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Introducer: Good morning. Welcome to Rutherford County schools and Stewarts
Creek Elementary, especially, and a special welcome today to Governor Haslam and Commissioner
Huffman. Ginger Tucker: As a new administrator, I will
say that the TELL Survey is very important. We will use this piece of information that
we have received for our school improvement planning in the fall.
Commissioner Kevin Huffman: It's a survey developed by the New Teacher Center, and the
information from the survey correlates with increased achievement.
So, typically, when you see the results go up on this survey, you see conditions change
that help advance student learning, as well. This information is going to be used at the
state level, at the district level, and at the school level to help drive the improvements.
Governor Bill Haslam: I think the fact that these results show improvement -- really across
the board -- I think again speaks to the quality of the results.
Teachers believe -- and this is very important -- that their communities are supportive of
their schools, which is important to success. It's important for us that teachers feel like,
'Hey, this community cares about what we're doing at school.'
Nearly 83 percent of teachers believe that they have the autonomy to make decisions about
instructions. And nearly 86 percent say that they're trusted
to make professional decisions. All of us as professionals -- again, I don't
care if you're a doctor, a chemist, a teacher, whatever it is, whatever you do -- you want
to be trusted to make decisions, and I think, again, 86 percent speaks volumes.
Teachers overwhelmingly say that the most important thing influencing their willingness
to continue teaching is their principal. And that's not new data, but again, the fact
that it really supersedes anything else shows the importance of top-notch principals.
At the end of the day, you say, 'Why are you doing this, why do you care how teachers feel?'
Because it's as simple as this: if we're going to have great students who are prepared for
their future, it all begins with the person standing in front of the classroom.
And we also know this: our job at the end of the day is to make people choose teaching.
Some of you have heard me say this before: I have a daughter who is a second-grade teacher.
It's been a wonderful reality check to hear the world as it looks from my Governor's Office
and the way it looks when you walk into class every morning.
And it's importance to all of us that we're creating an environment where people want
to teach in Tennessee and make a difference.