The Intersection Webinar Recap: FutureEd

Our thanks to Lynn Olson, a Senior Fellow at FutureEd. Lynn’s recent report Scaling Reform: Tennessee’s Statewide Teacher Transformation chronicles how Tennessee made valuable changes to the teaching profession. The report points to important lessons for other states seeking to leverage statewide improvements, including Tennessee’s redesign of its state education agency, its balancing of external expectations and local control, the use of data and experience to make mid-course corrections, putting teachers and teacher leaders at the center of reform, and using networks to build school and school district capacity.

Key Takeaways:

• Consistent Bipartisan Support |  Policymakers have undertaken significant reform efforts over a 16-year period under the leadership of both Democratic and Republican governors with a strong, bipartisan commitment to improving educational outcomes for students across Tennessee.
• Building State Capacity | By encouraging traditional departments to transition beyond compliance to leadership, Tennessee redesigned their education department and created a network of regional resources across the state.
• Facilitating Meaningful Engagement | After struggling to garner teacher support of new policies, the Department of Education prioritized appropriately and effectively engaging teachers in order to determine the best ways to create paths for teacher leadership, thereby increasing district and teacher capacity.

For more on our conversation with Lynn, please check out the full webinar below!

We hope you’ll join us for our next webinar on Wednesday, January 9^th at 1 PM EST for a conversation with our own Hunt Institute President & CEO, Javaid Siddiqi, and Patrick Sims our Director of Policy & Research. Javaid and Patrick will share our latest report  Meaningful Partnerships –Lessons from Two Innovative Principal Preparation Programs. The Webinar will highlight policy considerations and key takeaways from the Northeast Leadership Academy (NELA) in North Carolina and Kansas City Pathway to Leadership in Urban Schools (KC PLUS) in Missouri, including their work to build rigorous, practice-based principal preparation programs utilizing equity-fo­cused school leader development to meet the unique needs of their partner districts.

Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter for details on how to register.

See you at the Intersection,
The Hunt Team