So, Tennessee’s Achievement School District recently unveiled a new pay scale for its teachers. After 6 years in ASD, a teacher can earn $62,000 — with bonuses, possibly more. As a point of reference, the ASD takes schools in the bottom 5% of the state in terms of student performance — persistently low-performing schools — and [...]

A version of this column appeared in the Hendersonville Star News on August 24, 2012: The annual budget brawl about funding for our schools is coming to a close and our children are back in their classes.  This year’s edition has been particularly intense and certainly frustrating.  In response, some have been circulating the myth [...]

Below is an article I wrote which appeared online in the Hendersonville Star News: Last Monday night, I watched as another County Commission vs. school board budget dispute resulted in a packed County Commission chambers with citizens practically begging to have their taxes raised in order to fund schools. I’ve lived in Sumner County for 12 years [...]

From a story on WKRN.com:  Parent Andy Spears hopes the school board kicks the issue back to the county commission for a long-term school funding plan that would start with reallocating existing funds. He said, “Our community is definitely going to be focused on both the board and the county commission going forward, so we [...]

Below is a summary of my remarks to the Sumner County Commission last night.  I spoke as a parent concerned about the inadequate funding our community’s schools receive.  My daughter is 6 years old and today was supposed to be her first day of first grade.  Let me begin by saying I fully support the [...]

So, Mississippi will sometime soon be searching for a new state Superintendent of Education.  But, how soon is the question. It’s not clear if the search will start in the next few months or wait until the beginning of 2013.  Andrew Ujifusa thinks the Mississippi opening could be particularly interesting.  From a policy standpoint, the [...]

Not so fast, Gov. Bryant.  Yep, the Governor of Mississippi is proposing merit pay.  For teachers.  A state with one of the lowest levels of spending per student in the nation, whose teachers earn some of the lowest salaries of all teachers in the country, is proposing an unproven system of merit pay. Some are [...]

This paper purports to offer guidance on how to develop value-added models for students taught by multiple teachers in the same subject — students in team teaching or co-teaching scenarios.  The authors note challenges of assigning accurate value-added scores to individual teachers in a multi-teacher setting.  They examine three models and highlight the strengths of what [...]