Tennessee Looks To Boost the Quality of Classroom Teachers Across the State

After years addressing student performance and course curriculum, focus turns toward the most important cog in the educational machine, teachers.  "One of the problems with public education is its an organization model that's about 40 years old and the rest of the world has changed dramatically," says Republican Congressman Zach Wamp.

Tennessee hopes to boost student achievement, by equipping teachers with modern tools and methods of instruction.  For example, board of regents schools, like Chattanooga State, now push teachers to use problem solving, instead of regurgitating information.  Kandi Hill-Clarke with the Tennessee Board of Regents says "we are actually moving more toward a competency, interactive participatory way of preparing our teacher candidates. We're moving away from seat time."

Other changes include a senior year residency program, where, much like an internship, teacher candidates would spend an entire school year in a classroom.  And, adding real-world business models to the profession.  "What about the bottom line, how about the best teachers with the highest results and the best output get paid more," says Wamp.

Those involved with improving teacher quality hope the changes will attract the best and brightest college students to choose education over other potential careers paths.  "Teachers are starting to retire, and they're aging out of the system and there's not enough young people coming along, that's one of the reason's this is important," says Republican St. Senator Bo Watson.

The state hopes to have most of these improvement efforts in place by 2013.