MNPS exists to serve students. It is our vision to provide every child with the foundation of knowledge, skills and character necessary to excel in higher education, work and life. We embrace and value a diverse student population and community. Taking into account our vast diversity, we recognize a need to offer multiple learning opportunities and programs that will reach out to the largest number of students. Some of the most successful and significant programs offered are:

2011-12 MNPS Programs

A+ Credit Recovery program – helps high school students recover lost credits and stay on track to graduate

• AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) – prepares students for college through rigorous curriculum and the teaching of study skills and accountability
• Cohn adult high school is offered for individuals 22+ who have dropped out of high school and wish to earn a regular diploma
• Career and technical education
• The Academies of Nashville – smaller, more personalized learning communities that prepare high school students for college and career
• The Department of Exceptional Education – numerous academic, behavioral, emotional and social programs and services for academically gifted students and those with special learning needs
• Dual high school and college enrollment through partnerships with Volunteer State Community College and Nashville State Community College
• Foreign languages – elementary Mandarin Chinese and Spanish programs, as well as offerings in French, German, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish for middle and high school students
• Encore – an enrichment program for gifted and talented students offered to grades Pre-K-6
• Hands-On-Science for middle school students
• Honors and Advanced Placement courses – middle and high school level
• InternationalBaccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme – an academically challenging and world recognized degree program for high school students
• International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme – a version of IB intended for younger grades
• Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee Partnership
• Leadership Classes
• Magnet Schools, Design Centers and Enhanced Option Schools designed to meet a variety of student interests
• Middle College High – students complete a high school degree while studying on a college campus and earning college credit
• Nashville Big Picture High School – a rigorous, highly-personalized curriculum that combines Chinese, Russian, and Spanish for middle and high school students academic work with real-world experiences and project-based learning
• Nashville Diploma Plus High School – a school that targets over-aged, under-credited students who are at risk of dropping out.
• Performing arts and related arts courses are offered at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, including band, choral, dance, guitar, orchestra, theatre, and more.
• The Academy at Old Cockrill and Hickory Hollow – high school programs designed for students who are between the ages of 17-21 and have personal difficulties such as full-time work, parenting, or other family responsibilities that prevent them from excelling in a traditional high school setting. These schools offer morning, afternoon, and evening classes.
• The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt – a unique partnership with Vanderbilt University Medical Center that allows students research-based learning with some of the world’s top doctor’s and researchers.
• Transition School – a school for students transitioning out of incarceration into a traditional high school.
• Virtual High School – an online high school for students.

Click here to visit us online.

The program is part of Lumina Foundation’s $7.2 million national initiative to strengthen ventures in key metropolitan areas that show promise in improving the postsecondary attainment of Latino students. Latinos are the fastest-growing student population in the U.S. and in North Carolina.

“These types of partnerships are vitally important to helping the United States remain economically competitive,” says Juan Sepúlveda, director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. “Over the last decade, we’ve gone from having the highest proportion of college-educated workers to now being ranked 10^th. Reaching world-class levels of college attainment will require us to find ways to assure that dramatically more students have the opportunity to succeed in higher education.”

Lumina Foundation seeks to do just that through a national Goal 2025 movement that aims to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025.At more than 50 million, Latinos represent the largest and fastest-growing population group in the United States. By 2025, half of the nation’s workers will be of Latino descent. At that time, 63 percent of all jobs in the United States will require some form of postsecondary education or training, according to labor economist Anthony Carnevale of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

“For North Carolina to thrive, all students must have a pathway to success,” said Leslie Winner, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. “As our Latino population grows, it is imperative to build a realistic pathway for Latino students to higher education. This is an opportunity for North Carolina educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and funders to build that pathway.”

“Currently, Latinos make up about 13 percent of our high schoolers, but only three percent of our college students,” said Andrew Behnke, an assistant professor at NC State. “This project is an important opportunity for high schools, communities, and higher education institutions to work together to close that gap.”

The Triangle for Latino Student Success Project will use several strategies to increase educational attainment of Latino students in the program’s targeted region, which is made up of Wake, Durham, and Johnston counties:

• Develop a coordinated system to provide year-round after-school college preparation and leadership development for high school students and their families
• Provide one-on-one mentorship and support for college students
• Provide professional training for educators to provide school administrators and teachers with better knowledge of the Hispanic student population and the factors that interfere with their educational performance
• Create a regional system for measuring and monitoring Latino student success, including specific numerical goals for increasing high school graduation rates, college entry rates, and college completion rates for Latino students
• Advocate for state, local, and institutional policies that promote Latino student success

These coordinated programs will provide direct services to more than 2,000 students and families.  “I can’t describe how vital these services will be for the Latino students and families we see every day,” said Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, president and CEO of El Centro Hispano. “So many Latino young people have the dream of one day going to college. This project will help us give them the support they need to make that dream a reality.”

Melinda Wiggins, executive director of Student Action with Farmworkers, the coordinating partner of the Adelante Coalition, said that the Coalition has been working for more than eight years to increase access to higher education for Latino students across North Carolina. “It’s great to have national partners like Lumina Foundation and Hispanics in Philanthropy,” she said, “to help give us the resources, training, and tools to work more deeply in a concentrated area to show real impact.”

Hispanics in Philanthropy has several offices across the U.S. and nearly a decade-long history of working in North Carolina. “Our work in North Carolina is one of our great success stories,” said Diana Campoamor, president of the transnational network of donors. “In collaboration with local funding partners, we’ve made more than $4 million in grants to help strengthen the capacity of 55 Latino-serving nonprofits in the state. This project is a natural next step for our work in North Carolina, where we feel we can make a real difference in the area of education—one of the top priorities for Latino communities and for many funders, both locally and nationally.”

Lumina Foundation views its efforts to strengthen Latino educational success as integral to its broader goal of increasing the number of Americans with an advanced degree. “Latinos are emblematic of today’s 21^st century student,” said Lumina President and CEO Jamie Merisotis. “They are largely first-generation college students — many of whom are working adults, with family responsibilities who oftentimes begin their postsecondary education in community colleges. Increasing the access and degree attainment rates of Latinos is critical, and our hope is that Latino Student Success will provide catalytic support that can have a positive impact on making all 21^st century students more successful.”

Lumina Foundation’s multi-million dollar initiative is providing support to eleven similar partnerships in nine states, all of them bringing together educational institutions, community leaders, businesses, and policymakers to develop cross-cutting, coordinated efforts to increase Latino student success. The array of services supported by the initiative include training in financial literacy, help with K12-to-college transfer and transition issues, and improved developmental courses designed to move students more efficiently toward credit-bearing courses.

The other regions receiving funding from Lumina’s initiative are Phoenix, Arizona; Long Beach, California; Santa Ana, California; Miami, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; Kentucky; Albuquerque, New Mexico; New York, New York; Memphis, Tennessee; San Antonio, Texas; and Southwest Texas.

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About Adelante Education Coalition: Adelante was formed in 2003 to expand educational access for Latino and migrant youth. The Coalition includes twelve core members and eight advisory members, encompassing a diverse range of Latino community-based organizations, university programs, K-12 programs, a professional society, and policy organizations. Collectively, the members of Adelante provide direct educational services to approximately 4,700 Latino students every year. For more information, visit www.adelantenc.org.

About Hispanics in Philanthropy: HIP is a transnational network of more than 600 grantmakers, donors, and philanthropic leaders. Through the Funders’ Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities, HIP brings together local and national funders to provide capacity-building grants that develop leadership in the Latino community and enable organizations to better serve their communities by becoming more efficient, strategic, and sustainable. Since 2000 the Collaborative has raised more than $40 million and provided grants to more than 500 Latino nonprofits in 19 sites, including North Carolina.  Since 2002, HIP and its funding partners in North Carolina have invested more than $4.1 million to support 55 Latino-serving nonprofit organizations in the state. For more information, visit www.hiponline.org.

About Lumina Foundation: Lumina Foundation, an Indianapolis-based private foundation, is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college—especially 21^st century students: low-income students, students of color, first-generation students and adult learners. Lumina’s goal is to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Lumina pursues Goal 2025 in three ways: by identifying and supporting effective practice, through public policy advocacy, and by using our communications and convening power to build public will for change. For more information, log on to www.luminafoundation.org.

Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter joined Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) at the University of Maryland Baltimore to announce new efforts from the Department of Education to help public servants—including veterans, nurses, and teachers—take advantage of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the balance of a borrower’s federal student loan debt after they have served full time in a public service role for at least 10 years, while making on-time qualifying loan payments each month.

The new materials from ED include an employment certification form that allows borrowers to keep track of eligible employment and payments. This form will help those borrowers who have made a service commitment to this country while honoring their responsibility to repay their federal student loans and allow them to more easily receive loan forgiveness when they are able. In addition, these new materials will allow borrowers to find out now if their job and loan payments will qualify them for loan forgiveness in the future as well as how many payments they have left to make – information that is not currently available.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness was established through the bipartisan College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, and applies to careers such as active-duty military officers and veterans, public school teachers, law enforcement officials, firefighters, and many nonprofit employees. Borrowers must make 120 monthly payments on their eligible federal student loans after Oct. 1, 2007, before they qualify for the loan forgiveness.

More details about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, including a detailed Q&A and copy of the form, can be found at: www.studentaid.ed.gov/publicservice.

For more information now, visit http://www.keefetech.org/.

“Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.”

– President Barack Obama, January 24, 2012, “State of the Union”

Tuesday night President Barack Obama said what many teachers in America have been yearning to hear from their president: teachers matter, we change lives, and we do this hard work to make a difference in the lives of students.

He also acknowledged what every good teacher knows: that an accountability system that puts too much emphasis on test scores undermines a well-rounded education. But implicit in his speech was a challenge to America and to teachers to rebuild and strengthen the profession – a challenge that teachers are more than eager to accept.

As 2011 U.S. Department of Education Teaching Ambassador Fellows, we have heard from many teachers that the field has lost its luster. In our role as Teaching Ambassadors, we have talked with teachers in many groups, and we have heard real despondency over the constraints of NCLB that have caused schools to focus on testing and teacher evaluation in ways that are oppressive and rob our profession of much of the joy of teaching and learning.

We’ve listened to countless stories about a law that has raised standards without providing support for schools to meet them. And we have cringed when some of our most effective colleagues acknowledged that they can no longer afford to stay in a difficult profession that asks so much of them but barely affords a middleclass lifestyle. “We didn’t get into teaching to be millionaires,” they say, “but we have to be able to feed our families.”

What we like about the President’s speech is not that he acknowledges our grievances though, admittedly, it feels good to be heard. What appeals to us is that the President understands that as a country we must do much more than simply tweak a structure that is not working. Educators want to lead the transformation and rebuilding of teaching so that our work improves students’ lives and restores pride in our profession.

Teachers welcome this transformation. Neither students nor teachers are served by a structure that treats some teachers like interchangeable cogs in a machine. We long to lead our own profession because when we drive our craft, we will see huge shifts in the responsibility, leadership, pay and respect. As NEA President Dennis Van Roekel describes in the NEA’s December 8, 2011 Action Agenda to Strengthen Teaching, “The true essence” of our work “is putting teachers in charge of the quality of their profession.”

What would teachers do if they ran the schools? We would raise the bar for membership in our profession, recruiting the best candidates and insisting that teacher preparation programs become more rigorous and relevant. About 62 percent of all new teachers—almost two-thirds—report they felt unprepared for the realities of their classroom. As Secretary Duncan has said, “Imagine what our country would do if 62 percent of our doctors felt unprepared to practice medicine—you would have a revolution in our medical schools.”

A transformed profession would give teachers much more responsibility and flexibility to make decisions that meet their students’ educational needs–allowing access to and training with technology, shifting class sizes, and restructuring the school day so that they have time to collaborate with colleagues and engage in professional learning and problem-solving.

We would offer teachers a professional salary and career pathways that acknowledge their skill and commitment in one of the most complex, demanding, and important jobs in the world. We would insist on great school leaders, with principals who have high expectations, develop all teachers as lifelong learners, and create positive school cultures where students and teachers succeed.

As the President acknowledged, teachers are creative and passionate. But like workers in many other professions, we expect to be held accountable for results. We yearn to help create fair and thorough teacher evaluation systems and have access to data to make informed decisions about what is working and what isn’t, to direct our professional learning, and to help decide who stays in our profession. President Obama was right when he said, “That is a bargain worth making.”

Now more than ever, teachers long to lead their profession so that we finally resolve the important educational challenges in this country. A quarter of our children fail to finish high school on time and barely four in ten earn any type of post-secondary degree. For children of color, outcomes are even worse. When we see the statistics–that 7,000 students drop out of school every day–we feel pain for those teens and shame and guilt that we were not able to prevent this tragedy.

On top of that, school districts are getting ready to slam into an awful reality, that before the end of the decade, more than a million Baby Boomer teachers—fully a third of America’s teachers–will retire or leave the teaching profession. To recruit and retain the best teachers, we need to offer rewarding jobs and competitive salaries.

We were especially pleased to read in the Blueprint for an America Built to Last, released yesterday with the speech transcript, that the President plans to ask Congress for funding that will “challenge states and districts to work with their teachers and unions to reform the entire teaching profession – from training and licensing to compensation, career ladders and tenure.”

Educators want to take on this work. As highly skilled specialists, we are not afraid of owning our profession. We are not afraid of being held accountable for results when we are given the responsibility and flexibility to craft our profession. We are confident that the President understands what it will take to transform teaching to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, and we are eager to join with our colleagues across the country in moving the profession forward.

Back in the days when I had no idea of what was actually required to be a good teacher, back when I was in grad school studying education theory and making foolish assumptions about how to manage students, I walked in on a conversation in a teacher’s lounge that would change my life.

I had recently fled—yes I said fled—an elementary school on the West Side of Chicago. My year of student teaching had begun with the principal telling her staff that she hired us because we were physically attractive and that she loved the “green stuff” (gesturing money with her fingertips) and thus would have no problem firing any of us to save her job. She frequently used the P.A. system to spread her tyranny. Once she announced basketball try-outs and bluntly added that students who weren’t skilled at the game should not show up. “I like to win,” she said.

I shared a class with a mentor teacher who passed out worksheets all day and once responded to an insult from a student by saying, “You’re talking about yo’ mama.” Some days I felt more like a bouncer than a resident teacher because I had to break up fights in the hallways and shout at the top of my lungs to get students’ attention in class. I knew that if I were to gain any positive teaching tools, I’d have to go to another school. So after six months, I fled. The split was so messy that I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye to my students. I ended up finishing my training at a progressive public school on a different side of the city.

That’s when I stumbled in on that life-changing conversation in the teacher’s lounge. The chatter was animated. A few teachers were reminiscing about their classroom horror stories at other schools: John dashed out of the classroom … Sarah threatened to jump out the window, again … Angel knocked over bookshelves in a fit of rage …. And in my desire to fit in and one-up the last tale, I began to share about the unbelievable dysfunction at my old school. Even though I hadn’t yet earned my teaching certificate, I felt like I had earned some stripes. I was persevering to educate the youth despite the insanity within the urban public school system. I was the heroine of the story, fearless and unafraid.

“It happened to them,” were the four words that shut me and the other teachers up. “It happened to them, not to you. You tell the stories like it’s some kind of entertainment, but it happened to them—the kids. They are the ones who 30 years from now will remember these stories with tears in their eyes.”

It was the middle school social studies teacher. He was a demur white man in his late 30s who often wore cardigans like Mr. Rogers. Until then he had kept silent, even as each story gave rise to a higher level of ridiculousness. He went on to explain that he, too, used to complain and feel like the victim until another teacher rebuked him with those words. He felt compelled to pass that wisdom on.

It happened to them: This truth has haunted me for the past eight years I’ve been teaching. I am only glad that I got set straight early in my teaching career. Some teachers never seem to get it. You know this when their debates about education reform are centered around teacher rights, and not student rights. Teachers’ needs are important—I have a mortgage; I have a family; I would like to retire one day—but they are not the core issue. The mission is bigger than us. Educators and policymakers must boil the chatter down to two essential questions: To what degree will this policy enhance student learning and how will we know?

My children attend the school where I teach so I am all the more aware that “it”—whatever “it” is in a school, good or bad—is happening to them. I have to continually raise my expectations for myself, as a practitioner and as a parent. I must think deeply about what I believe, and then advocate for it. I can no longer rely on the teachers’ union (if I were still in one) to represent my views and values about education. I must be like that social studies teacher who took a risk and spoke up for what was right. That is the only way anyone has ever changed the world. And that’s why I am “Charting My Own Course.”

Back in the days when I had no idea of what was actually required to be a good teacher, back when I was in grad school studying education theory and making foolish assumptions about how to manage students, I walked in on a conversation in a teacher’s lounge that would change my [...] Read more.

Applications for the U.S. Department of Education’s fifth cohort of Teaching Ambassador Fellows opened on January 21^st and are scheduled to close on February 22^nd, 2012. Since 2008, this highly competitive program has enabled a total of sixty-nine outstanding teachers, each with a record of leadership, strong communication skills, and insights into educational policy based in classroom expertise to work with the Department on a full or part time basis.  For more information about the application process, you can visit our program page at www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship or go directly to the applications for the  Washington, Classroom, and/or Regional Fellowship onwww.usajobs.gov.

The Teaching Ambassador Fellowship was created because we believe that teachers should have meaningful opportunities to both contribute to and understand the policies that impact their students and school communities. Also when families, students, and teachers want information about education, it is most often to teachers that they turn.

The Teaching Ambassador Fellowship program offers three separate year-long paid positions: the Washington Fellowship is a full-time appointment based at the Department’s Headquarters in Washington. The Classroom Fellowship enables teachers to participate on a part-time basis for the Department, in addition to their regular school responsibilities, working in collaboration with the Department’s Regional Offices. For the 2012-2013 year, the Department has proposed a third track, the Regional Fellowship, which is a full-time appointment based at one of the Department’s Regional Communications Offices  – Atlanta, GA; Seattle, WA; and either Boston, MA, New York City or Philadelphia, PA.

All Teaching Ambassador Fellows spend one year learning about key federal programs and policies; sharing their expertise with federal staff members; and providing outreach and communication about federal initiatives to other educators on behalf of the Department in order to help teachers understand and implement these efforts at the federal, state and local levels, to improve the likelihood of their success.  For the Fellows, the program adds greater knowledge of educational policy and leadership to their toolkits to contribute to solutions at all levels for long intractable challenges in education.

Teacher leaders — please consider applying and share this information with your colleagues!  Call 1-800-USALearn or email us at TeacherFellowship@ed.gov with questions.

Preparing Inclusive Educators

Special education is a career that is in high demand. Across the country special educators top the list of teacher shortages. This is a career that offers:  flexibility, a good salary, and great benefits. There is particular need for men and those who are culturally and/or linguistically diverse in the field. The changing demographics in Virginia and nationally, demand that educators are prepared to work with students and families who are culturally and linguistically diverse. These demographics are expected to change even more in the next several decades. Increasingly, Virginia special educators do not reflect the diversity of their students.  In Virginia, 14% of special educators are racially or linguistically diverse compared to 34% of special education students.

“Every child living in America deserves to be taught by a highly effective teacher.  In addition, to being highly effective, teachers who reflect the diversity of their students have an added benefit in that they frequently understand the cultural experiences of those they teach.  That understanding can lead to higher expectations for students, increased graduation rates, and greater college opportunities.”  ( Aguerrebere p. 21)

The College of W&M and the School of Education recognize the importance of addressing cultural and linguistic diversity. W&M education students are exposed to campus-wide diversity initiatives. Attention and sensitivity to cultural and linguistic diversity is woven through coursework, assignments, and class projects. Students interact with and learn from speakers from diverse backgrounds and have student teaching opportunities and clinical experiences in a variety of settings, both rural and urban; allowing students to master culturally responsive instructional strategies before being assigned their own classrooms.

Students with disabilities vary greatly in their needs. Students may have learning, academic, cognitive, physical, emotional, behavioral, health care, or multiple needs. Special educators work collaboratively with general educators, related services providers (e.g. speech/language, physical/occupational therapy), and families to ensure students receive an appropriate education.

W&M offers a rigorous 14 month program that leads to K-12 licensure in special education. There is also a 5 year program allowing undergraduate students to begin taking Master’s level classes their senior year. Upon completion of their undergraduate degree in arts, science or education, they are elevated to the Master’s level, completing the Master’s program in one year. Additionally W&M has the Collaborative Master Educator Program. This flexible graduate program has been designed for currently licensed teachers who want to continue working while pursuing a Master’s degree on a part-time basis. This program allows individuals to tailor the program to their education interest areas with up to 9 electives hours, preparing graduates to be highly effective collaborative educators.

For more information: http://education.wm.edu/ or http://bit.ly/facebook-pie or llownby@wm.edu.

How can the nation produce the educators that are highly effective to fill the classrooms that host the future aspirations of the children with the least opportunity, the most diversity and the greatest potential to join the children with greatest opportunity, the most educational experiences and [...] Read article.