My school has a strong data driven culture. We use data not just to identify grade level or class wide trends, but trends with individual students. Because it’s not enough for me to know that the entire class scored, say, an 80 percent on a specific assessment. I need to be able to identify high, […]
tennessee
Posted inHow to Fix Education, Uncategorized
Tennessee Education's Perception Problem
My 10th grade girls are all into HUGE purses, the size of backpacks. They can be very distracting as the girls rustle through the bag’s cavernous depths on a quest to find any and all manner of items. This spring I decided to institute what I thought was a fair and simple policy where purses would […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Uncategorized
End of Course Test: A Testing Week That Shouldn't Count
Guest Writer: Rebecca Leech [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] This week, the rural Tennessee high school where I teach is finishing our annual TCAP End of Course standardized testing. End of Course tests are given in […]
Posted inHigh School, How to Fix Education, Uncategorized
Vouchers vs. Charters: Comparing Quality School Choice Policies
I work in a charter school, and unlike a teacher in a traditional district school, the students I see every day are not sent to our school based on their street address. Â Some live down the street and some drive 30 minutes both directions. We have students that come from both private and public […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, The State of Education
The State of Education: State of Fear in Small-Town Tennessee
The area in which I teach can be viewed from the outside as your typical agricultural region: farms, tractors, cowboy boots, Southern accents, etc. Newcomers feel wary of the locals and of being treated like outcasts; meanwhile, locals feel wary of newcomers and of being treated like simpletons. Truth is, life is more complex than […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, The State of Education
The State of Education in Tennessee: Chaos, Collective Bargaining for Teachers
This article is part of our new feature “State of Education” where we hear what is going on in each state around the country, from an educator in that state. If you would like to write about your state, contact us at info@theeducatorsroom.com! The state of education in Tennessee is chaotic, at best. We […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School
Shall We Debate? An Approach to Writing!
Four weeks ago, my students took the practice for the new Tennessee State Writing Assessment. Â We had no way of preparing for this test because we were told that it would change in a major way. A week before the practice test, I received an email with a link to a sample test. Instead of […]