Much is unknown about those who do not finish high school and there is a need to understand who enters and completes alternative high school completion programs, such as the HiSet (High School Equivalency Test), GED (General Education Development Test), or growing number of state sponsored high school equivalency programs. The purpose for…

The COVID-19 pandemic plunged education communities into an emergency mode of operation and challenged the pedagogic core of education. Schools across America suddenly lost access to everything essential to their daily educational practices, including face-to-face interactions with students. School administrators scrambled to devise remote…

This study examined the effect of specific disciplinary actions such as in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, and expulsion on student achievement in public high schools. School discipline data from 1291 students educated within a school district in Tennessee were obtained and analyzed against Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System…

The authors, principals at a high-poverty school in Nashville, Tennessee, find that key actions to building a strong school culture and morale are communicating clearly, recognizing everyone's contributions, and giving students and parents many ways to become involved at school. They portray a specific process that Hunters Lane High School has…

"Opening Doors, Changing Futures" tells the story of the collective impact the Appalachian Higher Education (AHE) Network had on postsecondary education attainment in 10 of the 13 states in Appalachia during school years 2011-2016. It depicts the current economic and education contexts in the region and highlights why increased post-high…

As many states and districts rethink teacher supervision and evaluation, the team at the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has analyzed thousands of lesson videotapes and studied the shortcomings of current practices. The tentative conclusion: Teachers should be evaluated on three…

Headlines offer a plethora of opinions and arguments both for and against proposed and newly implemented teacher evaluation systems all over the United States. Hardly anyone balks at the idea of evaluating teachers, but many question whether these new evaluation systems really improve teaching and learning. The author's experience with the new…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe successful innovations in educational leadership preparation programs. Professors of educational leadership from across the nation nominated innovations of 12 programs. Based on review of descriptions of the innovations provided by nominees, further documentation on the innovations was…

The primary aim of this study is to use the survey items from the TELL Tennessee Survey (2013) using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) (Quinn and Rohrbaugh's model of organizational effectiveness) to determine whether teachers' observations about a set of topically organized school climate dimensions and school performance levels are associated…

In today's global economy, a high-quality, comprehensive education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity--it is a prerequisite for success. Such an education must promote academic knowledge and skills, as well as the kind of individual and social competencies that are essential for navigating the relationships and challenges of the modern…

This study examined the perceptions of US school principals toward one US state's revamped teacher tenure law and how principals perceived that the law affected their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers. Principal interviews indicated the law had a positive impact on their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers despite…

Schools and districts rarely have a fair distribution of teacher talent. Poor children and black children are less likely to be taught by the strongest teachers and more likely to be taught by the weakest. Several districts have implemented programs to reduce the teacher quality gap. Hamilton County, Tennessee, launched an initiative that included…

Tennessee was one of the first states to win Race to the Top funds in 2010, partly based on new state policy which tied student achievement measures to teacher and principal evaluations. Nearly half of state legislatures in the United States have passed similar legislation in the past two years. This article examines recent state legislative…

Discusses evaluation issues that developed during implementation of the nation's first statewide career ladder program in Tennessee. After three years of development major issues have centered around communication, confidentiality, paperwork, career development, multidata source systems, and the evaluation cycle. (CJH)