TEI is a district-wide commitment to dramatically improve student growth and achievement by ensuring that a well-prepared, highly effective professional stands in front of every classroom in Memphis.
Victoria Van Cleef is the Vice President, Talent Management for TNTP.
Jessica Johnson for the Teacher Effectiveness Initiative spoke with Van Cleef on February 9, 2012. Van Cleef emphasizes the power of being honest with teachers about their performance relative to high standards in order to increase their effectiveness.
Mandy Grisham is the parent of a student at Peabody Elementary and the 2011 Tennessee delegate to Mom Congress. She has taught music in Memphis City Schools and the San Lorenzo (CA) Unified School District.
Since moving to Memphis six years ago, she has been active as a bridge between Peabody and the Cooper-Young neighborhood it serves, and now as a champion of community engagement with schools throughout the city. She believes in the power of partnership between parents and teachers, between neighborhoods and schools, and between citizens and school districts, and she asserts that parents should advocate for smart education policies and practices to ensure that all schools meet the needs of children.
Jessica Johnson for the Memphis City Schools Teacher Effectiveness Initiative spoke with her on February 3, 2012.
A chance to voice your opinion about the lessons plans:
News, video, and links from TEI.
I am a strong proponent of measuring teachers’ effectiveness, and my foundation works with many schools to help make sure that such evaluations improve the overall quality of teaching. But publicly ranking teachers by name will not help them get better at their jobs or improve student learning.
Manassas is among a handful of schools in Memphis that have successfully piloted reforms based on the no-excuses ideas that have also driven the charter-school movement. Administrators expect the success to spread this year, following a full slate of changes, including a new intensive teacher-evaluation system with multiple classroom observations per year that was rolled out in the fall. Indispensable to the project has been a $90 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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