feedback to help teachers and other staff members improve. They are all visible in the building
and are active participants in formulating and
implementing improvement strategies.
• All school leaders have stressed the importance of instructional rigor. They have signaled
that instruction must include questioning strategies that promote higher order thinking, that
teachers must instruct on grade level, and that all
instruction should be aligned with standards.
• Collaboration is a key component to the principals’ leadership styles. Each has promoted the
development and maintenance of professional
learning communities so teachers can share effective practices. Additionally, the principals have
been active in engaging teachers and others in
important decision-making processes. For example, John Sevier actively includes current teachers
in the hiring process of new teachers. At Covington, Principal Murdock analyzed the strengths of
each o f her assistant principals and reorganized
their work to capitalize on these strengths.
• All of the leaders actively engage parents as
key partners in the education of their children.
All schools conduct significant outreach to parents to make sure they are well-informed about
their children’s progress. At John Sevier, teachers
send home academic folders every week and
the school recruits parent volunteers to support
teachers and form relationships with students.
At Rose Park, an active parent-teacher-student
organization helps engage all parents, including
immigrant parents who might be less informed
about public education in Tennessee. At Covington, parent involvement is supported through a
Parent Center as well as an online Parent Portal
that enables parents to track student progress on
assignments.
47
Pathways to the Prize
Lessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners
Ensuring Excellent Teachers
The 2012 SCORE Prize school winners place a high
priority on effective teaching. They all have rigorous
recruitment and selection criteria for hiring new
teachers, support teachers in their development,
and set the expectation that instruction must be
about students, not adults.
• Each of the SCORE Prize winners invests heavily
in its teachers to help them meet high expectations. At Rose Park and Covington, mentors are
provided to all new teachers to ensure they are
provided with supports to improve their pedagogy, understand and use data, and create and
administer assessments. At John Sevier, many
teachers are provided with additional supports in
the form of teaching assistants and community
volunteers. The schools also use instructional
coaches to provide support and have created
common lesson plan formats and provided many
opportunities for professional development
during the school year and the summer.
• The schools engage in aggressive recruitment
and selection efforts to hire the best teacher
candidates. At John Sevier, for example, prospective teachers must go through a multi-stage
screening process that includes interviews with
the school leaders, a presentation to a hiring
committee made up of the school leaders and
teachers, and a time for the candidates to ask
questions to ensure the school is the right fit for
them. Covington focuses on recruiting both traditional and non-traditional teaching candidates to
find teachers who believe in all students’ potential
for success. Once at the schools, the supports
described above are used to ensure that all new
teachers learn the culture of the school, expectations for student behavior, and effective ways to
interact with parents.