Knoxville Focus for July 7, 2014

Click here to view this week’s Focus. Race to the top Part 3: Teacher Evaluations By Sally Absher sallyabsher@gmail.com Some say it is just bringing transparency and accountability to the teaching profession. Others have called it a war on teachers. One thing is...

Teacher Frozen Out By KCS Central Office?

By Sally Absher When Dr. McIntyre presented his 2020 Strategic Plan to the Board of Education in May, teachers were especially concerned by one of the details listed under Goal 2, Objective 4 – “Centralize recruitment and selection,” because it appears that Central...

Knoxville Focus for July 30, 2014

Click here to view this week’s Focus. Race to the top Part 2: Assessments By Sally Absher sallyabsher@gmail.com When most people think of Race to the Top (RTTT), they think of Common Core. But national, common assessments are perhaps a larger and more insidious...

RACE TO THE TOP. Part 1: Common Core

By Sally Absher sallyabsher@gmail.com Until this year, most people had never heard of “Common Core.” Touted as uniform, higher academic standards in English/Language Arts (ELA) and math across all the states, who could be opposed? Yet Common Core State Standards have...

School Board Passes Budget

By Sally Absher sallyabsher@gmail.com   By Sally Absher sallyabsher@gmail.com The School Board met for their June Work Session and Regular Session meetings last week. It’s too bad that Knox County Schools didn’t get $10 for every time Dr. McIntyre of one of his...