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...

The laudry list of teacher responsibilites + other "Did you know" questions!

One thing I've heard a LOT in my conversations with teachers is that teachers cannot teach unless they are able to focus on TEACHING--not a bunch of other things (fighting obesity, serving as parents, serving as guidance counselors, etc.). I've written about this before. Teacher effectiveness has a lot more complex components to it aside from just professional development, and evaluation system, and student test scores.

So, let's try to do something about it.
In many cases, a LOT of human service agencies are involved within schools, but not everyone in a school knows all what happens within that school. An information management problem, right?

Dr. McIntyre, through his strategic plan, has tried to get the school system to address this. But we know that they need help and cooperation from human service agencies.

JUST YESTERDAY...
The United Way, along with MANY OTHER GROUPS in the Knoxville community, has been trying to pull together human service providers and put them in communication with the schools. In fact, just yesterday, several key groups came together at Tennessee Voices for Children:
- East Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (Run by a man by the name of Lindsey Cody, Lindsey.Cody@tn.gov). Brings together over 150 people from various agencies who identify as "Child Advocates."
- K-Town Youth Empowerment Network (Run by a man named Mark Wolf, MWolf@tnvoices.org). Working to build a "System of Care" for 14-21 year old young adults who have been diagnosed with severe emotional disturbance.
- Knoxville Youth Transition Council ( run by a man named Jim Griffin, JGriffin@tnvoices.org). Focuses on how children transition out of state custody and into adulthood.
- Dept. of Children Services Community Action Board (run by a woman named Carren Pirtle, carren.pirtle@tn.gov). Focuses on how to bring community resources to children and families in need (everyone from the Sheriff's office to the Compassion Coalition).
- Knox County Schools (and their staff member, Missy Massie, who is over student support services)
- United Way and its partner agencies (who has a lot of partner agencies whose child and adult clients, in some cases, touch many human service providers).
- Knoxville Juvenile Courts

We're all sitting around the table, learning about one another, and figuring out that Knoxville has a lot happening already...but it's hard to get everyone to connect.

It seems that this conversation is getting larger and more inclusive...which will hopefully result in children getting the services they need...which will hopefully help take some things off of the plates of teachers...

Does your school system do anything like this? Leave a comment or e-mail me!

SOME UNLIKELY THINGS / NEWS I CAME ACROSS THIS WEEK

- Did you know that the Boys and Girls Club in Knoxville has access to teacher in-services and professional development? Thanks to Rodney Russell, the person in charge of Professional Development for Knox County, he connected with the B&G Club to make sure they had access to information that teachers had.
WHY? Since their staff do a lot of enrichment of kids who attend schools, they should have access to information that will help them reinforce what happens in the classroom.
Strange connection at first, but it starts to make sense. That's "thinking outside the box."

- Did you know that UT's Ag Extension is working with teachers across TN to help with financial literacy curriculum? The Ag Extension model of UTK has transformed and might surprise you. Tennessee's new standards require financial management classes to be taught across the state. UTK is helping teachers to be able to deliver such courses.

- Did you know that Kingsport is looking at switching School Board meeting forums to the evening? A recent town hall meeting held in the evening drew 180 people. More public support and awareness for education? Maybe evening meetings would help.

- Did you know that teachers were working on SATURDAY, JUNE 5 (a Saturday in the summer!!??) to talk about how their evaluation system will change? This article showcases how teachers voices are being heard as their evaluation system will change dramatically.

- Did you know that an accomplished and now retired principal will be helping to teach new principals what it takes to be successful? Betty Sue Sparks is helping to share her experiences in Knoxville's new principal leadership academy. Different skills are required to be a principal, and she's helping train new principals to get those skills.

SORRY THERE'S SO MUCH. It's just an exciting time to be involved in this as Tennessee's education system continues to improve. Stay tuned...

Listening Sessions, Principal Award, and United Way on TV!

Listening Sessions: You Can Help!
As a part of this project, the United Way is looking at listening to the community about what effective teachers do, how to define them, and how to best support teachers.

Do you want to help?
The United Way of Greater Knoxville could use your help in setting up 45-minute to 1-hour listening sessions with many groups in the community to ask them about how to define quality teachers, uncovering stories about effective teachers that you had, and how you can help support teachers as they strive to be the best educators for children.

E-mail me at luterg@unitedwayknox.org! If you know a group of people you think would be interested, please pass on my contact information.

Sevier County Principal Honored
Congratulations to Cookie Greer who was honored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals as Tennessee's Distinguished Principal. She is principal at John Sevier Middle School.
You can also see some educators who were honored for high value-added scores here. Awarded by the Education Consumers Foundation.

United Way on TV!
Last night, I did a spot for WBIR's Newsmakers segment. But there have been a few spots on community TV that explain the project I'm working on...
WBIR Newsmakers
Community TV: An overview

Few things in the news

I've caught some things in the news recently that I thought some people might want to pick up on. They're somewhat related to the changing nature of the teaching profession and what we expect from our educators.

WATE: What We Expect From Teachers (same reporter who did the story on the Teacher Advancement Program)
We expect a lot from teachers these days, and this report looks at the issues surrounding these increasing expectations.

Making Local Education Data More Accessible
A group named the Education Consumers Foundation tries to help parents use data in order to help them work with their child's teacher. David Coffey, who generally supports the ECF, recently published THIS GUEST COLUMN in support of Oak Ridge Schools in the context of TN education reform efforts.

Stand for Children, a group based in Nashville, is holding a training TOMORROW, 6/2 at 11 AM CST for parents and child advocates on using the Tennessee data system (TVAAS). You have to join their organization to get access to the training, but it seems interesting.

Education officials met last week in Nashville to talk about the "legacy" of Race to the Top, the $500 million given to the state of TN. Commissioner of Education Tim Webb hopes that the legacy is increasing expectations for education in the state of TN.

Keep your eye on this group, the Education Delivery Institute. Sir Michael Barber, former education advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, spoke at an event at Vanderbilt University (presumably the First Amendment Center) co-sponsored by SCORE's founder Sen. Bill Frist. This article alludes to Gov.Bredesen's interest in Michael Barber.

Also keep your eye on the TN Commission that's revamping the teacher evaluation system. They're meeting regularly.

I know there's a lot out there, but this information seems really relevant as reform really gets underway in TN.

Happy belated Memorial Day to everyone. Thanks to our servicemen and women who protect out way of life.