by design | Feb 8, 2015 | Absher, Columnist, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Sally Absher sallyabsher@knoxfocus.com The early February Board of Education meetings last week got off to a rough start. Veteran BOE member Karen Carson was clearly irritated that newcomer Amber Rountree had requested two discussion items on the work session...
by design | Feb 2, 2015 | Absher, Columnist
By Sally Absher It’s THAT time of the year. During the month of February, every child from grade 3 to grade 11 is expected to take the online TCAP Writing Assessment. The test dates are staggered, depending on grade, and school. For Elementary and Middle school...
by design | Feb 2, 2015 | Absher, Columnist
By Sally Absher No Child Left Behind, that is. Tennessee’s senior senator Lamar Alexander is making quite a name for himself these days on the topic of education. Alexander, the new chairman of the Senate’s education committee, released a draft bill last month...
by design | Jan 26, 2015 | Absher, Columnist
By Sally Absher Jack Anderson was born in Los Angeles in 2004. When he was 16 months old he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He was enrolled in an early intervention program in California for five hours/day, five days/week. His mom, Stephanie Anderson,...
by design | Jan 26, 2015 | Absher, Columnist
By Sally Absher sallyabsher@knoxfocus.com On Sunday, January 18, the East TN Autism & Special Needs Support for Families held their inaugural meeting in Knoxville. Facilitator April Roga organized what she thought would be a one to two hour “town hall” for...
by design | Jan 19, 2015 | Absher, Columnist
By Sally Absher Mark Twain popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Judging from the reaction to a couple of recent articles in the Knoxville daily paper about teacher absenteeism, this is still true. The first...
