2015-16 Public Education in Tennessee: A Policymaker’s Guide | Page 29
school funding. With offices in Memphis
and Nashville, Stand for Children
works at all levels by engaging parents,
making and implementing changes
in local schools, and advocating state
reform.
Executive Director
(This position was unfilled at the time this
guide was published)
615.636.8128
StudentsFirst
www.studentsfirst.org/tennessee
The mission of StudentsFirst is to
build a national movement for public
education centered on student
interests, and to pursue transformative
reform to make America’s education
system the best in the world. The
organization works with parents,
teachers, administrators, and
citizens to ensure access to great
teachers, access to great schools, and
effective use of public funds. Based
in California, StudentsFirst is active in
18 states, including Tennessee, and
its policy agenda includes student
achievement and growth-driven
evaluation measures for teachers and
principals, staffing decisions based on
those measures, performance pay for
teachers, enhanced school choice, data
transparency for parents, and increased
accountability.
Brent Easley, State Director - Tennessee
[email protected]
615.830.2875
Teach For America (TFA)
www.teachforamerica.org
Teach For America seeks to eliminate
educational inequity by recruiting
high-achieving college graduates of
all backgrounds to teach in underresourced urban and rural public
schools. A non-profit organization
founded in 1990, TFA provides its corps
members with training before they
serve two-year commitments in 43
communities nationwide. In Tennessee,
TFA corps members are now placed
in public schools in the Memphis and
Nashville areas.
Athena Turner, Memphis Executive Director
[email protected]
901.527.7510
Lindsay Wright, Interim Nashville Executive
Director
[email protected]
615.242.6263
working to retain good teachers. The
organization helps to recruit and train
new teachers in both Memphis and
Nashville. In Memphis, TNTP leads the
recruitment, selection, and staffing for
all Shelby County Schools, including
Memphis.
Timothy Daly, President
[email protected]
718.233.2800
Teach Plus
www.teachplus.org
With the goal of improving outcomes
for urban children, Teach Plus seeks
to ensure that greater proportions
of students have access to effective,
experienced teachers. It has programs
in six urban areas across the country,
including Memphis, where Teacher
Policy Fellows learn how to advocate
for policies to better serve students
and retain teachers. Teach Plus also
coordinates the T+ Network in Memphis,
which seeks to connect teachers with
highly motivated peers and national
and local policy leaders in order to
facilitate dialogue about innovative
policies that empower effective
teachers.
Kristen Smith, Memphis Policy Program Lead
[email protected]
615.533.9900
TNTP (formerly The New Teacher
Project)
www.tntp.org
Founded in 1997, TNTP is a national
nonprofit whose mission is to ensure
that disadvantaged students have
equal access to effective teachers. TNTP
assists urban school districts enrolling
high numbers of poor and minority
students with teacher recruiting and
training. Other activities of TNTP include
helping to staff struggling schools,
designing systems of evaluation, and
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