A Journey with Tony

Tony Blair ... former Prime Minister of Great Britain.

So far, a fascinating read.  Starts with his election as PM and seems well told, interesting, colorful.  Looking forward to exploring this one:

Fracking and Strong Motion

So, I saw this and was reminded of this.

How is it that 20 years ago, Jonathan Franzen wrote about what is essentially fracking and now...now, we're having a big, national debate over fracking?  Dumb luck? Good research?

SCORE scores TN Teacher Evaluations

So SCORE has come back with their report on Tennessee's teacher evaluation system.  They make a number of sensible recommendations.  Most notably, that the feedback teachers receive from the evaluation process should be coupled with targeted, meaningful professional development.  I agree.

Let's also remember why we're doing all of this.  It's because teachers are the most important school-based factor in student achievement.  But, there are other indicators that have a huge impact.  50% of the impact, actually, is outside of school. 

But, back to the point.  If we're going to focus attention on teacher quality (and we should), we should focus on meaningful evaluation that has teacher buy-in and that evaluation MUST be coupled with targeted, specific professional development.  SCORE's assessment supports this claim.  It's a MUST, not an option.

Schools Get Investments in East, Middle Tennessee

Yesterday I wrote about investments in education taking place in Knoxville and Nashville.