Teachers and administrators from across the Northeast Tennessee region gathered on Tuesday in eight regional locations to receive special training about the state's new Common Core standards.
The second Collaborative Professional Development Day featured 15 area school systems that are a part of the Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium (NETCO), according to a recent news release by the Niswonger Foundation.
The Foundation sponsored the training.
"The goal of the Collaborative Professional Development Day is to not only provide our high school teachers with the opportunity to learn from nationall-recognized experts in their respective content areas, but also to allow teachers time to share and learn from each other," Linda Irwin said in the release.
Irwin is the vice president of the Foundation and the administrator of the NETCO grant which funds the training.
The Foundation formed NETCO in 2010 after the U.S. Department of Education awarded the Foundation an $18 million Investing in Innovation (i3) grant.
The consortium consists of the following school systems: Carter County, Elizabethton City, Cocke County, Greene County, Greeneville City, Hamblen County, Hankcock County, Hawkins County, Johnson County, Sullivan County, Kingsport City, Bristol City, Unicoi County, Washington County and Johnson City.
According to the news release, these systems have joined to improve the rigor of their high school curricula, increase graduation rates, raise ACT scores, provide access to more Advanced Placement courses, provide more dual-enrollment opportunities with community colleges, and create greater opportunities for career technical education programs.
Tuesday's sessions began at 9 a.m. and featured more than 1,800 participants across the region. They met at a total of eight locations, including four in Greene County.
In Greene County, training took place at the following locations:
* Diane Briars presented mathematics training at Chuckey-Doak High School;
* Andrea Mayfield presented special education training at Greeneville Middle School;
* Vivian Franklin and Denise Arnold presented training for school counselors at the Greeneville Professional Development Center; and,
* Richard Flannery presented training for administrators at Greeneville High School.
