2010 VAAA – Boones Creek Elementary School

Third Place, East Division, Elementary Schools Teresa Leonard, Principal 348 Christian Church Rd. Gray, TN 37615 Washington County Schools Visit website Recipe For Success: The recipe for success at Boones Creek Elementary involves multiple personnel and many other factors. Receiving the Most Effective School for the third time does not come easily, but there are definite consistencies which have been in place these three times. Quality instruction by highly competent teachers is evident in all grade levels. In … Read More

National Board Certification: Is it worth the time and expense?

Studies pertaining to the effectiveness of NBPTS-certified teachers are ongoing. Here is a partial list. Advanced Teacher Certification http://www.education-consumers.com/Cunningham-Stone.pdf Evidence that there is any educationally meaningful advantage to certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is still lacking.  [Cunningham, G. K. & Stone, J. E. (2005). Value-added assessment of teacher quality as an alternative to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: What recent studies say.  In Robert Lissitz (Ed.). Value added models in education: Theory and applications. Maple … Read More

PREPARED TO LEARN: How all children can reach grade level by 3rd grade

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 – 8:30am to 11:30am Nashville Hilton Downtown On April 21, more than 100 educators and community leaders gathered in Nashville to discuss how effective early childhood education can have a major impact on high school and postsecondary outcomes; the event was followed with a private briefing for legislators. Photos, PowerPoint presentations, and links to more information are provided below; streaming video of the morning meeting will be available in the next few days. Check … Read More

Why Tennessee Won: Tennessee’s Watershed RTTT Reforms and the Race for the Rest

By J.E. Stone, Ed.D. President Education Consumers Foundation April 7, 2010 On March 29, the U.S. Department of Education announced that Tennessee was one of just two states to receive a Race to the Top (RTTT) grant in the first phase of the competition. Within minutes – before reviewers’ scoring notes had even been released – pundits proclaimed that stakeholder buy-in, particularly union buy-in, was the determining factor. Their take and their skepticism were not unwarranted. In our … Read More

Other Recommended Reading

Selections that we’ve highlighted over the years. Is Teaching to the Test a Problem? It Depends… Richard Phelps, author of the classic Kill the Messenger:  The War on Standardized Testing, has written an article featured in the Autumn 2011 issue of the Wilson Quarterly. Among other things, he notes that “most of the problems with testing have one surprising source: cheating by school administrators and teachers.” Click here for more.   Test, Testing, and Genuine School Reform In this 2011 book, … Read More

Cherry Davidson: Recipe for Success

Donelson Elementary The recipe for success at Donelson Elementary is very simple: We have the right teachers in the right classrooms. As the principal of the school, I set the tone for the school and am responsible for ensuring that quality teachers are in place.  First, I have to hire the best teachers who meet the Donelson standards. “Donelson quality” teachers care about children, are strong with instruction, know how to disaggregate data, and use that data to … Read More

Debbie Edens: Recipe for Success

East Middle School At East Middle School, administrators, teachers, staff, and parents work together to create a student-friendly atmosphere that makes learning a great experience.   We believe in academic excellence and have identified academics as a priority.  Our teachers have a can-do spirit that keeps our students motivated and wanting to be successful in school. To ensure that all students have a high quality education, we expose them to many programs in the school that focus on individual … Read More

Jill Levine: Recipe for Success

Normal Park Museum Magnet School In this era of high stakes testing, many schools have fallen into the trap of going back to basics, eliminating creativity and essentially taking the joy out of learning.  At Normal Park, we believe that there is a different way to promote student achievement.  At Normal Park, instruction is not bound by the front and back cover of a textbook, nor is it confined to the four walls of our building! We believe … Read More

Parents and School

The 150-Year Struggle for Control in American Education The following material was excerpted from Chapter 2. Parents and Schools is not available online.   The Peripheral Parent: Making the Most of Marginality In the 1920S, there was widespread support in the United States for the idea that parents and teachers should work together. However, Americans were still uncertain about the nature and extent of this cooperation. It remained unclear to what degree parents should join in the education … Read More

Parents and Schools

Parents and Schools: The 150-Year Struggle for Control in American Education (click here for full article) (Click here to download the PDF of this article) By William W. Cutler, III Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.   Briefing Why aren’t schools more responsive to parent and taxpayer demands for improvement? Because they are a monopoly and they just don’t care? Because they are increasingly influenced by unions and put member interests ahead of the public interest? Or, is … Read More

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