Teachers Changing the Test + Other Updates

I've said this before, but: Teachers are up to some great things in the summer.

Last week, I got the honor attending the Niswonger Foundation's School Success Symposium. This massive group of about 150+ teachers from Northeast Tennessee gave up a day out of their summer "vacation" (term used loosely) to share best practices ON THE GROUND. After all, teachers are usually a good source of information of what works in a classroom setting.

At this gathering, I learned about 2 teachers at West View Middle School, Chris Greene and Daniel Lemelin, who used what their calling "STANDARDS BASED ASSESSMENT." What does that mean?
They describe it HERE!
Basically, structure your tests to actually test specific Tennessee state standards. If students miss questions specific to one standard, tell them what they're missing. Offer remediation on that specific standard. [They have VIDEO TAPED lessons and use them to offer extra help to students that they can use at their own pace...using HyperCam 2...now, that's technology in the classroom]

Chris Greene's website is impressive. Chris and Daniel admitted that this kind of work takes some extra work but is worth it in the end and ultimately (1) saves them time later and (2) helps their students learn better.

These teachers restructured the way they put together tests, how they ask questions on tests, and how they give SPECIFIC, DETAILED feedback to students about what skills they understand and which ones they need work on. They swear by EdInformatics.com, a resource available on the Internet that shares banks of test questions that are more targeted to specific concepts.

Why was this interesting?
It was a case of 2 teachers who stopped, reflected on the way they teach their students, how they test their students, and realized they needed to change what they were doing in order to meet their students' needs.
This is becoming the new norm for teachers. That's what these education reforms in Tennessee are all about--empowering teachers to do more of this kind of work; having leaders in the school that support teachers like this; raising the bar in education in Tennessee. For the most part, teachers are on BOARD with these things. We, as the community, need to make sure, though, that we're giving teachers the help and support they need to be able to meet these new, changing, evolving, rising standards.

Some interesting things I came across in the news:

Kingsport + Harvard: Coming together to share innovative educational improvement strategies
An unlikely team of people come together in late July to share how their community came together and got serious about education reform, which includes their work with NE State Tech Community College.

Sullivan County Teacher honored
Sullivan County has the Aerospace Teacher of the Year in their JROTC program. Another example of the great educators in our area.

Knox County's Teacher Advancement Program Expands
An innovative program in Knoxville that's all about providing incentives for teachers to collaborate, think about how to constantly improve teaching strategies, and raise the bar for student learning was expanded earlier this month. 75% of teachers in these schools voted to participate in this program.

TCAPs really matter
The legislature voted in a measure that would make TCAPs a substantial (between 15 - 25 %) part of a student's final grade. Some people may be interested to know this.

Lowest achieving schools
The federal money ($500 million) TN received to improve education (known as "Race to the Top") is meant to help turn around TN's lowest performing schools. Nashville's public radio did this story talking about what TN hopes to do with those funds.

First to the Top Implementation committee
The governor appointed a committee to make sure the $500 million gets spent wisely. Local folks are well-represented on this committee:
Jim McIntyre, Knox County Schools Superintendent
State Sen. Jamie Woodson, (R), Knox County
Linda Irwin, Niswonger Foundation
Gary Mabrey, Johnson City Chamber of Commerce

If anyone has anything else to share, please do so! Until next time...