pathway 2012 school

BPathways to the PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners

Lessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize District Winner

APRIL 2013

Pathways to the

Prize

Prize

Pathways to the

PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners

MAY 2013

1 Pathways to the PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners

2 Letter from SCORE President and CEO Jamie Woodson

4 About the SCORE Prize

5 SCORE Prize Data Indicators

7 What’s in the Guidebook?

10 2012 SCORE Prize Elementary School Winner: John Sevier Elementary

21 2012 SCORE Prize Middle School Winner: Rose Park Math and Science Magnet

34 2012 SCORE Prize High School Winner: Covington High School

45 Common Themes Across Schools

50 Conclusion

51 Appendix: Discussion Guide

57 Glossary

60 2012 SCORE Prize Selection Committee / SCORE Team

taBLeoF CoNteNts

Throughout this document, there are QR codes that directly link to additional online resources. To access these resources, simply scan the code with your smartphone. QR code apps can be downloaded for free.

You can also access these resources by visiting the link provided.

The SCORE Prize

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/

2Pathways to the PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners

Dear Educators,

In 2012, Tennesseans showed they were up to the challenge of education reform. Over the last several years, Tennessee has become a national leader by enacting bold policies to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and the workforce. This past year, after educators continued the tough work of implementing these new policies in schools and districts, Tennessee’s students made the most academic progress in state history. Not only are proficiency levels increasing in reading, math, and science, more of Tennessee’s students are graduating from high school and enrolling in higher education than ever before. While much work remains to be done, it is our belief that we must take time to reflect on the successes of reform in order to learn the most from our achievements.

Last October, SCORE awarded the second annual SCORE Prize to the elementary, middle, and high school, as well as one school district in Tennessee, that have most dramatically improved student achievement. While our aim in awarding the SCORE Prize is to identify and reward those schools and districts that are effectively preparing their students for success, an equally important goal is to highlight best practices and distill them into a usable format for educators. Pathways to the Prize is an important part of our work to highlight best practices and provide educators with the tools they need to replicate these strategies in their own communities.

In the following pages, you will find information about our 2012 SCORE Prize winners and their efforts to support students and improve student achievement. Their work reflects the key elements of successful schools: supporting teachers and leaders; using data to drive instruction; engaging students with technology and personalized learning; and embracing high standards for everyone. In each case, the SCORE Prize winners have demonstrated a deep commitment to improving outcomes for their students, and have shown that strong leadership and dedicated teachers are the most important ingredients for success.

We hope Pathways to the Prize will both inspire you and provide you with the information you need to take the lessons collected here back to your classroom, your school, and your community. These schools provide many examples of how we may work toward achieving our most important goal: preparing all of our students for success in college and the workforce.

Very sincerely,

3 Pathways to the PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners3 PAthwAYs to the PRIzeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners


nomic status. College-readiness data, such as ACT and college-going rates, were considered for high schools and districts. Schools and districts received an overall ranking based 66.5 percent on TVAAS, 22.5 percent on TCAP, and 10 percent on atten-dance. To ensure that individual bias did not affect the selection of finalists, MPR provided de-identified numbers for every school and district in Tennessee, and the identity of each school and district was not revealed until after the finalists were chosen.

The second stage consisted of a series of site visits to document the policies and practices that have enabled schools and districts to make significant gains in student achievement. SCORE has produced a site visit protocol—aligned with our Roadmap to Success—that includes a scoring rubric to ensure that all schools and districts are judged according to the same measures and criteria.

SCORE works with a selection committee to aid in the process of identifying finalists and awarding winners. They help shape the selection criteria, select finalists, and join SCORE team on site visits to make final determinations of winners.

Preliminary data analyses were conducted with 2011 data. Analyses were updated with 2012 achieve-ment data when they became available in late July. Finalists were selected in late August. Site visits were conducted in September and October 2012.

In 2011, the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) began awarding $10,000 to the elementary, middle, and high school and $25,000 to one district in Tennessee that have most dramat-ically improved student achievement. The SCORE Prize, which is given annually, recognizes schools and districts that are achieving more in spite of the challenges they face, highlights and shares best practices, and shows other schools and districts in Tennessee that improvement is possible. The SCORE Prize is one important part of our work to maintain momentum for transformational education reform in the state.

The SCORE Prize is the hallmark data-based effort in Tennessee to recognize schools and districts that are doing outstanding work to improve student achievement. All Tennessee public schools and districts are eligible for the SCORE Prize. Winners are chosen in a two-step process. Each step sepa-rately considers quantitative and qualitative data. In 2012, SCORE partnered with MPR Associates, Inc., a national research and consulting firm that specializ-es in education, for the data analysis portion of the process. SCORE also partnered with RMC Research Corporation, a national research and evaluation firm, for site visits to finalist schools and districts.

The first stage identified finalists through a weight-ed criteria selection process that took into account TVAAS growth and TCAP performance. This process also factored in attendance rates and socioeco-

aBoUtthe sCore

Prize

Video: “The 2012 SCORE Prize” (3:27)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdLabUqpxfY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdLabUqpxfY


sCorePrize Data

iNDiCators

5 PAthwAYs to the PRIzeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners


Enrollment – Three-year average (2009-2011) enroll-ment for the school or district.

Economically disadvantaged students – Four-year average (2009-2012) rate of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

Racial demographics – The percentage of white, black, Hispanic, and other (Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American/Alaskan) students for the 2010-11 school year.

Attendance rates – Three-year average (2009-2011) attendance rate.

TVAAS growth estimates – Three-year growth rate in reading and math (and/or English II and algebra I) for the 2011-2012 school year.

TCAP proficient/advanced rates – Three-year aver-age (2010-2012) of students achieving or exceeding proficiency on the reading and math TCAP exams.

EOC proficient/advanced rates – Three-year av-erage (2010-2012) of students achieving or exceed-ing proficiency on the EOC exams in English II and algebra I.

Achievement gaps – The difference between profi-ciency rates on the TCAP and EOC exams in reading/English II and math/algebra I between 2010 and 2012.

ACT composite – Two-year average (2010-2011) ACT composite score for the school or district.

Graduation rate – The graduation rate for the 2010-2011 school year.

College-going rate – Two-year average (2009-2010) of the percentage of students pursuing postsecondary education, according to the Tennessee Higher Educa-tion Commission. This measure includes in-state and out-of-state enrollment for both two-year and four-year programs at private and public institutions the fall after high school graduation.

The data reported along with each profile were used to identify the 2012 SCORE Prize finalists. Unless otherwise noted, all data were obtained from the Tennessee Department of Education.


• Examples of best practices for elementary, middle, and high schools aligned with the key pillars that drive student success: (1) Embracing high standards, (2) Cultivating strong leaders, (3) Ensuring excellent teaching, and (4) Using data to enhance student learning

• Common themes and practices found across all schools in each pillar

• Discussion questions to help guide self-reflection for practitioners

• QR Codes throughout the guidebook that link to videos and school artifacts

what’siN the

GUiDeBooK?The story of each of the 2012 winners and a snapshot of the work that led to their success

John Sevier Elementary, Maryville City Schools

Rose Park Math and Science Magnet, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools

Covington High School, Tipton County Schools


VidEoS:

• John Sevier

Principal Rick Wilson, Assistant Principal Ginny Boles, 3rd grade teacher Nicole Keller, and STEM teacher Jodi Eanes discuss the facets of John Se-vier that have enabled them to make significant improvements with their students (p.10)

Educators discuss the ways that school leaders support teachers in their ongoing professional development (p.15)

School leaders discuss the way data are used to set goals and chart progress in improving student achievement (p.19)

• Rose Park Magnet

Principal Robert Blankenship, Assistant Principal Jackie Freeman, 6th grade math teacher Joy-celyn Johnson, 8th grade math teacher Cicely Woodard, 8th grade student Cameron White, and parent Alexis Lewis discuss the strategies Rose Park has used to prepare its students for success in high school and beyond (p.21)

School leaders talk about the ways the school uses data to identify areas of need and opportu-nity for students (p.24)

Members of the Rose Park community discuss the various ways that parents are empowered to support their children’s learning (p.25)

Educators discuss the ways teachers engage stu-dents in hands-on learning in classrooms (p.30)

• Covington High School

Principal Peggy Murdock, math teacher Marlon Heaston, math and science teacher Cory Concus, CTE teacher Cindy McClain, and 9th grade stu-dent Tre’shaun Howard talk about the ways the school supports teachers, students, and parents to help all students achieve at high levels (p.34)

Educators discuss the academic expectations they have for their students and how they support them in achieving those goals (p.37)

An Algebra I teacher discusses the way he uses data in his classroom to target his instruction (p.44)

ARTifACTS:

• John Sevier

A schedule for fathers who volunteer at the school as Fox Watch Dads (p.13)

A 21-question survey for how the school evaluates its Fox Watch program (p.13)

Maryville City Schools’s overview of its mentoring and instructional coaching program (p.15)

A lesson plan from an engaging lesson that used a classroom market to bring economics principles to life for students (p.18)

• Rose Park Magnet

Rose Park’s plan of action for providing academic interventions to students (p.24)

• Covington High School

Tipton County Schools’s overview of its teacher mentoring program (p.41)

A lesson plan template that Covington uses to help teachers structure lessons on best practices (p.42)

BloG PoSTS:

• John Sevier Principal Rick Wilson explains his school’s teacher hiring process and why it’s important to the school’s culture (p.17)

• Algebra I teacher Marlon Heaston discusses the strategies Covington High School uses to attract and retain highly effective teachers (p.41)

PRoMiSiNG PRACTiCES:

• John Sevier Elementary, School Leadership Team (p.14)

• Rose Park Math and Science Magnet, Empowering Parents (p.25)

• Covington High School, Fostering Great Teaching (p.41)


John Sevier Elementaryhttp://www.maryvillecityschools.k12.tn.us/education/school /school.php?sectionid=8&linkid= nav-menu-container-1-47753

http://www.maryvillecityschools.k12.tn.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=8&linkid=nav-menu-container-1-47753


AT A GlANCE

• Principal Rick Wilson and Assistant Principal Ginny Boles provide consistent and supportive leadership, visiting classes every day and providing intensive professional support for all teachers.

• The school has strong, coherent practices, including a school wide adoption of classroom engagement and behavioral management approaches, common instructional frameworks, and clear expectations for student academic performance and behavior.

• All students are expected to achieve their “personal best.” They are strongly encouraged to persevere in their learning and to make steady progress toward reaching goals.

• All adults are treated as leaders and are provided with tools and opportunities to engage in decision-making.

• All teachers strictly teach to the Common Core State Stan-dards, collaborate with each other to improve instructional strategies, and assess their students frequently, often daily, to monitor progress.

• Students are provided with multiple opportunities for inter-vention to master standards and apply learning to the real world.

JohN seViereLeMeNtary

sChooL2012 SCoRE Prize Elementary School Winner

Video: “John Sevier Elementary” (3:10)http://y2u.be/Z5PBiM-e340


Located in the suburbs of Knoxville in the Maryville City School District, John Sevier Elementary School is an example of a school that has stepped up to meet and exceed the increasingly rigorous demands that now characterize education. In the 2011-2012 school year, changes at the district level prompted significant changes at the school. The school’s fourth grade moved to a newly configured intermediate school. District and school leaders hired many new teachers, and 11 of John Sevier Elementary’s 14 teachers switched classrooms. Despite these changes, John Sevier Elementary has con-tinued to set higher goals for the entire school. Teachers and leaders are developing and implementing new ideas and sharing what works to help everyone in the building meet the rigorous goals.

The changes the school has experienced recently rep-resent the latest in a series of innovations over the past several years. At one time, the staff lacked cohesion, common purpose, and motivation to achieve. Things changed when Principal Rick Wilson came to the school more than a decade ago. “It’s all about relationships,” said Wilson, who spent his first year listening to the staff before making any significant changes at the school. “We needed to come together first, establish trust, set our focus, and work together to get there.” Promoting one of the most highly respected teachers, Ginny Boles, to serve as assistant principal and lead the school’s instructional coaching solidified the effort and bonded the entire staff.

Staff members deeply appreciate Wilson’s style. He listens first, takes time to diagnose an issue, and then brings everyone together to work through solutions. He sets the tone for the school: passion for learning, unconditional caring for every child, and the use of re-search-based practices to make teaching more effec-tive while encouraging innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.

The school’s mission, which addresses the social, emo-tional, and intellectual well-being of children, can be seen in action throughout the school.

Our mission is to create an environment which allows the individual, family, and community to embrace lifelong learning and growth. We shall provide a positive and caring safe environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, encourages creativity, and

SCHOOL PROfiLEPrincipal – Rick Wilson

Grades served – PK-3

Enrollment – 548

Economically disadvantaged students – 55%

White – 87%

African American – 6%

Hispanic – 3%

other – 4%

Attendance rate – 95%

TVAAS GRoWTH ESTiMATES Math: 9.1Reading: 7.6

TCAP PrOfiCiEnT/AdvAnCEd Math: 55%Reading: 55%


classroom and hallway. “The keys are a good way for us to establish ground rules, but more than that, they represent the kinds of values we want to see in our children,” one teacher said.

Teachers also give Paw Print Awards to students whose behavior is in line with the school’s expec-tations. Students’ names appear on the school’s electronic bulletin board and in announcements and their pictures are posted in the front hallway. Students get a prize and a certificate, and, each month, all of the winners are invited to eat lunch with the principal and assistant principal.

School leaders and teachers are held to high expectations for their behavior and interactions as well. For example, the school has procedures in place to help facilitate constructive feedback among teachers. Teachers ask questions to seek understanding, explore alternatives for better teaching options, and find the best fit for their styles. Leaders provide feedback privately to prevent public embarrassment. In meetings, adults listen actively and try to understand the rationale for prac-tices or procedures before giving opinions. Leaders have found that this expectation has led to a good balance between valuing instructional practices of veteran teachers and incorporating the perspec-tives of novice teachers.

establishes a tradition for achieving one’s personal best academically, emotionally, and socially. We shall accomplish our mission by fostering civic virtue, cooperation, responsibility, encouragement, accountability, trust, equity, and flexibility.

The focus on relationships extends to children’s families as well. School leaders know every parent, take steps to become familiar with and understand each family’s circumstances, and do what they can to help. “You have to see the whole child, and you have to do things consistently,” Wilson said. “We see learning as a shared responsibility. We want to understand the home environment, every child’s learning style, all of the issues they are dealing with. We want the parents to feel included and to work on issues with us. We really are all in this together.”

EMBRACiNG HiGH STANdARdS

The school sets high expectations for interpersonal relationships, individual effectiveness, and academ-ic results for the adults and students in the building. Leaders believe learning starts with a positive envi-ronment rooted in a strong school culture. That cul-ture must embrace a shared approach to classroom engagement and management, a common instruc-tional framework, and a set of clear expectations for both behavioral and academic performance. Students are then expected to give their best.

Keys to behavioral excellence. “Expect the Best” is John Sevier’s classroom engagement and behavior management approach. Working from the Quantum Keys for Excellence, a character education pro-gram of Learning Forum International, teachers use common language and reinforcement techniques. During the first few weeks of school, teachers ex-plicitly teach the keys of excellence and then incor-porate them throughout all aspects of the student environment and curriculum. The notion of behav-ioral “keys” takes on concrete meaning at John Se-vier—students collect actual keys for their personal key ring. The keys, donated from local locksmiths, community members, teachers, and families, can be given at any time by any adult in the building (including teachers, staff members, custodians, and food service workers) who sees a student demon-strating one of the eight keys of excellence.

According to teachers and leaders, the shared approach to positive behavior has created more coherence in the building. Adults use a common vocabulary to define and reinforce expectations. The same expectations and protocols apply in every

QUantUM KEYS Of ExCELLEnCE

Commitment: Finish what you start.

Balance: Balance needs and wants.

failure leads to success: It’s okay to make mistakes. Just learn from them.

flexibility: Be willing to change.

integrity: Do the right thing.

ownership: I am in charge of what I think, say, and do. I am responsible for ME!

Speak with good purpose: Say good things! Put-ups only!

This is it: Stay focused on what is going on NOW!


The school has parents reinforce expectations by asking them to sign students’ folders every week and help children improve in any area of concern. Parents are kept informed about homework assign-ments, interventions and assistance that students receive, in addition to their children’s progress toward reaching goals.

Encouraging parents to support their children. In addition to engaging parents with academic folders that are sent home weekly, the school recruits parent volunteers for the Fox Watch, a club that pro-vides guidelines for adults on how to support stu-dents at school. For example, parents are advised, “Do start conversations with students at lunch. Do make sure to spend time with all of your personal children in some manner today. You are welcome to divide the time in your child’s homeroom between students. You are also encouraged to eat lunch with your children; it is important to them as well!” Fox Watch parents participate in an orientation, and then they help with arrival, visit their child’s home-room to work with teachers and students, attend and help with enrichment activities, patrol parking lots, and help with recess and student dismissal. The group manages a schedule to engage other parents as well. An annual 21-question survey is used to determine the extent to which the program is effective and valued by participants and how it can be improved.

Academic “personal best.” Students and adults work diligently, with encouragement, to reach their personal best. The school routinely collects and analyzes student performance data to demon-strate development and mastery of skills through-out the year. Every nine weeks, the teacher posts each child’s progress toward achieving personal academic goals, which students establish with their teachers. A child struggling to make sufficient progress according to the nine-week benchmarks is retaught and offered additional interventions by teaching assistants, either in the classroom or through individual sessions, as needed.

Teachers frequently remind students of the “failure leads to success” key and explicitly teach them to persist through challenges—to be tenacious in their learning. “No matter where students start, we are looking for them to achieve their personal best,” one teacher said. “They don’t have to reach a huge, high-reaching goal, but instead can make steady progress on the little things like getting more prob-lems right on the test or doing third grade math if you are a second grader.”

Students embrace the high expectations them-selves. “We try really hard around here because it is important to stretch yourself and do well to make yourself and your family proud,” one student said. “[Teachers] tell us that it is the same in school as in football…keep trying, keep trying. If you keep trying, you have a better chance of getting there.”

“Fox Watch Schedule”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/fox_Watch_Schedule.pdf

“Fox Watch Survey”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/fox_Watch_Survey.pdf

“we try reaLLy harD

aroUND here BeCaUse

it is iMPortaNt to

stretCh yoUrseLF

aND Do weLL to MaKe

yoUrseLF aND yoUr

FaMiLy ProUD.”

— JohN seVIeR stUDeNt

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Fox_Watch_Schedule.pdf

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Fox_Watch_Survey.pdf


The choice of topics for collaborative sessions also depends on what students need. For example, leaders asked teachers to select a focus topic for the summer and fall, with each teacher reading a book and sharing information in his or her profes-sional learning community (PLC) based on student challenges that surfaced from the previous year’s data. The objective is to help teachers improve in areas in which they may not feel strong. Last year, the teachers researched 10 areas: 1) phonemic awareness, 2) phonics, 3) vocabulary, 4) fluency, 5) comprehension, 6) boys and literacy, 7) raising rigor/Common Core, 8) integrating reading instruc-tion into all content areas, 9) literacy in the early years, and 10) student academic engagement. The effort to dig deeper into these topics was reflected in new activities. For example, from August through October, the teachers discussed the research and how it affected their teaching. In October, the school sponsored Literacy Share Days during which mem-bers of each PLC trained others in best practices during 30-45 minute sessions. “The intent is to build the toolbox of all teachers with strategies that tend to come with time, training, and experience,” Boles said. “The topics selected address a key area of concern in our building and will serve to increase student performance across all grade levels and for all teachers.”

CulTiVATiNG STRoNG lEAdERS

Teachers at John Sevier widely praise their strong principal and assistant principal, describing them as knowledgeable, fun, and focused on all the right things. Principal Wilson and Assistant Princi-pal Boles have an efficient division of labor, with Wilson overseeing operations, school management, attendance, and behavior management and Boles supporting curriculum, instruction, use of data, and work with parents. Even though they each have specific responsibilities, they collaborate and con-tribute to each other’s work at any time as need-ed. The two try to complete their administrative work before or after bells ring so they can attend to students and teachers during the day. Wilson and Boles are also supported by a school leader-ship team, composed of teachers and other staff members, who aid in the school’s decision-making processes.

Student-centered decision making. John Sevier Elementary weighs every practice and every deci-sion to determine its impact on children. The school has several non-negotiable practices:

• All teachers teach the Common Core State Standards at the level of rigor expressed in the standards.

• All teachers use the Quantum Keys of Excellence.

• All teachers enforce “zone zero” in the hallways.

• All teachers use common assessments and follow the testing schedule, and all engage in continuous improvement efforts.

Above all, school leaders make their decisions within the context of what is best for students. For example, the leadership team often makes deci-sions about resource allocation—after consulting with teachers and staff—in terms of student success and well-being. They frequently discuss the relative benefits of spending money on different needs, such as technology, the playground, celebration, or books for the library.

“John Sevier Promising Practice: School Leadership Team”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/John_Sevier_Elementary_Promising_Practice.pdf

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/John_Sevier_Elementary_Promising_Practice.pdf


with consistent feedback. For example, Boles will stay in a struggling teacher’s classroom to demon-strate lessons, provide supportive feedback, and provide substitutes so teachers can watch expert teachers at John Sevier or other elementary schools in the district and throughout the region.

Treating all teachers as leaders. John Sevier Ele-mentary rotates the composition of its leadership team every two years. Eventually, every teacher and staff member, including counselors, office staff, and custodians, will serve on the leadership team and make decisions that affect the entire school. For example, this group helped to decide the focus of professional development, the nature of after school clubs, and the allocation of funds for the playground and other initiatives. The school con-veys its expectation to lead to every new employee. Support comes through activities, such as a book study of The Leader in Me by Stephen Covey.

High visibility. The school leaders make it part of their job to monitor and support teachers daily. “Rick and Ginny are in our classrooms every day for five minutes,” one teacher said. “They show me that they appreciate my work.” Boles affirmed, “We are in ev-ery class every day, not to check up on people but to offer them support.” Teachers feel they can ask for any type of instructional or behavioral help—and will be praised for doing so because relationships are based on trust, a belief in the teachers, and a shared vision of what the school can be.

For the leaders, visibility also means that children know that all adults in the building care about them. “We want every child in the building to have 100 sets of eyes on them. We know every child by face, by name, and by their family,” Boles said.

Providing in-depth support. The strong emphasis on relationships requires a strong support system for teachers. For many, John Sevier is their first teaching experience. (The staff has an average of seven years of experience.) Teachers in their first or second year of teaching receive coaching as part of the educator evaluation and support system used by the district. Coaches and school leaders fre-quently meet to support each other and the teacher

teaChers FeeL they CaN asK For aNy tyPe oF

iNstrUCtioNaL or BehaVioraL heLP—aND wiLL Be

PraiseD For DoiNG so BeCaUse reLatioNshiPs are

BaseD oN trUst, a BeLieF iN the teaChers, aND a

shareD VisioN oF what the sChooL CaN Be.

Video: “Supporting Teachers” (1:59)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_elem2012.php

“Mentoring and Instructional Coaching Program”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Mentoring_and_instructional_Coaching_Program.pdf

http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_elem2012.php

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Mentoring_and_Instructional_Coaching_Program.pdf

16Pathways to the PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners 16PAthwAYs to the PRIzeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners


You know that if you’re hired here, then you’re going to be working.”

Supporting new teachers. New teachers receive support through instructional coaching designed to develop and refine their classroom instruction. The coaching is designed to help teachers build rapport, understand best practices, reflect on their teach-ing practice, and encourage a passion for learning. Coaching from peers in the school and district is based on Quantum Learning Tenets. The Quan-tum Learning Tenets model immerses coaches in self-reflection on their skills, talents, and resources, their own learning trajectories, and their practices as a teacher. Coaches discuss changes in the profes-sion, learning beliefs, competency stages, and ways to increase beginning teachers’ efficacy. Coaches also learn about the goals of coaching, creating rapport, the coaching cycle, and plans and strategy for support. They receive training at the school on district evaluation criteria, observation protocols, walkthroughs, recording detectable data, and pro-viding feedback on things the teacher is doing right and opportunities to improve. Teachers become proficient in coaching commands, paraphrasing, mediating, clarifying, contextualizing, informing, modeling, rehearsing, and debriefing. New teachers say the coaching is very supportive, accelerates their skills, and helps them feel competent.

Providing professional development for all teachers. John Sevier not only offers training and support to new teachers, but works to ensure that all teachers receive high quality professional de-velopment tailored to their specific needs. Several teachers at John Sevier have had many years of classroom experience, and the school offers mul-tiple forms of professional development for these veterans to promote consistency in instruction and depth of learning for students. Teachers discuss topics like instructional pacing, establishing goals

ENSuRiNG ExCEllENT TEACHiNG

Teaching excellence at John Sevier Elementary starts with careful recruitment and selection of highly effective teacher candidates and continues through thoughtful nurturing and cultivation of teachers’ instruction, intervention, and assessment skills.

Recruiting and selecting teachers. Since high performance expectations for both teachers and students matter so much at John Sevier Elementary, leaders look closely at their teacher candidates to find those who will best fit at the school. John Sevier uses a multi-stage process to hire teachers. First, the school posts the job description, which clearly highlights the school’s expectations for the position. Wilson and Boles, along with a hiring committee that is composed of a diverse group of educators, attempt to meet with as many candidates as their schedules allow. Second, the pool is narrowed down to between three and five candidates. These candidates are required to develop a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation with criteria including data analysis of John Sevier, school demographics, and teaching pedagogy. They are also provided with a scenario that presents a challenge to provide the committee with insight into how the candidate will engage students and their families. Last, the interview process includes time for the candidates to ask the committee clarifying questions. Current teachers say this process helps the school identify candidates who will be a good fit for John Sevier. “I interviewed in another district and was offered two other teaching positions. But I know they wanted me here and wanted me for who I was and what I stood for,” one teacher said. “I got to see that my values matched the values of the school and so it was the best fit for me.”

Another teacher added, “If you’re going through this process and you see something and think, ‘I can’t do that,’ it’s a filter almost and you shouldn’t be here.

“John Sevier Hiring Process”http://thescoresheet.org/ 2012/11/09/a-rigorous-teacher-selection-process-increases-rigor-in-the-classroom/

http://thescoresheet.org/2012/11/09/a-rigorous-teacher-selection-process-increases-rigor-in-the-classroom/


picture, and materials needed), and make their first prototype. Students in groups of three get $20 for the business; individual students get $10 for shop-ping. Students buy materials and determine man-ufacturing costs, in addition to determining costs for advertising, rentals, profits, and taxes. Students also build an assembly line and create an advertis-ing campaign. In the second week, they have two Market Days where each student uses his or her $10 to buy products from other stores. At the end of the first day, students complete a reflection sheet with questions about how many products they sold and how much profit they made. Students operate mar-ket booths for an additional day and then complete a second reflection sheet that includes questions such as how to increase their sales and make more products and product displays.

Student interventions. Students making inade-quate progress receive additional support through Response to Intervention (RTI). For the first tier, the school identifies students in the “danger zone,” which includes those students with the lowest scores, as well as students who have failed to reach the next proficiency level by just a few points. Students record what they can do and where they need help on daily exit tickets, which allow teach-ers to determine which students have or have not mastered the material. Deep data dives allow teachers to track progress, differentiate instruction, reteach, or refer a student for intervention. The prin-cipal stays abreast of every student’s progress by personally signing each report card, often making comments to parents about the child’s strengths and challenges.

Students who have fallen further behind are assigned to the second tier for additional inter-ventions. These students may be served in class by a teaching assistant or pulled out for tutoring. Teachers may receive an assistant for up to four hours a day. Some teachers assign the assistant to work with identified children. Others teachers work with students needing intervention, while the assis-tant takes over the class. According to one teacher, this type of care “makes my time with each child meaningful.”

for students, and collaborative planning. Teachers are also encouraged to watch webinars from the Tennessee Department of Education, Battelle for Kids, and other groups that support implementation of rigorous instruction aligned to the Common Core standards. In the summer of 2012, several teachers visited a school in Haywood County, North Carolina that had achieved very high academic growth with a student population similar to that of John Sevier Elementary.

Teachers have a full schedule of professional de-velopment, including ongoing training in Common Core implementation, working with students with disabilities, using technology effectively, and ana-lyzing and using data to improve instruction, among other topics. Teachers work closely with their grade level teams during time set aside for professional learning communities and with cross-grade level teams at least twice a year. The combination of the new and more experienced teachers, who are all changing their instruction to align with the Common Core, has fostered creative, rich lessons.

Finally, staff members “gather research-based instructional nuggets” (G.R.I.N.) encountered in their reading. The nuggets can be about methodology, technique, organizational ideas, or how to inspire others. Teachers collect instructional nuggets throughout the semester to share with the team.

Effective instruction. While John Sevier requires no specific lesson format, many grade-level teams have created comprehensive lesson structure frameworks. The frameworks provide opportunities for in-depth learning and feature creative ways to introduce students to lessons and engage multiple styles. For example, in the third grade’s book club structure, teachers emphasize building students’ background knowledge, generating a purpose for reading, and then beginning reading instruction. Each student has a specific role to help them ex-plore the material in depth. At the end of the literacy block, which is about 90 minutes long, students assess their work with an evaluation form featur-ing questions about preparation and participation, strengths for the day, and a goal for the next lesson. The process also has suggestions for early finishers.

To help older students apply their knowledge to real-world situations, the school has them partici-pate in the Classroom Market, an economics project that takes place over seven school days. In the first week, students set up their teams, create a bubble map of ideas, develop one idea extensively (such as a business name, product name, product functions,

“A Classroom Market Lesson Plan”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/a_Classroom_Market_Lesson_Plan.pdf

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/A_Classroom_Market_Lesson_Plan.pdf


The assistants often go beyond work in the classroom by engaging with parents. “[The assistants] are always willing to come and sit during our parent conferences,” one teacher said. “When a parent makes a comment, they can say, ‘Well, I’ve been to your room and I’ve seen this.’ They’ve got your back.”

The third intervention tier is used specifically to support special education students. Parents are brought into the process early to help identify the best possible interventions. Parents say they are well-informed about the RTI program and that the school handles remediation very well, with students feeling no negative effects of being identified for further assistance. A parent, writing to the school to express gratitude for its work with her child who has attention deficit disorder, wrote: “I have watched your teachers, your staff, and the countless families and there is no lower standard given here. Regardless of a child’s racial background or a family’s financial standing, everyone is treated the same- with absolute care, concern and gratitude that your child is here. I could not have found a better educational setting for a child if I had made it myself.”

John Sevier Elementary presents learning opportunities beyond the school day, primarily through clubs and various fun educational events. For example, Community Connections program helps students connect to the “outside” world by learning about water safety, taking field trips to the East Tennessee Discovery Center, and creating extracurricular events to help students learn about butterflies, managing savings, and staying in school. The school’s chess club meets twice a week, and the school’s running club has more than 150 students who often run with their parents. Other enrichment activities include short-term camps centered on technology and supports, as well as an afterschool program called Mind Stretchers that offers enrichment or remediation based on individual student needs. Additionally, the school offers intersession classes for students during scheduled breaks between grading periods.

uSiNG dATA To ENHANCE STudENT lEARNiNG

John Sevier Elementary administers a comprehen-sive set of assessments so that teachers know what students have learned and retained over time.

formative assessment. Every day, most teachers administer exit tickets as a method of formative as-sessment to determine where students need addi-tional help. The tickets can be simple written notes where students identify what they learned during the lesson and what they still need help with. Exit tickets can also present a more complex challenge. For example, an exit ticket given to students after a lesson on the energy pyramid asked students to consider what would happen if a new type of herbi-vore was introduced into the ecosystem that forced the existing frogs to compete for grasshoppers.

Some assessments use creative approaches, such as formative writing samples that take advan-tage of “pinch cards.” Teachers write sentences with incorrect punctuation and post them on the interactive white board. Students “pinch” the card to indicate the type of sentence (declarative, inter-rogative, exclamatory, imperative), then justify their answers and add correct punctuation marks. Math assessments ask students to solve problems using multiple types of processes so that the students learn many ways to demonstrate their knowledge and check the accuracy of the work.

Summative, interim, and diagnostic assessments. John Sevier Elementary administers benchmark and summative assessments in addition to the forma-tive and classroom assessments mentioned above. Several—such as the STAR Reading and Math tests and Brigance—serve diagnostic and progress mon-itoring purposes. The benchmark assessments are

Video: “Using Data to Enhance Student Learning” (1:49)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_elem2012.php

http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_elem2012.php


given every nine weeks and show students’ progress toward mastery.

data analysis. Teachers and administrators review student data frequently, monitoring progress daily and weekly. Students who have not achieved mastery receive more instruction in their regular classrooms or are referred for tutoring or other interventions offered through the school’s Response to Intervention program (see page 18 for more information on the RTI program). Teachers will often identify 10 students for focused interventions to be certain they get the extra attention they need.

Finally, the school has weekly grade level meetings on individual students’ benchmark assessments and monthly cross-grade level meetings to discuss each grade’s progress in helping students master grade level expectations. In the 2011-12 school year, leaders adjusted the schedule to bracket each day with 30 minutes of community-building, and designated enrichment/remediation pull-out times for each grade level. Leadership meetings focus on data anal-ysis and current benchmark targets throughout the year, and the daily visits to classrooms by the school leaders examine and support both instruction and the interpretation of assessment data.

CoNCluSioN

John Sevier Elementary School has made substantial strides toward increasing student performance by placing a strong emphasis on relationships between and among adults and children. The school’s many efforts include establishing a coherent and consistent approach to promoting a positive learning climate, setting consistent behavioral management tech-niques, and continually emphasizing academic rigor and achieving one’s personal best.

The school has embraced changes in the past sev-eral years, using each as an opportunity to improve. For instance, John Sevier serves a different span of grades than before, but found that the change gave them new energy, an ability to introduce even more coherence and consistency, and a newfound identity as a top performing school.

aSSESSMEntS USED at JOHn SEviER ELEMEntaRY

• Brigance-K

• Aimsweb

• STAr Early Literature

• STAr reading

• STAr Math

• Writing Assessment

• Constructed response Assessment

• discovery Education Assessment

• SAT-10

• TCAP

• Grade level benchmarks every nine weeks


AT A GlANCE

• Rose Park educators model enthusiasm for learning and commitment to excellence. This serves to motivate all faculty, staff, and students to succeed.

• Every student at Rose Park is nurtured as a part of the edu-cational family. Connections between home and school are thoughtfully fostered and mutually beneficial.

• No student is allowed to fall behind. A one-hour period each day is devoted to interventions to ensure that all students master expected learning objectives.

• Students are provided with multiple opportunities to engage in enrichment through partnerships with multiple community organizations and colleges.

• Academic progress is closely tracked and frequently cel-ebrated. Formal and informal assessment results are dis-cussed weekly by teachers and administrators. Growth of five points on tests is expected for all students and routinely rewarded to provide incentives for more effort.

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2012 SCoRE Prize Middle School Winner

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Video: “Rose Park Math and Science Magnet” (3:15)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zerwQ4x7eta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zerwQ4x7etA


Rose Park Math and Science Magnet Middle School

http://www.roseparkmagnetms. mnps.org/site10.aspx

http://www.roseparkmagnetms.mnps.org/site10.aspx


Outstanding schools recognize and emphasize the role of the family in a student’s academic success. Rose Park Math and Science Magnet Middle School has taken the concept of family support to a new level, creating an en-vironment in which every student feels nurtured as part of an “educational family.” In both literal and symbolic ways, these education families and each student’s home family set the stage for the pursuit of high academic goals and provide encouragement, strength, and sup-port as the student aspires to reach those goals.

Located in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School district, Rose Park—a magnet school that is open to students citywide—prides itself on a set of values and beliefs, including:

• Learning is a cooperative effort involving the entire school community.

• Decision-making should be informed by administra-tors, teachers, parents, and students.

• Rules, regulations, and procedures must be clearly communicated and consistently enforced.

• Students learn better when the classroom content includes higher order questioning and thinking, teach-ers and students respect different learning styles, and differentiated instruction addresses students’ multiple intelligences.

• All members of the school community should have high expectations of themselves and of others.

These values emerge not only in the school’s philos-ophy, but in the explicit strategies the school uses to support students and their families. For example, the school’s mission calls for active and interactive learning grounded in hands-on classroom activities. The mem-bers of a student’s education family approach their work accordingly, with the school providing the physical resources—such as science and computer labs—that allow students, in both content-specific and interdisci-plinary ways, to be active learners. The commitment to building a support system around every child reflects the school’s absolute belief that “all kids can grow, even the advanced ones who might not think they need to,” said Rose Park Principal Robert Blankenship.

SCHOOL PROfiLEPrincipal – Robert Blankenship

Grades served – 5-8

Enrollment – 395


White – 26%


Hispanic – 6%

other – 4%


TVAAS GRoWTH ESTiMATES Math: 5.7Reading: 2.0

TCAP PrOfiCiEnT/AdvAnCEd Math: 47%Reading: 57%

Between 2010 and 2012, the achievement gap for African American students narrowed by 11.4 percentage points in reading and 16.2 percentage points in math. For Hispanic students, the gap narrowed by 9.8 points and 7.1 points, respectively, and for economically disadvantaged students by 4.9 and 9.9 points.


address individual learning challenges and new material that has been or will be presented in class. Fluid grouping permits students to move quickly into a more advanced group once they have mas-tered specific content.

Students requiring remediation are placed in small-er classes, usually with a 15:1 student-to-teacher ratio. Rose Park also provides extra support for struggling students with before- and after-school tutoring programs. During that time, students work within their educational families, which include a teacher other than the regular classroom teacher and students at the same ability level. This program differs from other programs at Rose Park because it places a high priority on teachers’ creativity in their instructional approaches, such as interactive and hands-on activities.

High performing students work in larger groups of approximately 30 other accelerated students during which they work independently on upper-level academic material. Teachers challenge students who have mastered grade-level learning objectives to learn advanced material quickly, and encourage these students to take advanced courses in math and science and earn high school credit.

Home interventions and family connections. Rose Park has built an extraordinary array of outreach initiatives to build relationships between the school and its families. The faculty and administration at Rose Park recognize that student performance relates to what children experience at home. The Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) at Rose Park reaches out to all parents, including immigrant families who might be less informed about public education in Tennessee. The school’s PTSO does not have membership dues, making all parents automatic members of the group. The PTSO encourages parents to ask questions, find op-portunities for engagement, and actively participate


Administrators and teachers at Rose Park establish very high learning expectations for their students. Regardless of their starting point, all students are expected to make academic progress: there is room to grow for every child. The school’s emphasis on clear expectations, academic support, and engag-ing activities for families all help foster students’ academic success.

interventions. “Rose Park provides intervention programs and opportunities that improve academic development and performance for students at vary-ing ability levels. These intervention programs work to help students at all ability levels. The school’s interventions occur on a daily and weekly basis. Daily initiatives include Rose Park’s Intervention, a one-hour program that groups students by math and language arts ability levels. Teacher-supervised grade-level teams work closely with students to

Video: “From Data to Action” (2:47)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_mid2012.php

“Intervention Plan of Action”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/intervention_Plan_of_action.pdf

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http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_mid2012.php

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Intervention_Plan_of_Action.pdf


The school provides academic training programs for family members so they can be learners alongside their children and active participants in their students’ learning communities.

Family Math Night is one example of educational training involving parents. During the event, students and their family members apply math to solve re-al-life problems. Coordinated by the school’s numer-acy coach, Sarah Shepherd, Family Math Night gives parents a structured experience to build their own math knowledge and contribute to their children’s mathematics mastery. It also shows families how fun math can be. Additionally, the school hopes that the program helps students better understand what they know, demonstrate their skills, and reinforce their leadership abilities.

Academic coaches also coordinate family literacy workshops which, like Family Math Night, are based on the Common Core State Standards. These activi-ties offer “great connections between parents and the administrators and teachers,” Principal Blankenship said. “[I think] the connection between schools and the families strengthens the connection between the parents and the child.”

Additionally, Rose Park provides frequent, ongoing for-mal communication with its families, including monthly newsletters and personal contact with individual fam-ilies. The school also encourages parents to visit the school and become active members of its community.

in their children’s education. “The teachers are open [to the parents at Rose Park], and the administrators [are] too,” PTSO President Alexis Lewis said. “I can say that’s not the case in a lot of schools.”

Parents say teachers at the school make an effort to understand the personal experiences of students and work hard to consider these factors in their ed-ucational planning and instruction. “We have some parents who don’t speak English well. Sometimes those parents aren’t as interested in talking to the teachers,” one parent said. “Teachers will go out to the cars and have those conversations. They really understand the cultural diversity. They are really making that effort to get the parents where they need to be.”

Part of the message Rose Park administrators and staff members share with families is that positive relationships are formed when everyone at the school shows enthusiasm for learning, an authen-tic desire to be at the school, and eagerness to engage with students. “I think the difference at our school is fidelity,” Blankenship said. “Our teachers work very hard to make sure students and parents know where [students] are [academically]. Many of our teachers do much more than they need to do and they care. Our students can tell and I think that makes the difference.”

Video: “Supporting and Engaging Parents” (2:22)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_mid2012.php

“Rose Park Promising Practice: Empowering Parents”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Rose_Park_Math_and_Science_Magnet_Promising_Practice.pdf

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Rose_Park_Math_and_Science_Magnet_Promising_Practice.pdf



opportunities to show students that he appreciates their effort and performance. For example, he calls impromptu assemblies to share success stories and praise hard work. Students are also rewarded with honor roll trips to movies and pizza parties.

By encouraging teachers to actively develop a posi-tive environment, Principal Blankenship has become a motivational model. “His energy is infectious and teachers are motivated by it,” Shepherd said. “He will begin faculty meetings by asking, ‘What are we going to do to get our kids going?’ He wants us to actively consider our kids’ motivation to learn.” The principal rewards teachers at meetings for their ideas and efforts through verbal praise or small tokens of appreciation.

Teacher support. The principal and assistant princi-pal at Rose Park take active steps to help teachers maximize their own potential as educators. Admin-istrators spend time in every classroom every day. At the end of each visit, they provide teachers with 30 seconds of feedback, which tends to focus on what went well during the visit. These quick ses-sions provide positive reinforcement—a reminder of what’s going well—and they stimulate and sustain teachers’ motivation during the academic day.

Administrators also work to protect “space” for teachers to think through and explore new ways


As seasoned professionals, the leaders at Rose Park have passion for and commitment to educa-tion and the well-being of their students. Principal Blankenship joined Rose Park Middle School in 2012 after serving as the principal for three middle schools and as a middle school teacher. Assistant Principal Jackie Freeman came to Rose Park Middle School after five years as an assistant principal in another school and eight years as a teacher of middle school math, reading, and social studies. He has been with Rose Park for the past three years. Their experience and passion for improving middle school education has contributed to Rose Park’s success.

Every action taken by the administrators at Rose Park aims to help students succeed at the highest possible level. To this end, the leadership team works diligently to prioritize areas that matter, including support for teachers and comprehensive, diverse educational opportunities for students.

Enthusiasm, motivation, and commitment. Prin-cipal Blankenship and his staff model their own motivation for learning, and reward student effort and success. “Teachers teach to a high level, [get] students to believe in themselves, [and build] intrinsic motivation in students,” a parent of a sixth grader said. Many parents said that teachers’ pas-sion for learning translates directly to students’ own sense of wanting to learn. The principal looks for


Assistant Principal Freeman coordinated an initia-tive to bring an international flavor to the school by sponsoring delegates from abroad. For example, visitors from Guangzhou, China observed Rose Park teachers’ classroom management and instructional procedures and then participated in a forum on ways to improve education in both countries. During the visit, students were able to talk to the delegates about the similarities and differences in education between the two countries.

School leaders also actively seek relationships with other nearby organizations and universities to provide tutoring and enrichment activities. For ex-ample, Rose Park has created weekly interventions that provide opportunities for students to interact with potential role models such as undergraduate and graduate education students from Belmont University, who visit the school once a week to work with students one-on-one. The college students implement interventions designed by Rose Park’s numeracy coach to address students’ specific aca-demic challenges.

Faculty members from Vanderbilt University’s Math-ematics and Science Education Department and Fisk University visit Rose Park to provide hands-on educational experiences for students. Fisk Uni-versity offers programs such as its Physics Club to enhance science learning. This year, the faculty focused on “rocket science” by introducing rocket design and encouraging students to explore their interests in that science discipline.

The faculty at Rose Park believes there are two key benefits to these relationships. First, students have the opportunity to work with other adults beyond their classroom to help them master academic content. Second, it can inspire students to pursue careers in scientific fields.

to guide students toward their full potential when current strategies aren’t working. Teachers also receive support from the school’s literacy and numeracy coaches, who help the teachers under-stand their students’ academic performance.

Expanded educational opportunities. In addition to supporting the intervention-based partnerships described earlier, Rose Park leaders collaborate with local organizations to create supplemental educational opportunities for students. The school coordinates Hands-On Science Days in partnership with the Adventure Science Center, Nashville’s children’s science museum. Students travel to the center for hands-on activities including dissec-tions, car physics activities, and earth science experiments. The program strives to draw on students’ prior knowledge and lead them to apply it to real-world scenarios. “Our staff is working hard to make our science performance as strong as our math,” Blankenship said. “We are not there yet, but opportunities like the Adventure Center are fun trips for our kids, and I think it will help them [perform better].”

Rose Park also partners with the PENCIL Founda-tion, a nonprofit comprised of representatives from businesses and community organizations who donate time and resources to advance students’ academic journeys. During the 2011-12 school year, PENCIL helped the school with science education, journalism, and mentorship programs. PENCIL representatives brought in tutors to help students in each grade prepare for the state-required standardized tests (known as TCAP) and donated school supplies to the literacy coaches’ class-rooms. Other current community partners include Kroger, White Castle, and Belmont University.

“he wiLL BeGiN FaCULty MeetiNGs By asKiNG,

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– sARAh shePheRD, Rose PARk MIDDLe NUMeRAcY coAch


with the numeracy coach to analyze and improve lessons. Like the posting of student expectations, teachers’ goals are also made visible throughout the school, giving the entire community a clear sense of what teachers are doing and striving to accomplish.

Common Core State Standards. Rose Park tran-sitioned to the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and language arts in August 2012. Before the transition, teachers received extensive professional development from the state, school district, and the school. The math and literacy coaches work with district officials to analyze and understand the Common Core standards, and meet with PLCs to help teachers adjust to the change by providing school-based professional development and training on helping teachers implement the standards in their classrooms.

To help students thrive under the new standards, teachers now incorporate instructional practices that they believe will improve student performance in the future. For example, teachers have begun administering assessments that are designed to assess a student’s depth of content knowledge. In math classes, teachers push students to justify how they arrived at an answer or explain what steps they


As part of Rose Park’s inspirational and nurturing environment, teachers work with and support one another as they examine their own performance and make changes to improve their instruction. The high rate of retaining effective teachers, along with the advanced experience of teachers new to the school, adds to the overall quality of education.

Teacher mentoring. Rose Park invests substantial time and effort in mentoring. Volunteer mentors work with new teachers for a year to help them im-prove their instruction, assessment, and collabora-tion skills. Being a mentor, while not a requirement, has become part of life for many Rose Park teach-ers who step forward to help new teachers adjust and improve their professional performance.

All teachers participate in the school’s Friends Among Friends program, where pairs of Rose Park faculty observe their peers teaching lessons. The observers use rubrics and guidelines to help focus their observation and supply talking points for teachers when they meet together after the instruc-tional session. This experience trains teachers to better understand what to look for during observa-tions and expands their questioning techniques to support observation and the quality of classroom discussions.

Beyond the formal mentoring and support systems, Rose Park teachers support one another as a part of daily life. One teacher said, “Teachers visit teachers in other classrooms and ask, ‘Can I observe you?’ I’ve gotten to observe other teachers who asked for help. There is great support from our administrators but also with each other. We help each other out a lot.”

Professional learning communities. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have formed through-out Rose Park Middle School. Coordinated once a month by the numeracy and literacy coaches, the PLCs provide sessions where the coach models lessons for teachers. The PLCs provide a place for teachers to share new resources and discuss best practices and research on student learning. Grade-level teams receive time every day to share pedagogical ideas, coordinate academic and field trip schedules, and exchange student achievement information.

The PLCs also encourage teachers to build leader-ship and collaboration skills. Teachers work closely

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to fellow students. Teachers also allow students to complete alternative assignments in which stu-dents complete and present reports using Power-Point presentations and slide shows. They structure their classes around the online service Edmodo to build technology into their classroom teaching. Shepherd explained, “Teachers are using Edmodo for assignments, videos, and to encourage student interaction. Many teachers are using it and the kids are responding well. They are also learning that going online can be more than just to play.”

Rewarding academic progress. The school celebrates academic growth with reward pro-grams such as Give Me Five, which is based on the Discovery Education Assessment (DEA) adminis-tered three times a year. DEA lets students, faculty members, and administrators build a trajectory of a student’s performance over time. Students receive scores at the beginning and twice in the middle of the year to see where they have improved. Students who perform five points better on sub-sequent tests receive a reward, regardless of their baseline scores in the fall.

took that led them to an incorrect answer. In addi-tion to helping students respond to constructed re-sponse questions, the practice helps students build other skills such as vocabulary, critical thinking, and self-expression.

understanding each child’s academic growth. Rose Park’s relatively veteran staff is committed to learning how to recognize—and best maximize—each student’s abilities. They continually assess and reassess student knowledge, routinely “spiraling” information delivery to evaluate which students have mastered what information. If specific students have not learned something, they review it again in class or through intervention. “Mastery is the goal at our school,” numeracy coach Shepherd said. “If students do not do well on a test, they can work to learn the material and improve their scores,” she added. “We believe students should see what they mastered, not how poorly they did on a test two months ago.”

Rose Park’s teachers use project-based learn-ing activities that push students to strive for the next levels of complexity in their understanding. For instance, math courses use “scavenger hunt” style activities as instructional methods to teach the Common Core standards. In these activities, students find different math problems posted in the classroom that they must solve and then explain how they arrived at their solution to the teacher. Reading classes also incorporate language “sta-tions” dedicated to parts of speech, descriptive writ-ing, and vocabulary games where students rotate to encourage engagement. Students in science class-es build model race cars to bring Newton’s Laws of Physics to life. “Engagement is important because it keeps kids interested,” Principal Blankenship said. “We know that at this age their attention span is very, very short. So you have to actively get them engaged by thinking, by doing, by hearing, seeing, smelling – whatever it takes, that’s what we want to do here at Rose Park.”

Teachers at Rose Park routinely incorporate active learning techniques and technology into their instruction. They use devices such as projection technology that allow students to show their work

Video: “Engaging Students in the Classroom” (1:11)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_mid2012.php



these data to design their own ongoing assessments and to tailor instruction and, in some cases, assess-ment, to specific groups of students.

informal assessment data. Rose Park uses two sources of informal data to augment their formal performance measures. While they see this infor-mation as less official than the formal assessment results, teachers possess a sense of confidence from the supplemental knowledge about student perfor-mance supplied by the informal data. Currently, Rose Park uses the online programs Study Island and Think Through Math to supplement their knowledge of their students’ understanding and progress toward mas-tery. While typically used for intervention instruction or to provide supplemental information, Rose Park’s teachers use the information from these programs to identify student weaknesses and to motivate stu-dents to push harder.

CoNCluSioN

Rose Park Math and Science Magnet Middle School has a set of strong values and beliefs that drive its progress. The school deeply cherishes collaboration among and between administrators, teachers, and students, and with the families the school serves. Teachers implement highly engaging instructional strategies in their classrooms, the school’s leadership team is supportive and helps foster growth for both teachers and students, and data analysis drives all decision-making. Additionally, the school uses mul-tiple pathways to connect with families and commu-nities to support students in their academic devel-opment. Ultimately, Rose Park ensures that each student benefits from an extended family of support, originating in the classroom and extending through the school and community at large.


Rose Park’s educators and administrators deeply engage in data analysis and use it to drive school and student improvement. They use formal and informal assessment data to help determine the proper course for each of their students.

The school’s teachers and academic staff—including the numeracy and literacy coaches—evaluate student performance regularly to assess how well students are progressing. The information is used to make decisions about student placement in appropriate courses and ability groups that are altered based on student progress throughout the year.

formal assessment data. Rose Park uses three major formal data sources to assess academic develop-ment and growth: the state-required TCAP, Discovery Education Assessment, and formative assessments designed by teachers.

The school has used data from the Discovery Ed-ucation Assessment (DEA) for the past three years to measure student growth. The assessment aligns with the Tennessee state education standards, assuring the staff of the data’s utility and relevance. The school’s understanding of student achievement research that emphasizes the benefits of student awareness of their academic performance has led to an important student-monitoring program at Rose Park. “Our Bound for Blue program is based on our Discovery Education Assessment, and it helps kids see where they are performing,” Blankenship said. “Blue represents a high level of accomplishment, green is proficient, yellow is basic, and red is below proficient. Our students work hard to get as close to blue as possible. This allows the students to evaluate their own performance.”

The third data source—formal formative assess-ments—originates with teachers. The school’s numer-acy and literacy coaches hold the primary respon-sibility of disaggregating and disseminating these data for teachers. They also take on the responsibility of ensuring that students receive the appropriate interventions and levels of instruction—a task made easier with the help of reliable performance data. The coaches meet with teachers twice each month and with the professional learning communities to review data, determine what did and did not work instruc-tionally, and consider what academic adjustments must be made. The assessments are designed to include questions and probes to gather data that is as comprehensive, and useful as possible. Teachers use

aSSESSMEntS USED at ROSE PaRK MaGnEt

• TCAP

• discovery Education Assessment

• formal formative assessments


Covington High Schoolhttp://webtcs.tipton-county.com/chs/

http://webtcs.tipton-county.com/chs/


AT A GlANCE

• In 2008, Peggy Murdock became principal of Covington High School and introduced several changes to set the school on a pathway to success. These changes included raising aca-demic expectations for all students, improving the school’s physical environment, fostering a positive school climate, reorganizing the responsibilities of school leaders, establish-ing data systems, and developing new support mechanisms for students.

• The school has made changes to its course offerings and supplemental programs to emphasize college and career readiness, including providing college counseling to all students and making the Career and Technical Education program more rigorous.

• School leaders and faculty work to engage parents as partners in the education process by keeping them updated about student progress and inviting them to assist in ad-dressing educational concerns.

• Leaders and teachers are adamant in their belief that all students can achieve whatever they set out to do. They emphasize helping students acquire a “can do” attitude and persistence.

• Teachers are committed to providing students with rigorous coursework, meaningful support, and supplemental tutoring when needed. The peer-tutoring program has been particu-larly effective for the school.

CoViNGtoNhiGh

sChooL2012 SCoRE Prize High School Winner

Video: “Covington High School” (3:26)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WakclkGBuKQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WakclkGBuKQ


Covington High School has a simple educational priority: student success without exception. Covington, located in rural Tipton County, prepares its students with both an academic and vocational foundation, including col-lege-prep honors courses and career-centered techni-cal programs. Teachers and administrators are commit-ted to their students and to each other, working closely together to help all students succeed at the school. They communicate regularly and frequently to share infor-mation, including grades and instructional strategies. They fervently believe that each student is like one of their own children, and will accept only the best. “I won’t accept failure as an option,” Covington High School Prin-cipal Peggy Murdock said.

Covington High School was not always this way. When Murdock first came to the high school in 2008, the school had not met Adequate Yearly Progress targets for African American students, the graduation rate for Afri-can American students was significantly lagging behind that of their peers, and only half of Covington graduates pursued postsecondary education after high school. Not only were the numbers troubling, but Murdock also saw that high expectations were not held for all students and teachers.

After studying school processes and listening closely to teachers and parents, Murdock set an aggressive course for improvement. She started by raising academic expectations for all students, improving the physical en-vironment of the school, redefining administrative roles and functions, establishing new data systems and ex-pectations for using data for instructional planning, and developing new interventions for any student who fell behind. She pushed teachers to implement new, more engaging instructional strategies and pushed students to nurture their own sense of personal responsibility. As a result, the school has narrowed achievement gaps, shown impressive growth on End-of-Course exams, and had more of their students pursue postsecondary edu-cation and training than in the past. In 2012, the school was nationally recognized by U.S. News and World Report with a bronze medal for Best High Schools in the country. This means that not only is the school meeting state expectations on standardized tests, but they are also outperforming other schools in the state when it comes to their least advantaged students.

“There are no excuses,” Murdock said. “It doesn’t matter what the poverty level is. It is about the best achieve-ment that we can have for all of our students.” A Coving-ton teacher added that higher expectations and aca-demic achievement can help break persistent cycles of poverty. “The higher our student achievement levels, the better opportunities students have when they leave our system to do whatever they want to do,” she said. “We try to give them the best background we can.”

SCHOOL PROfiLEPrincipal – Peggy Murdock

Grades served – 9-12

Enrollment – 790


White – 47%


Hispanic – 0.5%

other – 0.5%


TVAAS GRoWTH ESTiMATE Algebra I: 50.7 English II: 5.3

EOC PrOfiCiEnT/AdvAnCEd Algebra I: 73%English II: 51%

CollEGE REAdiNESS dATA ACT Composite: 18Graduation Rate: 97%College-going rate: 58%


These sessions include training on skills that stu-dents will use throughout their educational and professional careers, such as how to take notes effectively.

• Mentoring. Project EXCELL, a district program that connects at-risk students with education support services, pairs students with college-at-tending alumni. Through one-on-one sessions and small group meetings, the alumni discuss their experiences in college and help Tipton students develop a sense of efficacy and envision their own success. There are 120 participating students in the program, many of whom will be first generation college students. Mentoring is also provided by a Regional Economic Develop-ment Initiative (REDI) counselor housed at the school. REDI counselors meet with individual students to help them determine their strengths and career plans. The counselors also connect students with individuals from the community who help foster a desire for postsecondary edu-cation, advise on potential career paths, and assist in completing required college applications and financial aid forms.

• financial aid. REDI also provides “last dollar” scholarships to students whose financial aid package from a college is less than the cost of college attendance. The scholarships make up the cost difference so that finances are not a bar-rier to attending an institution of higher education.

Career and technical education. The vast majority of Covington’s students participate in the school’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, which reinforces academic achievement and pro-vides students with concrete skills for employment. Students who major in the CTE program not only have the same academic course requirements as all students in the school, but they also enroll in four courses in one of five CTE concentration areas, which include agriculture, family and consumer sciences, Future Business Leaders of America, health sciences, and marketing. For example, stu-dents majoring in CTE Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) take courses in emergency medical training, community emergency response, diagnostic medicine and forensic science, and clinical medicine. In addition, the students work directly with medical professionals. The school partners with emergency health service providers to create opportunities for students to learn and practice emergency medical techniques. Certified teachers work with students and prepare them for career areas such as emergency medical services.


Educators at Covington High School not only want their students to graduate from high school. They want them to graduate with the skills they need to be successful and competitive in the global econ-omy. “It’s important to push our students to meet those expectations and exceed those expectations,” one teacher said. “We want to prepare our students not only to compete in Covington…but to compete globally.” These high standards are reflected in an emphasis on preparing students for postsecond-ary education and career, the school’s expectation that every student will make academic growth every year, and the availability of interventions and programs for any student who is not respond-ing well to traditional instruction. Covington also prioritizes strong outreach to families to ensure that they partner with the school to promote student success. “Our goal is to make sure everyone can do what they want to do. And try to give them some dreams,” said Murdock.

Preparation for postsecondary education and career. Preparing students for success after high school is an important part of Tipton County Schools’s mission as well as Covington’s. For the district, motivating students to think about their lives after high school is where the conversation about postsecondary begins. Beginning in middle school, students are provided with opportunities to visit colleges and attend camps, such as the Memphis Belle Aviation camp, that expose them to potential future occupations. Once they arrive at Covington, the emphasis on postsecondary is reinforced and supported through a variety of activities.

• Preparation for the ACT. Covington faculty have spent time analyzing the areas that are measured by the ACT and have modified their curriculum to ensure that they provide instruction that reflects the knowledge and skills that the exam expects students to acquire. Every teacher allocates 20 minutes of their lessons to prepare students for taking the exam. The standards for mastery are posted on classroom walls so that students can compare their performance to expectations. Stu-dents use the information to refocus their learning in areas in which they performed poorly. Every student is aware of his/her level of performance and encouraged and supported to perform better in every course. In common areas where stu-dents have not yet reached mastery or their ACT predictions are low, the school goes into action to improve the test scores, scheduling afternoon ACT tutoring and other one-on-one sessions.


parents and families to advance students’ educa-tional success. The school has been strategic with regard to parent and family involvement. To help parents understand their students’ educational performance, as well as their postsecondary oppor-tunities, the school provides programs that inform families about how they can contribute to their student’s educational development.

The school’s guidance center welcomes family members and gives them a place to ask questions and resolve issues about student’s educational needs and progress. Parent Connect, an online portal, allows parents to find out what’s happening at school: how their children are doing academical-ly; what they’re learning, including current assign-ments; and how to contact teachers. The school provides an “intensive care unit” list weekly to make sure students know what assignments they are missing. “No child has an F just because there is miscommunication,” said Assistant Principal Ellen Clark, who posts the list each week.

The principals also make it a priority to understand family circumstances. Principal Murdock, for exam-ple, visits homes when necessary and speaks can-didly with the students about home circumstances. She understands that she represents an important adult in her student’s lives. “I have been teaching in this school district for over 20 years,” Murdock said. “In some cases, I have taught their parents. The kids know I’m not going anywhere. They are more willing to confide when they have an issue. I believe it is important that these students have someone to rely on. They don’t always have those types of people in their household. I want us to be those people for them if we can.”

This real-world training qualifies students to serve in such capacities as EMTs while attending Covington. Of the top 10 students in the school, seven of them are CTE majors. “A lot of our students are going to go to postsecondary training of some kind which makes our courses that much more important,” one teacher said. CTE students currently achieve a high-er graduation rate than general education students: 99 percent.

Effective interventions. At Covington, having high expectations for all students means that every student will meet or exceed their expected level of academic growth every year. Teachers use results from End-of-Course pretests and ACT predictions to examine where each student is relative to their predicted scores. Students are also tested every four and a half weeks to determine their progress. Whenever a student has not mastered expected material, Covington connects students with need-ed supports. Specifically, any student who scores basic or below basic on the ThinkLink formative assessments in English or algebra is required to attend “academic recovery,” which is mandatory after-school tutoring, two days a week. During this time, students can choose to work with a teacher or a peer tutor. “The great thing is you might not be comfortable with your teacher and they may not be able to break it down [like] one of your peers,” one student said. The school has also removed barriers to participation by providing transportation at 5 p.m. during any afternoon when tutoring is offered.

Covington staff members also recognize that some students do not thrive in a traditional classroom environment. These students are provided with multiple alternative education programs that allow them to participate online, in project-based learn-ing, or in other activities that allow them to recov-er credit and/or enroll in courses that are more personalized to their needs. Additionally, Covington has implemented an alternative block schedule that allows students with disabilities to be involved in an inclusion setting for English and algebra one day, followed by specialized services in a resource setting the alternate day. As needed, students also receive an extra 90-minute block of mathematics during their second semester following algebra to work on specific skills that have not been mastered. Teacher and student personalities are matched to ensure a good fit, and students are individually scheduled by special education and consulting teachers to make sure their needs are met.

Engaging families. Teachers and administrators at Covington High School embrace the power of

Video: “High Expectations and Academic Supports” (2:12)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_high2012.php

“i BeLieVe it is iMPortaNt

that these stUDeNts haVe

soMeoNe to reLy oN.”— PeggY MURDock,coVINgtoN hIgh PRINcIPAL

http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_high2012.php


successful. Heartfelt leadership is necessary if you are going to help people be who you know they can be.”

Reorganizing for success. When Murdock came to the school, she recognized that both people and schedules needed to be reorganized for effective-ness and efficiency. To determine the best types of leadership structures for the school, Murdock first discussed the responsibilities associated with each leadership role and the effectiveness of the way roles and responsibilities were allocated. She then identified each assistant principal’s key strengths and reorganized, assigning her assistant principals roles that maximized their strengths in positions that made systems more efficient and effective. For ex-ample, one assistant principal had very strong data analysis skills, so she has been assigned to gener-ate and explain the data spreadsheets given to all teachers. She has also been given leadership roles for professional learning community facilitation. This assistant principal also serves as curriculum coordinator and helps to ensure alignment of cur-ricular needs and instructional practices. The other two assistant principals worked particularly well with students, so they were assigned to manage discipline. In addition to these duties, all assistant principals serve as instructional leaders by observ-ing classrooms and providing feedback to teachers.

Creating a culture of high expectations. When Murdock came to the school, she recognized that teachers were not consistently pushing students to reach their personal best. They were not analyzing data to improve their own instruction, and were focused more on what was taught rather than what was learned. Her strategy to change these practic-


When Peggy Murdock became principal in 2008, she made significant changes to several major aspects of the school – its appearance, organiza-tional structure, philosophy toward teaching and learning, culture, and partnerships. She formulated a “leadership family” that concentrates on safety, positive behavior, and academic success. She also instituted a new approach to discipline and a positive way to monitor teacher performance and provide feedback. While Murdock has made substantial changes to the school, she emphasiz-es that she leads by example. “I believe it is my responsibility to give more,” Murdock said. “I need to get here early, I need to give a little more during the day, and I need to stay after if I’m not finished.”

developing a culture of pride and profession-alism. Shortly after Peggy Murdock became principal of Covington, she started by working with others to create an attractive physical and social environment where people wanted to come to school, took pride in their surroundings, and liked each other. To that end, she had the school paint-ed in attractive colors and updated equipment and physical structures. She developed expectations for the ways that teachers interacted with each other and with students, strongly emphasizing a student-based culture, rather than one that was centered on the needs of adults. The new empha-sis meant that all adults and students were to be respectful of each other and the school environ-ment. Murdock led by example, taking a nurturing approach to leadership which emphasizes student and teacher needs. “I believe the only way I can help my students and the teachers is if they know that I care about them as individual people,” she said. “I think, once you understand where they are inside, where they come from and what is going on in their lives, you can help make everyone


principals are routinely visible in every classroom. The leaders use walkthrough tools that examine student engagement, teacher proximity to students, clear communication, explicit instruction, effective use of instructional time, effective classroom man-agement techniques, and classroom climate. Some tools have explicit “look-fors” to ensure that the ob-server monitors specific practices such as respect-ful teacher-student interactions, posting of student standards for conduct, use of wait time, and other aspects of instruction and classroom environment.

Leaders provide teachers with specific construc-tive feedback on their practices and emphasize student-centered instruction. They help teachers improve their practices by providing tools and train-ing. The team meets daily to review progress and address any issues of concern.

The leadership team sets the standard and the model for a strong work ethic and for following through on a job from beginning to end. School administrators will not ask their teachers to do something if they are not willing to do it themselves. Murdock also believes in constant visibility because it establishes an environment of recognition and trust. She has found that students and teachers are more willing to come to her with concerns and issues when they understand that she and the other principals know what is going on and are active members of the school community.

Teachers have responded positively to the new expectations and the reorganization. They say they appreciate the respect they receive as profession-als and the support they are given to become more reflective and effective at their craft.

es became the implementation of a “no excuses” culture and a culturally responsive approach to working with each individual student. She changed the purpose of the professional development teams, asking teams to engage in deep data analy-sis, focusing on determining the specific knowledge and skills that students had acquired and what they had not. She asked teachers to view their practices differently, examining the progress of each child, applying their resources strategically, and providing high levels of feedback and support for student learning. She reminded them that instruction is not just about seat time, but mastery of standards.

Murdock also strongly encouraged teachers to be culturally responsive to students, understanding their home environments, individual strengths, and needs for receiving rigorous and relevant instruc-tion. She asked teachers to take into account the types of out-of-school influences on students’ lives. Murdock expects teachers to use this information to counsel students and to use the influences as as-sets. She wants teachers to help students see how well they meet the challenges in front of them and use that to inspire them to work hard and set goals for the future.

New approaches to discipline. Another unique leadership strategy initiated at the school was a new approach to discipline. Murdock believes that students should be given a chance to improve and that past behavior should not inhibit future potential. She and her team address disciplinary issues im-mediately and students face consequences for their actions, but if they improve their behavior, they do not continue to be penalized. “Today stays today,” Murdock said. “Students need to fix things but there is no reason discipline issues should carry over into tomorrow.” The principals also provide immediate counseling to students experiencing social, home, and economic difficulties that might impact student achievement so that issues can be addressed and mitigated.

Supportive leadership. Murdock realizes that she asks a lot of her staff, so she offers a good balance of support and accountability. She and her assistant

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Murdock and the assistant principals at the school strongly believe that having the right teaching force in the school is critical to success. This means recruiting highly effective staff and preparing new teachers to be immediately effective in their class-rooms. The school also ensures that all teachers have access to high-quality professional learning opportunities, engage in professional learning communities, have curricular tools to help them ad-vance their practice, and implement strong instruc-tional strategies.

Building a strong staff. Attracting and retaining ef-fective teachers who are a good fit for the school’s culture is a key component of building a strong staff at Covington. “Prospective teachers need to care about our kids. So my questions are, ‘What kind of person are you? Do you really care about our com-munity?’” Principal Murdock said. “We need to know they are going to care about our kids’ potential and success.”

Covington has a combined strategy of looking within its own community to find effective teachers and vetting applicants with untraditional back-grounds to find the right mix of teachers with both strong content knowledge and a commitment to serving all students. Building and maintaining relationships with previous students has been a particularly effective strategy. Currently, more than two-thirds of the school’s teachers were raised in Tipton County, a fact that Murdock believes is a tremendous advantage for the school. For example, the school recruited a former student to teach at the school six months before his teacher training was completed. Since then, that teacher has helped drive the impressive gains in algebra for the school while also connecting with students on a personal level. “These teachers are a wonderful asset to the school and to each other,” Principal Murdock said. “You can tell they really care about their students by the way they treat them. They understand what their students are experiencing.”

All new teachers are provided with strong support to develop effective instructional techniques. New

teachers at Covington participate in a three-day orientation program to understand the school and its expectations, and then are assigned one content-based mentor (usually the department chair) within their subject area and one experi-enced teacher mentor who is located near the new teacher’s classroom. The first mentor helps the new teacher understand the most effective ways to deliver instruction within a particular field, sharing lesson plans and techniques for engaging students in the content. The second mentor provides more general support, such as helping the new teacher understand how to use technology, how to analyze data, and how to establish effective classroom man-agement techniques.

Supporting all teachers. Covington High School has implemented multiple strategies to ensure that all teachers receive the professional develop-ment they need to be successful. All teachers have access to PD360, an online system that features videos of teachers implementing effective practices in different content areas. Covington assigns some videos for all teachers to watch and then asks the teachers to complete reflections about the prac-tice and to implement strategies from what they observed. The video is connected to the reinforce-ment and refinement portion of the state’s teacher evaluation system. Feedback is provided to each teacher by master teachers or department chairs within the school.

Covington implemented professional learning communities (PLCs) in 2010. While all departments have their own PLCs, two additional groups were formed for schoolwide purposes: one focusing on English and another on assessment. The English PLC was formed to address students’ academic struggles in English II, writing, and the English test on the ACT. Led by Brandi Blackley, the school’s English instructional facilitator, the group developed and implemented plans for an English lab for all

“Covington Promising Practice: Fostering Great Teaching”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Covington_High_School_Promising_Practice.pdf

“Mentor Handbook”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Mentor_Handbook.pdf

“Three Approaches to Attracting and Retaining ‘Irreplaceable’ Teachers”http://thescoresheet.org/2013/02/25/three-approaches-to-attracting-and-retaining-irreplaceable-teachers/

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Covington_High_School_Promising_Practice.pdf

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Mentor_Handbook.pdf

http://thescoresheet.org/2013/02/25/three-approaches-to-attracting-and-retaining-irreplaceable-teachers/


“Lesson Plan Template”http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Lesson_Plan_template.pdf

students, including those who were performing well, a comprehensive testing program to identify areas of need, and mastery charts to track progress for all English II students. The instructional facilitator meets with English teachers each week to help analyze data and discuss progress. As described previously, tutoring programs have also been put into place and are mandatory for any student who does not score proficient or above on the diagnostic test.

Blackley also spends much of her time observing instruction in classrooms. She collects and ana-lyzes language arts data and serves as a resource manager for teachers who are interested in trying a new instructional strategy. She also teaches her own language arts class. During her teaching peri-od, teachers are invited to observe so they can find ways to improve their own language arts instruction.

Effective instructional strategies. Covington has created several tools to help teachers become more effective with their instruction and to engage all students. A lesson plan template was created to help teachers structure lessons based on best practices. This format includes a “hook,” which captures students’ attention and leads directly into consideration of the essential questions and lesson objectives for the day. It is followed by a “task” or “set-up” which introduces the task and provides scaffolding or background information so students understand how to organize new informa-tion. Finally, the “explore” and “share, discuss, and analyze” sections are aimed at providing students with problem-solving activities, project-based learning, or other engaging instructional techniques. By using this format, students will have familiarized themselves with the skills being taught, applied the new information they have learned, critiqued each other’s and their own work, and answered higher order thinking questions by the end of the lesson. A typical lesson has time for students to engage in large group discussion and work as individuals or in small groups. The teacher then provides a closure activity that informally reviews objectives and asks students to engage in an assessment of their own performance or learning. Many lessons also include assessments, either formal or informal, such as indicating with thumbs up or down whether stu-dents understand information. Teachers also plan for additional activities so that accelerated students have opportunities for enrichment.

Several departments use constructivist—or active—learning techniques to help make instruction mean-ingful and relevant for students. For example, the math team uses problems about savings accounts for practice and the writing team incorporates stu-dents’ experiences into exercises. All departments have tried to set up routines in classrooms so that they can maximize instructional time. As the algebra team reported, “Every successful major college football team has a routine practice schedule, so we try to model that same concept.”

using technology. Covington teachers often infuse technology into their lessons because student mastery of technology is important for their future education and careers. Teachers have also found technology to be an effective tool for engaging stu-dents in the classroom. Using technology “is really important for our teachers. It gives our students an opportunity to see some of the technologies they will experience in the future,” Murdock said. “Teach-ers can also keep up with how their students are doing and create a fun, safe form of competition by letting students communicate.”

Covington recently purchased iPads for English and algebra instructors. Teachers comfortable with technology were charged with finding applications for improving student performance in both subject areas that can be used in conjunction with more traditional instruction. Teachers report that the iPads have increased student interest and motivation in math. The math teachers received additional appli-cation training from faculty members at the Univer-sity of Memphis’s College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Their specialized training intro-duced Covington’s teachers to a number of math development iPad applications. Covington teach-ers also use web-based technology with online programs like Edmodo, which allows teachers to engage, monitor, and motivate students to continue learning outside of school.

http://www.tnscore.org/scoreprize/downloads/2012/Lesson_Plan_Template.pdf


teachers see that students need to believe they can be successful before they take an assessment. “They have so many people telling them that they are not smart,” one teacher said. “They need us as teachers to really build them up.”

The Covington High School data-driven instruction Policy. Covington teachers are provided with a policy that outlines the school’s expectations around how data should be used to guide instruction. For example:

• Every teacher who instructs a class with an End-of-Course exam is required to administer a pretest at the beginning of the school year. This practice enables teachers to review where each student scores relative to their predicted score.

• Each teacher has students take practice tests every four and a half weeks. This allows teachers to check the progress of each student. If mastery of material that was taught is not evident, the teacher is expected to reteach and then administer another practice test to check whether the re-teaching is effective.

• Teachers who teach courses without End-of-Course tests are required to use ACT predictions to guide their instruction. They select an ACT area that best correlates with their content and give students a pretest in that area. Pretests are compared with students’ predictions and teachers use an Excel spreadsheet to track and monitor progress of each student.

• Practice ACT tests are administered every four and a half weeks to check for mastery of integrated standards that have been taught.


Over the last few years, Covington teachers have become very data-savvy and have come to see the value of data analysis for all of their decision making. The school collects and analyzes summative, interim, and formative data and shares the information with families to engage them in the learning of their chil-dren. Critical components that led to effectiveness in this area include the development of the Formative Assessment Practice PLC, the Covington High School Data-Driven Instruction Policy, and the specific steps taken to ensure that all teachers implement and use formative assessments in their daily and weekly practices.

The formative Assessment Practice PlC. The Formative Assessment Practice PLC was created two years ago to help the school identify and address areas in need of improvement. The group has helped set the expectation that every core content area will administer a diagnostic test every four and a half weeks. The group meets monthly to discuss teachers’ understanding of how to create, administer, and inter-pret assessments. During the past year, the group has also been instrumental in helping staff prepare for new online assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The group has also helped teachers learn to create common assessments relat-ed to standards mastery and the ACT content.

In addition, the PLC examines broader indicators of student academic performance, examining test scores in all content areas, attendance, and school climate, in addition to other areas. They recommend ways to better understand student performance and assessment data and place the data in the context of student motivation. Members of the PLC also help


We want to help our students understand what profi-ciency looks like. If they don’t know what it looks like, how can we expect them to accomplish it?”

Teachers also engage in daily assessment activities. Many use exit cards, mid-week quizzes, or informal indicators of learning for classroom assessments. Teachers share assessment information with families on a routine basis. Report cards are issued every nine weeks, but parents can also access progress reports at any time through Parent Connect.

CoNCluSioN

Covington High School is a remarkable example of transformation. Everything about the school has improved in the past four years – its look, school climate, expectations, involvement of the communi-ty, and the rigor of coursework. Under the guidance of Principal Peggy Murdock, the school developed new expectations for supporting every student and teachers were given the support they needed to help students become college and career ready. The changes at Covington have been substantial and rapid, but the results are clear. Covington is a living example that no excuses stand in the way of student success.

• Covington High leaders recommend that each teacher spend at least 20 minutes of instructional time each day preparing their students for the ACT.

The school recommends that all teachers within their PLCs review TVAAS data, scores from report cards, formative and summative assessments, mastery charts, ThinkLink scores, as well as scores from the four and a half-week assessments, nine-week tests, mid-term tests, and final exams.

Performance data are shared among all academic teachers, not just the teachers in the subject areas tested. As one teacher said, “We bring everything back to data.” Teachers in subjects other than English and algebra try to incorporate skills from those con-tent areas into their own subjects to reinforce learning and help students perform better in these two critical performance areas.

formative assessment. The teachers at Covington constantly evaluate students and adjust instruction based on what they see happening in class. This practice is based partly on assessments in English and math designed by Covington teachers and administrators. Teachers in each of the academic departments collaboratively designed these assess-ments, which are aligned to state standards. Assess-ment questions were crafted by looking at a variety of other tests and examining the needs of Covington students.

These assessments begin before the school year be-gins. Teachers conduct diagnostic tests of each child for their progress reports. The benchmark tests are administered every four and a half weeks. The prin-cipal adds, “Our students are accustomed to taking the test. Since the tests are based on the standards, we make sure we bring the standards to the students.

Video: “Using Data in the Classroom” (0:51)http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_high2012.php

http://tnscore.org/scoreprize/lessons-schools_high2012.php


CoMMoNtheMes aCross

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supports, such as instructional coaches, to ensure they understand the new standards and can re-flect increased rigor in their classrooms. Coving-ton’s teachers have focused on preparing for new assessments that will be aligned with the new standards. Additionally, Covington has focused on integrating the ACT’s standards into all of its classes to ensure that all students are prepared for postsecondary education and training.

• Multiple interventions have been put in place to ensure that all students have opportunities for remediation and enrichment. At John Sevier, teachers frequently use data to inform re-teach-ing and recommend students for additional supports inside or outside of the classroom. Rose Park implements a series of daily and weekly interventions, including a daily, one-hour pro-gram during which students have opportunities to receive help from teachers to master material or tackle high school level work. Covington’s students and teachers provide academic tutoring to all students who do not meet expectations on diagnostic and benchmark assessments. In each school, interventions are informed by data and designed to meet individual student needs.


John Sevier Elementary, Rose Park Magnet, and Covington High School all have strong principals who are effective instructional leaders. These lead-ers are visible in classrooms, support teachers in improving instructional effectiveness, and empower others in the building to serve in key leadership roles.

• While principals had several non-negotiables around improving student achievement, each of them gathered feedback from members of their community before making significant changes. At both John Sevier and Covington, principals embarked on a listening tour when they arrived at the school before making drastic changes to build organizational structures and practices to increase effectiveness. They were strategic in their actions but proceeded quickly so that all staff knew that change was expected and supported.

• Leaders hold all faculty and staff accountable for their performance. All three principals have clearly communicated their expectations and goals for their schools. They frequently observe classrooms and provide timely, constructive

Although the three SCORE Prize winners represent the diversity of education in Tennessee, from West to East, urban to rural, they share a commitment to doing what it takes to prepare students to be suc-cessful in college and career. To do this, they have each set high expectations for students and adults; reorganized and shared leadership roles; identified and supported effective teaching; and used data to track progress and set goals. Common themes across the schools are highlighted below.


Each of the 2012 SCORE Prize school-level winners believes that all students can achieve at high levels and exhibit academic growth, no matter what their starting points are. All schools engage students in setting their own academic goals and call on parents, students, teachers, school leaders, and community partners to help students achieve them.

• Administrators and teachers set the expecta-tion that all students can achieve at high levels, regardless of their starting point. The schools have not allowed their commitment to student success to be negatively impacted by poverty, student disabilities, or even students’ initial lack of motivation. Instead, each of the schools devel-oped a culture that fostered academic success. By working together, leaders and faculty often meet defeatism head-on by providing a caring adult to attend to each child, establishing re-spectful, student-centered environments, and promoting achievement by encouraging students to set goals, work hard to achieve their personal best, and willingly receive extra tutoring or other interventions if they fell behind.

• The schools have each found that modeling enthusiasm for learning and fostering a culture of collaboration have contributed to meeting high expectations. For example, Rose Park cre-ates “education families” composed of students and their peers, parents, and teachers who work together to help students achieve academic goals. At all three schools, teachers collaborate both formally and informally to help each oth-er improve instructional planning, delivery, and effectiveness.

• All schools have been proactive in implement-ing higher standards for teaching and learning through the Common Core State Standards. Both John Sevier and Rose Park have provided their teachers with ongoing training and other


ENSuRiNG ExCEllENT TEACHERS

The 2012 SCORE Prize school winners place a high priority on effective teaching. They all have rigorous recruitment and selection criteria for hiring new teachers, support teachers in their development, and set the expectation that instruction must be about students, not adults.

• Each of the SCoRE Prize winners invests heavily in its teachers to help them meet high expec-tations. At Rose Park and Covington, mentors are provided to all new teachers to ensure they are provided with supports to improve their peda-gogy, understand and use data, and create and administer assessments. At John Sevier, many teachers are provided with additional supports in the form of teaching assistants and community volunteers. The schools also use instructional coaches to provide support and have created common lesson plan formats and provided many opportunities for professional development during the school year and the summer.

• The schools engage in aggressive recruitment and selection efforts to hire the best teacher candidates. At John Sevier, for example, pro-spective teachers must go through a multi-stage screening process that includes interviews with the school leaders, a presentation to a hiring committee made up of the school leaders and teachers, and a time for the candidates to ask questions to ensure the school is the right fit for them. Covington focuses on recruiting both tradi-tional and non-traditional teaching candidates to find teachers who believe in all students’ potential for success. Once at the schools, the supports described above are used to ensure that all new teachers learn the culture of the school, expecta-tions for student behavior, and effective ways to interact with parents.

feedback to help teachers and other staff mem-bers improve. They are all visible in the building and are active participants in formulating and implementing improvement strategies.

• All school leaders have stressed the impor-tance of instructional rigor. They have signaled that instruction must include questioning strat-egies that promote higher order thinking, that teachers must instruct on grade level, and that all instruction should be aligned with standards.

• Collaboration is a key component to the princi-pals’ leadership styles. Each has promoted the development and maintenance of professional learning communities so teachers can share ef-fective practices. Additionally, the principals have been active in engaging teachers and others in important decision-making processes. For exam-ple, John Sevier actively includes current teachers in the hiring process of new teachers. At Coving-ton, Principal Murdock analyzed the strengths of each of her assistant principals and reorganized their work to capitalize on these strengths.

• All of the leaders actively engage parents as key partners in the education of their children. All schools conduct significant outreach to par-ents to make sure they are well-informed about their children’s progress. At John Sevier, teachers send home academic folders every week and the school recruits parent volunteers to support teachers and form relationships with students. At Rose Park, an active parent-teacher-student organization helps engage all parents, including immigrant parents who might be less informed about public education in Tennessee. At Coving-ton, parent involvement is supported through a Parent Center as well as an online Parent Portal that enables parents to track student progress on assignments.


• Each SCoRE Prize winner takes steps to help teachers become data-savvy. In all of the schools, teachers are taught how to analyze test scores so that they can easily identify what students have learned, which instructional strategies appear to be most effective in facilitating learning, and what additional remediation students might need.

• John Sevier, Rose Park, and Covington all publicly display data and share it with different stakeholders. These practices are based on the notion that displaying data are key to fostering the kind of collaboration that is needed to help students improve. At Rose Park, the staff mem-bers use a data wall to ensure that all students are improving between benchmark assessments. At John Sevier and Covington, spreadsheets are used to track student mastery and identify areas where insufficient progress has been made. At all schools, data are shared with students and fam-ilies so they know how students are progressing toward their goals.

• All of the schools have strong formative as-sessment practices. All three schools assess students daily or weekly, through exit tickets, quick checks for understanding, or mini-assess-ments. All use interim assessments at least every nine weeks, and analyze the data as soon as they are available so that they can quickly determine needs for re-teaching or intervention.

• All three schools emphasize student-centered instruction. Whether students understand material is more important to these schools than whether teachers simply cover material in their lessons. This represented a shift for many of the schools’ teachers who were initially more ac-customed to examining what they taught rather than what students learned. Student-centered instruction has also required teachers to spend more time developing engaging and challenging material, resulting in lessons that show students the relevance of what they are learning.

• Professional learning communities have been established to build teacher capacity and advance various reform efforts. Specifically, the schools use these groups as a venue for exam-ining data for instructional planning purposes, discussing effective instructional practices, diag-nosing student misconceptions, and identifying students in need of additional interventions.


Each of the SCORE Prize winners has leveraged the power of data to improve student achievement. They have each used data to track student prog-ress, inform what happens in classrooms, and foster collaboration.


In 2012, Tennesseans showed they were up to the chal-lenge of education reform. Over the last several years, Tennessee has become a national leader by enacting bold policies to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and the workforce. This past year, after educators continued the tough work of implementing these new policies in schools and districts, Tennessee’s students made the most aca-demic progress in state history. Not only are proficiency levels increasing in reading, math, and science, more of Tennessee’s students are graduating from high school and enrolling in higher education than ever before.

While much work remains to be done, it is our belief that we must take time to reflect on the successes of reform in order to learn the most from our achieve-ments. John Sevier Elementary in Maryville City Schools, Rose Park Math and Science Magnet in Nash-ville, and Covington High School in Tipton County show us that it is possible to rise to new challenges and dra-matically transform education for students in Tennes-see. While each school’s pathway to the SCORE Prize reflects its unique attributes, they all set high expecta-tions for students, use data to inform instructional prac-tices, and provide all stakeholders – students, teachers, and parents – with the supports they need to meet their goals. We hope their stories inspire you and provide you with additional insight to continue in your work to prepare students for college and the workforce.

CoNCLUsioN


aPPeNDiX:DisCUssioN

GUiDe



HiGH ExPECTATioNS

1. The winners of the 2012 SCORE Prize have all demonstrated a commitment to high standards for their students. For example, John Sevier has fully implemented the Common Core State Standards and has insisted all teachers teach to the level of rigor required by them. Rose Park expects that all of their students will improve at least five points on every assessment. At Covington, there is an emphasis on postsecondary preparation for all students.

a. How are the expectations the SCORE Prize winners set for their students similar or different to the expectations you have of students at your school? How can you raise expectations for your students?

b. Examine where your school stands in the transition to implementing the standards. Do you teach to the Common Core standards in your classroom? What supports do you need to effectively make this transition?

TEACHER RECRuiTMENT ANd SuPPoRT

2. John Sevier has a rigorous, multi-stage hiring process in place to ensure they attract highly effective teachers. Covington ensures that all new teachers receive two mentors who help them deepen their content knowledge and enhance their instructional planning.

a. How does your school ensure you have a highly effective staff?

b. What steps do you take to support effective teaching? What other tools and supports are in place to support teachers in their professional development? How might you enhance the support you provide?

PARENT ENGAGEMENT

3. At Rose Park, all parents are automatically members of the Parent-Teacher-Student Organization (PTSO). John Sevier actively engages parents through weekly academic folders and as volunteers at the school.

a. How does your school engage parents in the learning process? What practices from the SCORE Prize winners seem most feasible for your school to adopt? What new ideas do they inspire?

b. How do teachers in your school make connections with parents of their students? How can teachers improve the ways they communicate with parents?


PERSoNAlizATioN

4. John Sevier has found creative ways to make learning relevant to students with their Classroom Market Days. At Covington, web-based learning platforms like Edmodo help to engage students in classroom lessons.

a. What opportunities or resources are available at your school to make learning engaging and relevant for students? How can your school begin incorporating more learning activities that are engaging for students??

b. How do teachers personalize instruction in their classrooms at your school? What resources or supports do teachers need to increase personalization?


loCAl CoNTExT

5. Covington recognizes that its high poverty rate presents formidable challenges for many students. Principal Peggy Murdock and her team have responded with programs like Project EXCELL, which provides mentoring services to students, many of whom struggle with a difficult life situations. Rose Park takes advantage of its status as a feeder school to academic magnet high schools to bring alumni back to speak about their high school experiences.

a. What are the primary obstacles that stand in the way of student success in your school? In what ways are you addressing them now and how can you improve in this area moving forward?

b. What assets does your school have that could be leveraged to address student needs?

lEAdERSHiP

6. At John Sevier, shared leadership contributes to a shared accountability for the success of the school. Principal Wilson and Assistant Principal Boles are not only strong leaders themselves, but they make a concerted effort to distribute leadership among teachers and other faculty members.

a. How can your school build an environment that holds all members accountable while valuing their contributions to the community?

b. How is leadership shared and distributed in your school? What qualities do the leaders at your school exhibit? How do they compare to the leaders at the SCORE Prize winning schools? What opportunities are available to teachers to serve as a leaders at your school?


PRofESSioNAl lEARNiNG

7. Each of the SCORE Prize winners has provided opportunities for ongoing professional learning through professional learning communities (PLCs). The PLCs in these schools are a forum for analyzing data, sharing best practices and common challenges, and viewing model lessons.

a. How are PLCs structured in your school? What are some ideas (think about what the SCORE Prize winners do during their PLCs) that might enhance the work in which your school is engaged?

b. What types of professional learning opportunities would most benefit your students and teachers’ instructional practices? How might your school identify and provide teachers with transformative learning experiences most suited to their needs?

CollABoRATioN

8. Collaboration is a key component of the work of these schools. At Rose Park, the school works with nearby colleges and universities, as well as businesses and nonprofits to expand learning opportunities for students.

a. What are some ways that the other schools collaborate to enhance student learning? How does your school collaborate with other organizations and schools to support students?

b. In what ways do teachers collaborate with their colleagues? In what ways do current school structures enable or inhibit teacher collaboration?

diffERENTiATioN

9. Rose Park has developed daily and weekly interventions to target students’ individual needs, including one-on-one tutoring sessions with education students and professors from local universities. John Sevier has invested in its Response to Intervention process, and Covington offers mandatory tutoring for students not mastering standards.

a. How does your school differentiate instruction? What kinds of interventions are in place to accommodate students at different places in their learning?

b. How do teachers differentiate instruction in their classrooms? What supports do they need to enhance this work?


STudENT ENGAGEMENT

10. The SCORE Prize winners recognize that when students are engaged, they take ownership over their education, and learning can take place more efficiently and enjoyably. Each school has found its own dynamic ways to engage students.

a. Consider John Sevier, where students set their own goals to achieve their “personal best.” What key components make this practice work at John Sevier? How might your school engage students in setting their own academic goals?

b. At Covington High, Career and Technical Education (CTE) majors participate in coursework that connects them to their career fields of interest, and they complete this work with capstone projects that involve real-world experiences. How could teachers at your school make coursework more meaningful to the students in their classes?

dATA

11. Using data to drive instruction and school-level decision-making is a crucial part of the winning schools’ successes.

a. How does your school share data with teachers? What training is provided to teachers to help them understand and use data?

b. What kinds of data do teachers collect? How do they use data in the classroom? How could you improve your use of data?


ACT – The ACT is a standardized assessment for high school students frequently required for admis-sion into college. The test has sections in English, mathematics, reading, science reasoning, and an optional written essay. Scored on a scale from 1 to 36, the test is intended to be an indicator of college readiness. The subjects align with common college introductory courses. All 11th graders in Tennessee are required to take this exam.

ACT College Readiness Benchmarks – The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are the minimum exam scores determined by ACT, Inc. to signal a student’s preparedness to succeed in first-year, credit-bearing courses at a postsecondary institu-tion. An English score of 18 and a reading score of 21 indicate a student would have a high probabil-ity of success in an English composition or social sciences course. Similarly, a math score of 22 and a science score of 24 illustrate a similarly high poten-tial of success in a college algebra or biology class.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) – Adequate Yearly Progress is a measure established by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that holds schools ac-countable for the performance of their students on standardized tests, including sub-groups such as racial/ethnic minorities and students with disabil-ities. Every state administers its own examinations in reading/language arts and mathematics, and student performance on those examinations deter-mines whether schools are successful at making sufficient progress for a given year. Graduation rates are used in calculating high school AYP, while at-tendance rates are used for middle and elementary schools.

GLossary


College-going rates – The college-going rate is the percentage of high school graduates who enroll in college by the fall semester after high school graduation. The rate includes students who attend college in state or out of state at public four-year college, public two-year college, technical college, and private colleges.

Common Core State Standards – Common Core State Standards are a set of English/language arts and mathematics standards developed by state leaders to ensure that every student graduates high school prepared for college or the workforce, regardless of the state in which they live. Common Core standards are internationally benchmarked, and are designed to promote critical thinking and depth of understanding of course content.

Professional learning communities (PlCs) – Pro-fessional learning communities are groups of educators working collaboratively toward contin-ued personal and school improvement. PLCs bring teachers and administrators together in order to enhance their effectiveness and, therefore, raise student achievement. PLCs often meet regularly and share a learning vision, and members work together to attain new and improved approaches to educating.

Regional Economic development initiative (REdi) – REDI is a regional economic development initiative formed by the Southwest Tennessee Development District that is focused on promoting job creation and improving the quality of life for West Tennesseans. The cornerstone of the REDI initiative is the College Access Program, which aims

to change the educational culture of the region through mentorship programs and scholarship aid to students. Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Lauder-dale, McNairy, and Tipton counties are partners in the initiative.

Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) – The Tennessee Comprehensive Assess-ment Program (TCAP) is a collection of achievement tests designed to evaluate the levels of students’ proficiency in reading/language arts, math, sci-ence, and social studies. Among the assessments are the Achievement Test (grades 3-8), the Writing assessment (grades 5, 8, and 11), the End-of-Course tests (grades 9-12), and college readiness exams (grades 8, 10, and 11). Districts may also choose to administer TCAP assessments in selected subjects to students in grades K-2. There are four proficiency levels on the TCAP: below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced.

Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) – TVAAS is a measure of the effect a district or school has on the academic progress or growth rates of individual students and groups of students from year to year. TVAAS scores are based on multiple measures, including TCAP examina-tions.


2012 sCorePrize seLeCtioN

CoMMittee / sCore teaM

SCoRE TEAM

Jamie Woodson President and CEO

dr. Sharon Roberts Chief Operating Officer

david Mansouri Director, Advocacy and Communications

laura Moore Director, Innovation

Emily Carter Policy and Research Associate

Mary Cypress Howell Statewide Outreach Coordinator

June Keel Business Associate

Molly Sears Executive Assistant and Business Associate

Amber McCullough Special Assistant

Jenna Brashear Graduate Fellow

Thomas Gibney Graduate Fellow

Carlyn Mueller Graduate Fellow

2012 SCoRE PRizE SElECTioN CoMMiTTEE

Mary Graham President, United Ways of Tennessee

dr. Tammy Grissom Executive Director, Tennessee School Boards Association

linda irwin Former Vice President, Niswonger Foundation

dr. Gary Nixon Executive Director, Tennessee State Board of Education

Erin o’Hara Assistant Commissioner, Data and Communications, Tennessee Department of Education

Marc Hill Chief Policy Officer, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

Karen davis Former President, Tennessee Parent-Teachers Association

dr. Richard Rhoda Executive Director, Tennessee Higher Education Commission

dr. June Rivers Former EVAAS Manager, SAS Institute

dr. Judith Rizzo Executive Director and CEO, Hunt Institute

dr. Matthew Springer Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University


Notes

A Pathways to the PrizeLessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners

1207 18th Avenue South, Suite 326Nashville, TN 37212

615.727.1545www.tnscore.org

POWELLC O M PA N I E S

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Data Analysis Sponsor

The 2012 SCORE Prize was made possible by generous support from:

pathway 2012 school

Documents

adequate yearly progress

enacting bold policies

economically disadvantaged students

african american students

student feels nurtured

professional learning communities

lesson plan template

embracing high standards