State Board of Education

Effective Leaders
A new study looks at promising ways to manage school districts as portfolios, “operating some schools in the traditional way, hiring independent groups to run other schools, and holding all schools accountable under the same performance standards.”
Portfolio management requires school districts to do three things they were not designed to do: judge the performance […]

The Advisory Council on Teacher Education and Certification will be meeting on Tuesday, October 20th (9AM to 3PM) in the State Board of Education Conference Room.
Group: Advisory Council on Teacher Education and Certification
Date: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Time: 9AM to 3PM
Location: State Board Conference Room, 9th Floor, Andrew Johnson Tower, Nashville, TN 37243, (615) 741 - […]

The Weekly Reader often contains material from the blogs of some current K-12 teachers.
This site, for example, lists 100 blogs for teachers.
We would like to find out which TN teachers are sharing their experiences and their materials online.
Please let us know in the comments, or by sending an email, if you are […]

Effective Leaders
On Sep. 8, President Obama will challenge students to “Get schooled!”
Teaching empathy: Miami public school administrators are required to substitute teach.
Effective Teachers
Put the homework in class, make the lecture homework, and what do you get? More students successful in high school chemistry.
The Gates Foundation has $500 million to invest in improving teacher recruitment, […]

The BEP Review Committee will hold a conference call meeting on Thursday, August 27th (10AM to Noon, CDT).
Click here for the meeting agenda.
WebEx conference call Instructions are below.
Meeting Name: Basic Education Review Committee
Invited By: Art Fuller (art.fuller@tn.gov)
Where: State Board Conference Room, 9th Fl
When: 08/27/2009 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Time Zone: (GMT-06:00) Central […]

Thought of the Day
“If only our students could stand up and walk out of class at any time. Wow, people.”
– From a reply to a blog post about what makes conference sessions worthwhile.
Effective Teachers
A program like Teach for America develops in Britain.
Almost all education-policy documents and research papers these days start with a reminder […]

Each of these brief (most 2-6 pages) book reviews is written within the context of the foundational principles of the State Board’s Master Plan.
Disrupting Class, by Clayton Christensen (reviewed July 2008).
Doing School, by Denise Clark Pope (reviewed July 2008).
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (reviewed May 2009).
Good to Great: […]

My review of Sir Ken Robinson’s book, The Element. Robinson describes “the Element” as “the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together.”
Robinson, a former professor of education, led an advisory committee on creative and cultural education for the British government, and […]