Author Archives

• Time for TNDOE to Trade in for a Better Model

  By TC Weber on May 23, 2016 • ( 7 )

  

  A number of years ago, I bought a Toyota 4Runner from a friend. Man, I loved that car. To this day I miss it. I’d had it for about 6 months when I realized that it had some issues. I… Read More ›

• Welcome to Nashville Dr. Joseph

  By TC Weber on May 18, 2016 • ( 3 )

  

  It’s been a long and arduous trip, but Nashville finally has a new Director of Schools. The Metro Nashville Public School Board offered the gig to Dr. Shawn Joseph, currently the deputy superintendent from Prince George’s County Public Schools in… Read More ›

• Challenging a Manufactured Perception

  By TC Weber on May 11, 2016 • ( 2 )

  

  Way back in the days of yore, I was a communications major at Penn State University. I didn’t have much interest in production work, but communication theory really appealed to me. Agenda setting and subtle ways that narratives were established really… Read More ›

• Tennessee’s Accountability Problem

  By TC Weber on May 4, 2016 • ( 8 )

  

  Not long after my first child was born, I came to the realization that children were expensive and that I was going to need to find a means to make a little extra income. Luckily, I had worked as a… Read More ›

• Sometimes it takes an outside voice

  By TC Weber on May 3, 2016 • ( 0 )

    Tennessee’s Achievement School District (ASD) is one of the most high profile ‘turnaround’ experiments in the country. Launched with the amazing goal to ‘catapult’ schools with test scores in the bottom 5% of the state into schools with test… Read More ›

• When Everybody Loses

  By TC Weber on April 29, 2016 • ( 2 )

  

  Around my house, you will often hear the refrain, “Daddy, you said you were going to do that. It’s important that you do what you say you will. You always say that.” You see, we’ve instilled in the kids from… Read More ›

• Nashville’s English Learners Instructional Blueprint

  By TC Weber on April 20, 2016 • ( 1 )

  

  I moved to Nashville in August of 1989 from northeast Pennsylvania. As the child of an Air Force father and a resident of the Northeast, I was used to being surrounded by people from many nationalities. The Nashville of 1989… Read More ›

• Burning Down the House

  By TC Weber on April 12, 2016 • ( 5 )

  

  Last month, professional educator and blogger Gary Rubenstein wrote a piece about Teach for America’s 25th anniversary. In this piece, he described a panel where Kevin Huffman, the former Commissioner of Education in Tennessee, was asked about his shortcomings in… Read More ›

• MNPS Takes The Literacy Challenge

  By TC Weber on April 3, 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  It’s been a rough couple months around here as of late. Between testing issues, trying to get a new school built, and a battle over vouchers, it seems like I’ve had nothing but negative things to write.  It’s about time… Read More ›

• Insider: Big Trouble Inside TFA

  By TC Weber on March 21, 2016 • ( 1 )

  Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog:
  I received the following article from a current high-level administrative employee at Teach for America. The organization is undergoing a major shake-up. He wanted us to know what was happening behind the scenes.…