“What brings you to Tennessee?” That’s the question I’ve been getting lately, as my Chicago accent gives away that I’m not a Nashville native by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve graduated from the George Washington University, and instead of staying in D.C. to work on education policy at a national level, I packed my…
Before joining SCORE, I taught fourth grade at an elementary school in Nashville. As a fourth-grade teacher, I used data from classroom assessments, district benchmark assessments, and state Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) assessments to better understand my students’ progress toward mastery of our fourth-grade standards. My classroom assessments asked students to explain their thinking…
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) has released the following statement from President and CEO Jamie Woodson on Governor Bill Haslam’s announcement that he has selected Dr. Candice McQueen, Senior Vice President and Dean of the College of Education at Lipscomb University, to be commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education: Leadership matters. In…
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) today announced that 22 teachers have been selected for the inaugural Tennessee Educator Fellowship, a program that will provide them an opportunity to learn and communicate about student-focused education policy issues. “SCORE has always emphasized the importance of including diverse voices in discussions of how best to ensure…
As a science teacher, I know firsthand the challenges teachers face every day. I’ve experienced the terror of a reckless classroom, the fatigue of planning lessons and grading papers long into the night, the frustration of recognizing my own limitations, and the joy of a student who finally “gets it.” As an educator I have…