This week I was given the opportunity to teach a class of freshmen at Stratford High School as part of Teach For America’s Teaching As Leadership Week. TFA invited several community leaders to visit one of their corps member’s classes and teach a full lesson about leadership. Because of the Chamber’s extensive support of Metro’s high school redesign, the Academies of Nashville, I was excited about being placed in Mr. Ammen’s freshman English class. Thinking back both to my own experience as a teenager and as a father of teenagers, I was expecting a challenge. But the challenge wasn’t the students—it was with me, their teacher. It was my job to keep them engaged for a full hour. Most of the time they all were, but there were moments when I knew I was losing them and I needed to change tack. It gave me renewed appreciation for teachers that engage students successfully all day long!

I talked a bit about my own school experience graduating from Antioch High School and why I chose to attend Vanderbilt University. We talked about the importance of earning college credit in high school through Advanced Placement (AP) or dual enrollment. I told them those six "free" hours I had earned in high school through AP came in handy when I failed an early-morning statistics course in college and had to re-take the class. I also shared why history was my favorite subject, and I had discovered that because of a great teacher. They were especially impressed with the size of my bound master’s thesis, and we talked about how long it took me to finish it and how life sometimes presents obstacles you must overcome.

I tied my schooling interest to the topic of the lesson—leadership—by reading several passages from President Jimmy Carter’s memoir, Keeping Faith. Carter begins the book by describing his last day in office after having lost his re-election campaign, in which he worked through the night trying to free the 52 Americans being held hostage in Iran for 444 days before President-elect Reagan was sworn in at noon on January 20, 1981. I used the example to illustrate that leadership is not just about enjoying power or making all the decisions. It’s also about responsibility, personal sacrifice and sometimes doing things you may not want to do. I also read a passage from Carter’s very first day in office, when he and his family chose to leave the armored car in the presidential motorcade and walk the mile between his swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol and his office in the White House, as an example of how leaders use symbolism to communicate to their followers.

I then shared a personal leadership story from when I served as co-chair of Metro School’s High School Transformational Leadership Group (2009-2010). The school board had adopted the mission statement that the district “will provide every student with the foundation of knowledge, skills and character necessary to excel in higher education, work and life.” The task given to the group was to identify measurements that would indicate whether Metro Schools had delivered on that promise to every graduate. I shared the extensive work that involved a year of committee consensus building and numerous visits to high schools where we talked to both groups of teachers and students, gathering feedback and advice. The Teach for America instructor, Mr. Ammen, finished the lesson by having the students critique the district’s mission statement and explain why it was important for Stratford graduates to achieve the five measurements my committee had ultimately developed:

• a plan for postsecondary education and career
• at least a 21 composite score on the ACT
• a work-based or service learning experience, or a capstone research project
• at least one course completed online
• college credit, a nationally recognized professional certification, or both

Last weekend, I was in San Diego with a team from Metro Schools at the National School Boards Association's annual conference. The four-day gathering draws more than 5,000 school board members and administrators from across the country. MNPS Chief Academic Officer Jay Steele, Board members Cheryl Mayes and Anna Shepherd and I led a presentation of the Academies of Nashville model of high school transformation. We got some great questions, such as how students attend the academy of their choice (they can attend a school outside their attendance zone if there is capacity, but no transportation is provided), and how the academies interact with the International Baccalaureate program (there is a stand-alone IB academy at Hillsboro and the district is expanding opportunities for students from other academies to take IB courses at both Hillsboro and Hunters Lane). I got a chance to visit afterwards with board members from Baton Rouge, La., and Springfield, Mo.

I also attended an excellent session on implementing Common Core state standards in rural school districts. The panel featured Tennessee educators from Polk and Monroe Counties and Lee University. The discussion was moderated by Laura Moore from Tennessee SCORE. Jared Bigham, principal of Copper Basin High School, noted that career and technical education teachers have generally been the first educators to embrace Common Core, because they are used to problem solving, applied learning, and project-based learning. He also opined that Finland is at the top of international rankings in education not because of their school model, but because they draw their teachers from their top university graduates. Several participants in the audience stressed the need for teacher preparation programs to become more selective and train their graduates in how to provide effective instruction within the Common Core curriculum.

Over the past year in Nashville, the Metro School Board and the Tennessee Department of Education have been at an impasse over a charter application that was denied by the local school board and then appealed to the State Board of Education. The state board overturned Metro’s decision and sent it back to the local school board for approval. But the Metro School Board refused to follow the state directive, and MNPS was hit with a $3.4 million fine from the Commissioner of Education. What has become abundantly clear throughout the controversy is that the state law governing the charter school appeals process needs to be fixed.

Currently, local school boards serve as the primary authorizers of charter schools. In addition, the state’s Achievement School District can authorize charter schools to serve students attending the bottom 5 percent performing schools in the state. While some charter supporters have advocated for the creation of a new state authorizer, in which an applicant could bypass a local school board and operate independently of a district, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce supports a state authorizer solely in the case of successful appeals. Today, the House Education Committee approved an amendment on HB 702/SB 830 setting up a new state panel that would only hear charter appeals after they have been denied by local school boards. If the state panel approves the appeal, then the applicant receives its charter from the state, instead of the decision being sent back to the local school board to implement. Here’s why the Nashville Chamber supports this new legislative approach:

• It provides finality and clarity to the charter appeals process. No more impasses, fines and threats of lawsuits.
• It sharpens accountability for every participant in the chartering process. Local school boards must be deliberate and thorough in their review of applications, knowing a denied applicant could end being chartered by the state. When the state overturns a local charter decision, the state panel will be responsible for monitoring that charter school’s performance. No longer will a state appeal be sent back to a local school board that didn’t agree with the decision in the first place.
• This new appeals process will be applied uniformly across the state. An earlier version of the bill would have allowed charter applicants in Nashville and Shelby County to bypass their local school board completely, while the 93 other Tennessee counties would have been operating under the dysfunctional, current appeals process.

We would like to thank Speaker Beth Harwell for her leadership in helping to craft a charter school appeals process that makes sense, is fair to applicants and districts, and is consistent across the state.



Speaker Beth Harwell is greeted by student ambassador Simone Cawl at the Academies of Nashville VIP Tour at Overton High School, March 4, 2013.

America’s Promise Alliance, a national nonprofit founded by General Colin Powell, is holding a series of “Business-Education Collaborative Summits” across the country. The purpose of these gatherings is for business leaders to share best practices of how to be engaged with K-12 education in a way that produces academic results. I was asked to serve on the opening panel of the regional summit in Boston to share how the Nashville Chamber partners with Metro Schools.

One of the interesting questions that came up that evening was how to make sure these efforts have the right staffing to be successful. I had made the point that a local or state chamber needs to have at least one full-time staffer devoted to the K-12 space. You won’t be successful if the chamber staffer also has responsibility for education, workforce and whatever else the organization needs done. Furthermore, you can’t run an impactful education strategy solely on the backs of volunteers. One of the participants asked if that meant volunteers weren’t important. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chamber members play an essential role at key moments, such as presenting the results of our annual report card, attending a legislative committee meeting, or serving on one of our Academies of Nashville partnership councils. By getting directly engaged in the work, these volunteers enhance the strength and impact of the Chamber. But we have to remember that volunteers have a day job, and that’s running their businesses. It takes full-time, paid staff to work on these issues every day, and the annual investment of our members helps make that possible.

The Boston summit included a visit to the Match Education School, a charter high school that later expanded into the middle and elementary grades on separate campuses. The Match School’s model features an expectation that all students will attend college and provides extended learning, as well as structured tutoring for every student. One of the unique features of the Match School is that the tutoring is provided by novice or aspiring teachers who are full-time participants in the Match Teacher Residency. Most participants in the residency actually live in a dormitory inside the school, working long hours for a modest stipend, with the expectation that they will go on to become full-time faculty at Match or other schools once their residency is completed.

The next Business-Education Collaborative Summit is in Denver December 3-4, with the last summit taking place in Los Angeles in early 2013. You can register for the summits at the America’s Promise website.


Business-Education Collaborative Summit panel, L-R: Rick Hess, American Enterprise Institute; Linda Noonan, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education; Marc Hill, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce; Vernay Simmons, Prudential Investment Management; Dana Egreczky, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.


Marc Hill and Mike Larsson, Chief Operating Officer of Match Education

Charter schools are a hot topic, and the Nashville Chamber recently uploaded a series of brief videos featuring some of the most innovative and successful charter operators in the country. There are currently 15 charter schools in operation in Nashville serving more than 3,000 students, with four additional charter schools scheduled to open over the next couple of years. Much of the current public debate centers on how many charter schools Nashville should have, and what kind of schools should be allowed to open. Over the past year, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce partnered with Lipscomb University’s College of Education to host two public forums to help Nashvillians understand the charter model, what school districts can learn from it, and what kind of charter schools we can expect to see in our city’s immediate future.

The December 2011 event featured Alan Coverstone, who oversees Metro Schools’ Innovation School Zone, as well as the district’s charter school portfolio. You can view excerpts from Coverstone’s remarks, as well as the highlights from an all-star charter panel (Derwin Sisnett of Power Center Academy; Kristin McGraner of STEM Prep in Nashville; and Chris Barbic of Tennessee’s Achievement School District).

Tennessee’s Achievement School District was created by statute in 2010 to turn around the state’s lowest-performing public schools, and has initiated agreements with a number of charter operators to open up new schools in our state. One of these operators is Rocketship Education, a K-5 charter network based in Silicon Valley. Rocketship founder John Danner’s keynote speech at our event outlined the unique model he plans to bring to Tennessee within the next few years.

In May, the Nashville Chamber and Lipscomb followed up with a second event featuring Todd Dickson, a new senior fellow at the Tennessee Charter School Incubator. Dickson is the founder of Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, and plans to open charter schools in Nashville over the next several years. The program also highlights Lipscomb’s efforts to bring together teachers from charter schools and the district to share best practices, a key initiative outlined in Nashville’s charter compact. You can watch the highlight clip of the May session below, or click here to view the full program, which also is currently airing on IQTV (Comcast Channel 10 in Davidson County).

Educators and policymakers from across the country are visiting Nashville to see how we are transforming the traditional high school experience. They are drawn by the extensive involvement of the business community in supporting the Academies of Nashville, with more than 170 academy partnerships across the district. They are also drawn by the results to date—the number of students proficient in high school math has increased dramatically, and the dropout rate has been cut in half, to only 2.3 percent.

The district rolls out the red carpet for our visitors so they can see the Academies of Nashville model firsthand, and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce decided to do the same for community leaders in our own city. Last year, more than 250 Nashville elected officials, faith community leaders, business executives and PTO presidents attended one of six Academy VIP Tours at McGavock, Antioch, Stratford, Whites Creek, Hillsboro and Glencliff. Since there are 12 zoned high schools implementing academies in Metro Schools, this year’s tours will feature Hillwood (September), Cane Ridge and Pearl-Cohn (November), Maplewood (December), Overton (March), and Hunters Lane (April).

To view a brief video highlighting last year’s VIP tours, see below. To attend one of this year’s Academy VIP Tours, contact Rita McDonald at 743-3152 or rmcdonald@nashvillechamber.com.

The Academies of Nashville Awards, sponsored by Altria and Deloitte, are intended to celebrate the success and excellence in Metro Schools’ reform efforts for each of its 12 zoned high schools. A nominating committee composed of leaders from the school district, Chamber, and PENCIL Foundation developed the list of nominees after receiving more than 240 recommendations of high school faculty and staff from across the district. With so many partnerships and educators worthy of recognition, the committee decided that last year’s winners would not be considered for nomination in 2012.

On Tuesday, March 12, all nominees will be listed on an online ballot with a description of their accomplishments. The more than 600 members of “The Academy” will then have 10 days to go online and vote in all the awards categories through a secret ballot managed by Deloitte. High school principals, academy coaches, and teacher team leaders will all have an opportunity to vote, as will academy business partners and partnership council members. The winners in each of the awards categories will be announced at an invitation-only event on Monday, May 14. In addition, one student in each of the 12 high schools implementing academies will receive an “academy student of the year” award at the PENCIL Foundation’s Bravo luncheon earlier that day.

This morning at the district’s high school executive principal meeting, Tom Aaron from Deloitte and Jessica Pierucki with Altria announced the list of honored nominees for 2012:

Academy Teacher of the Year (CTE or Thematic Pathway)

• Deborah Crosby, Business, Academy of Business with Ford PAS, Glencliff High School
• Patricia Deas, Teaching Pathway, Academy of Teaching and Service, Antioch High School
• Barclay Randall, Electronic Media, Academy of Digital Design and Communication, McGavock High School
• Dina Starks, Health Science, Academy of Health Science, Hillwood High School
• Thao Tran, Marketing, Academy of International Business and Communications, Hillsboro High School

Academy Teacher of the Year (General Education)

• Jason Bihler, US History, Academy of Teaching and Service, Antioch High School
• Marci Garner, Social Studies, Academy of Health and Emergency Services, Maplewood High School
• Andrea Holland, English, Academy of Digital Design and Communication, McGavock High School
• Shreyas Patel, Biology, Academy of IB Diploma Programme, Hillsboro High School
• Adam Taylor, Biology, Academy of Engineering, Overton High School

Academy Team Leader

• Jane Fetters, English, Tennessee Credit Union Academy of Business and Finance, Antioch High School
• Stephanie Knight, Spanish, Academy of IB Diploma Programme, Hillsboro High School
• John “Trip” Nicholson, Accounting, Academy of Business and Hospitality, Hillwood High School

Partnership of the Year, Arts, Media, and Communications Partnership Council

• Nashville Education, Community, and Arts Television and the Academy of Art, Design, and Communication, Hillwood High School
• The Parthenon and the Academy of Art, Design, and Communication, Hillwood High School
• Stones River National Battlefield and the Academy of Digital Design and Communication, McGavock High School

Academy Partnership of the Year, Business, Marketing and IT Partnership Council

• Deloitte and The Tennessee Credit Union Academy of Business and Finance, Antioch High School
• The Southwestern Company and the Academy of Marketing and Business, Hunters Lane High School
• The US Community Credit Union and The US Community Credit Union Academy of Hospitality & Finance at McGavock High School

Academy Partnership of the Year, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Industrial Technology Partnership Council

• ACE and the Academy of Architecture & Construction at Cane Ridge High School
• Nashville Electric Service and the Academy of Energy & Power at Maplewood High School
• Nissan North America and the Academy of Technology & Communication at Antioch High School

Academy Partnership of the Year, Health Partnership Council

• Dialysis Clinic, Inc. and the Academy of Medical Science and Research at Glencliff High School
• Metro Public Health Department and the Academy of Community Health at Whites Creek High School
• Saint Thomas Health Services and the Academy of Health & Emergency Services at Maplewood High School

Academy Partnership of the Year, Hospitality and Tourism Partnership Council

• Holiday Inn Vanderbilt and the Academy of Business and Hospitality at Hillwood High School
• Hutton Hotel and the Academy of Business and Hospitality at Hillwood High School
• Just Cruisin’ Plus and the Academy of Hospitality at Antioch High School

Academy Partnership of the Year, Human and Public Services Partnership Council

• Davidson County Juvenile Court and the Academy of Law at Cane Ridge High School
• Metro Nashville District Attorney’s Office and the Academy of Law at Cane Ridge High School
• Nashville State Community College and the Academy of Teaching and Service at Antioch High School

Academy Coach of the Year

• Paula Barkley, McGavock High School
• Emily Hughes, Hillwood High School
• Lance Lott, Cane Ridge High School

Externship Project of the Year

• CMT, Rocketown, Stones River Battlefield and the Academy of Digital Design and Communication at McGavock High School
• Nashville Education Community and Arts Television (NECAT), The Parthenon, McNeely, Pigott & Fox and the Academy of Art, Design & Communication at Hillwood High School
• Vanderbilt University Center for Science Outreach and the Academy of Science and Engineering at Stratford High School

Academy Assistant Principal of the Year

• James Bailey, Academy of International Business and Communications, Hillsboro High School
• Lisa Bonelli, Academy of Hospitality and Finance, McGavock High School
• Darren Kennedy, Academy of Health and Emergency Services, Maplewood High School

Executive Principal of the Year

• Steve Chauncey, Hillwood High School
• Michel Wall, Cane Ridge High School
• Robbin Wall, McGavock High School

Counselor of the Year

• Allison Bateman, Academy of International Business & Communications, Hillsboro High School
• Ronee Power, Freshman Academy, Hunters Lane High School
• Carla Robinson, Academy of Health Sciences, Hillwood High School

Freshman Academy of the Year

• Cane Ridge High School Freshman Academy
• Hillsboro High School Freshman Academy
• Stratford High School Freshman Academy

Academies of the Year

• Academy of Medical Science and Research, Glencliff High School
• Academy of Health Sciences, Hillwood High School
• Academy of Digital Design and Communication, McGavock High School

For more details on each nominee, please click here.

The Charter School Support Network, a Chamber committee composed primarily of business leaders who serve on the boards of one of Nashville’s 11 charter schools, met at Nashville Prep on January 19. Founded by Ravi Gupta as a college-preparatory academy, and still in its first year of operation, the charter school serves fifth-grade students, with plans to add one grade level each year.

Located inside the downtown campus of Tennessee State University, the school offers a longer school day (7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Saturday school every other week, resulting in approximately 15 additional instructional days per academic year. As a component of the extended day, students receive one hour of daily tutoring and participate in one hour of enrichment activities, which include basketball, chess, chorus, dance and drama.

This month, committee members heard an update from Alan Coverstone, executive director of MNPS’ Office of Innovation, regarding the Charter Compact and the Performance Management Replication Closure (PMRC) timeline to establish benchmarks for Nashville charter schools. Nashville’s charter compact outlines the ways in which Metro Schools and the city’s growing charter sector should work in partnership. As part of the compact work, members took part in a preliminary conversation to identify indicators for high-quality schools. Graduation, matriculation, school climate, academic rigor, attendance and parent involvement were some of the defining characteristics committee members believe are important when evaluating school performance. At the next meeting, the committee will further examine the question, “What is a high-performing school?” Committee members are encouraged to invite other members of their respective charter boards to participate in this important conversation.

The committee also received an update regarding the existing charter school landscape in Nashville. Currently, there are 11 charter schools in operation, with an additional three schools approved to open this fall. In addition, a new KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) school is authorized to open in 2013. Applications for new charter schools will be accepted between March 1 and April 1, with a 60-day review period to commence on April 1.

Click here to see more photos from the meeting.

Last week, business, education and community leaders heard from one of the world's best-known academics in the field of education reform and school turnaround at the Education 2020 Speaker Series, presented by the Chamber, Mayor Dean and the Lipscomb University College of Education.

Andy Hargreaves, the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, provided insights on high-performing school systems using a recent study he authored with Professor Alma Harris. Titled “Performance Beyond Expectations,” the report focuses on high-achieving organizations in three sectors: business, education and sports.

Hargreaves pointed out that nine out of 10 businesses working to turn around in a year or less fail. In researching this topic, the authors were struck not by the differences between organizations that were able to successfully turn around, but the similarities. They found that the criteria for successful turnaround lie in three areas:

1) Perform better than you did;
2) Perform better than your peers; and
3) Perform better than you’d expect.

After examining which characteristics make this kind of performance more likely, the authors came up with 15 common factors that serve as a framework for successful turnaround. Several of these stand out in particular.

First, what Hargreaves referred to as F1: the fantastic dream. The premise is that organizations that perform beyond expectations aspire to an improbable, collectively held dream that is bolder and more challenging than a plan or a vision. In the case of MNPS, that dream is to be the first choice for families in Davidson County. The next factor is F2: the fear. Hargreaves stated that organizations should use fear to energize, not paralyze. The full report can be found at www.andyhargreaves.com.

Hargreaves also emphasized the importance of strong leadership. He said, “It’s easy to lead when you have everything going for you. It’s essential to lead when you don’t.” This statement has strong implications for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, where leadership is a critical factor in successful turnaround. As a strong affirmation to Metro Schools, Hargreaves, who was visiting for a couple of days as a member of Dr. Register’s National Advisory Panel, declared that he believes MNPS will be one of the leading flagships of how to move forward in education reform in the next three years. He added that the country will be looking to us as an example. Clearly, we have a lot to do to reach this point, but, as the Chamber’s Education Report Card Committee pointed out in its 2011 report released earlier this week, it is increasingly evident that we have the leadership in place to attain our “improbable dream.”

To view additional photos from this event, please click here.

December is shaping up to be a busy month for the Chamber policy team in education. This Thursday, December 15, at 8 a.m., we’re hosting an Education 2020 Speaker Series event in the morning featuring renowned academic Andy Hargreaves. Professor Hargreaves spends much of his time at Boston College researching how organizations perform beyond expectations, pulling examples from education, but also business and sports. He speaks to groups, quite literally, around the world, but is in Nashville for a couple of days this week as a member of Dr. Register’s National Advisory Panel. You have a chance to visit with him over a cup of coffee at the Martin Professional Development Center for free, if you register in advance.

Santa’s bringing an early gift this year in the form of the Chamber’s annual report card of Metro Schools on Tuesday, December 20, at 10 a.m. The past five report cards have all been produced in February, and this year’s committee started a month earlier (in August), so we could produce the document in the same calendar year as the school year we’re examining. Sharp observers will also note that we have reduced the number of recommendations from 10 in previous years to only five this year. The committee’s focus topic this year was parent and family involvement, so most of our recommendations relate to making improvement in that area. The presentation of each year’s report is a must-attend for anyone interested in public education in our city. Not only do attendees get to hear Co-Chairs Ron Corbin and Pam Daly present the findings, you’ll also be the first in town to have a shiny new report the minute the ink dries! Click here to register, and come early if you want a seat!