Sunday, February 6, 2011
Lawrence County Schools Making The Most Of Race To The Top
When Tennessee was one of two states awarded 
Race to the Top funds Lawrence County Schools were ready and anxious to take our students’ success to the next level.
Race to the Top Coordinator, Dr. Gari Lynn shares, “This past year Lawrence County Schools ranked 5th out of 15 middle Tennessee districts in test scores while ranking 14th in pupil expenditures.
It is our goal to utilize this Race to the Top money to improve that ranking and do all we can to maximize this generous grant to help our students improve even more with their test scores and academics.”
Funds are intended to be used to do just that, improve test scores and improve curriculum while helping our students be all they can be. Tennessee was awarded $500 million in grant money to be dispersed between each district.
Lawrence County Schools will receive $1.5 million for which a well thought out four year plan has been approved by the state.
An activity that received state approval includes implementation of a new teacher induction and mentoring program to help with the transition of new teachers.
Also, in an effort to better prepare our students for high school, Lawrence County Schools will be initiating a pre-9th grade class along with helping our low achieving students’ master standards that are required on every grade level.
In addition Lawrence County Schools will be identifying ways to improve the medium and high achieving students’ mastery of standards.
Another important aspect of our utilization of Race to the Top funds is professional development. Next year the state is implementing a new teacher evaluation model and we will be offering professional development focused on helping our teachers do well with this new model.
Teachers will be trained in great detail on course standards and the importance of using test data towards student improvement.
The state will evaluate our success of the use of these funds through test scores. In addition our system came up with performance targets that the state will also use for evaluation.
According to Dr. Lynn, “With this money Lawrence County Schools are confident our ranking will improve. We have the students, teachers, administration, and supervisors to make this happen.”
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