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress

    The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) released the following statement from Jamie Woodson, President and CEO, on today’s release of the 2013 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Also known as The Nation’s Report Card, NAEP provides one of the few ways to measure how Tennessee students are progressing in comparison…

  • When “Schooling” and “Learning” Are Far from the Same

    As communities watch their children board big yellow school buses each morning, it is easy to assume that they are “going to school” where they are “going to learn.” Unfortunately, for many students across the nation, this assumption does not hold true, as these two phrases—“going to school” and “going to learn”—are far from synonymous.

  • The Benefits of Sticking with PARCC in Tennessee

    Common Core hearings took place before the Tennessee Senate Education Committee with testimony from across the political spectrum. Teachers and supporters testified to the impact they have already seen in classrooms across the state. While I hope that the committee members choose to continue our current path to implement common core, I can’t help but…

  • The Transformation of Tennessee’s Writing Assessment

    In February 2013, Tennessee eighth-graders taking the TCAP Writing Assessment online read two articles about exploration and responded to the following prompt: “Write an expository essay comparing and contrasting how reasons for colonization have changed from settling America to attempting to settle space. […] Draw evidence from the passages to support your analysis.” This assignment…

  • As Teacher, Student, Intern: Common Core State Standards Are Amazing, Vital

    I have struggled to find the right words to convey how Common Core State Standards are both amazing and important. What lens do I view them through – as a Tennessean, a teacher, a Department of Education intern, or a graduate student?

  • Dr. Bob Kronick: Don’t Throw Away Progress Made via Common Core

    Knoxville News Sentinel, September 7, 2013. Reprinted by permission. I am passionate about education, particularly breaking the cycle of poverty and low education rates of at-risk students and their families. I believe in and have invested a significant amount of my life’s work in the full-service community school model, which encourages collaboration and coordination of…

  • More Than 300 Tennessee Organizations Support Higher Academic Standards

    (Nashville) – The Expect More, Achieve More Coalition announced today that more than 300 organizations in Tennessee have now joined as coalition members. The coalition is a statewide alliance of business, community, and education organizations supporting high academic standards in public education. The Coalition’s goal is to build statewide and local engagement, support, and awareness…

  • Senator Frist Video: Why We Need the Common Core State Standards

    Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is featured in a new video that explains the importance of Tennessee’s Common Core State Standards. Frist, founder and chairman of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), says in the two-minute video that higher standards in school provide a foundation for success throughout life. “Quite simply, the…

  • The Common Core State Standards for ELA Will Match College Rigor

    74. That was the grade on my first college essay. I expected high standards from my Humanities professor (a.k.a., the infamous philosophy professor with a PhD from Harvard), but I graduated high school with all A’s in my English classes, including two AP subjects! I was mortified.

  • Teachers Get Schooled in Common Core State Standards

    They parked on curbs and grass islands. SUVs and minivans clogged bus lanes. They were teachers, administrators, librarians, and professors, and they had come to Freedom Middle School in Franklin on a midsummer’s day to participate in TNCore training. 

  • Why Education? Why Not Education?

    I want to be a lawyer. “Law school” has been the cornerstone of my post-graduation plans since middle school. When I told classmates and family friends that I would be spending my summer interning at an education advocacy and research organization, one response came all too frequently: “Hm, interesting. Why education?”

  • Digital Learning Day Helps Teachers Integrate Lessons, Technology

    Loudon County Schools was the proud recipient of the SCORE Rise to the Challenge competition for best practices in the classroom. We highlighted Digital Learning Day, which took place February 6.

  • Drew Jacobs

    Drew directs SCORE’s research and data work including field research efforts, the annual SCORE Prize, data requests, best practice sharing initiatives, and collaboration with other researchers in the state and nation. Before joining SCORE, Drew was the data and policy analyst at The Education Trust—Midwest, working on a wide variety of topics including educator evaluation…

  • Reflection: A Key Ingredient to Student Success

    As an educator for more than 30 years, I know that it’s almost impossible to get better without first honestly analyzing where you currently stand. Whether I was in the classroom, at the central office or in urban or rural communities, self-reflection was critical to helping me grow as a professional and – more importantly…

  • Cicely Woodard

    Cicely manages the Tennessee Educator Fellowship, a program that allows teachers in Tennessee to have a greater impact on education policy and advocacy across the state. After earning a Bachelor’s of Mathematical Sciences from the University of Memphis and a Master’s of Education from Vanderbilt University, she began her education career in 2003 as an…