Tennessee Department of Education recently announced that White County High School, along with 17 other schools across the state, has been selected to participate in the Teaching All Students Initiative aimed to serve students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
High schools from across the state created teams that consisted of a school administrator, a general education teacher, special education teachers, and the district’s special education director that worked together to apply for the opportunity to participate in the TAS trainings, coaching, and technical assistance. White County High School’s team included Principal Greg Wilson, general education teacher Kim Eller, special education teachers Jill McCulley and Nancy Benningfield, and special education director Dr. Larry Thompson. In addition to the funding for training and resources, the selected schools will receive mini grants to help with implementation of the TAS Initiative in their programs.
“I’m honored that we were selected and am looking forward to helping our kids,” Wilson said. “The reason we become teachers is to help kids at all levels. Having the ability to be better funded and for our team to receive more training over the summer is going to create the ability to open up more opportunities for our students in White County High School.”
Through a five-year, $5.5 million State Personnel Development Grant, the goal behind the initiative is to strengthen instructional practices in schools in an effort to better support students with significant cognitive disabilities.
“Through this grant, the department is able to launch the Teaching All Students Initiative to provide an opportunity for schools across the state to focus on supports for our students with complex needs to help them reach their fullest potential,” said Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “All students deserve access to a high-quality education and this grant provides highly-requested technical assistance to support our teachers as they provide instruction to students with disabilities.”
According to Schwinn, the TAS Initiative, which is aimed at reducing the achievement gap and increasing the graduation rate and enrollment in postsecondary education for students with complex needs, will fund training, coaching, and tools to help high school teachers and staff build an accessible learning environment for all students.
Thompson said the first training session will be in the summer of 2021 and will help in implementing strategies that will help special education teachers and Career Technical Education teachers work together to get special education students more involved career and technical classes.
“We already do a great job of this here at White County High School, but we hope to get new ideas and learn new strategies to help get our kids exposed to colleges and employers,” Thompson said. “We want to create more opportunities for them to learn.
“It’s a good opportunity for our students to have new experiences, not only through their high school career, but beyond. To open up their eyes to the possibilities and opportunities that are there for them. My goal is to get them beyond high school.”
Wilson said that participation in the TAS Initiative, and the funding that comes from that, will provide training so that teachers can help coach students in the classroom and help them set goals for graduation and to build skills to go on to other programs of education.
“We hope to see more tools and more programs become [available] for us to be able to expand our own programs to help students gain those skills needed,” Wilson said. “This initiative is geared to help them reach their potential.”
He said every student is different, so their goals for post-high school will be different but should be supported.
“Our goal is that each student leaves here and is able to be a successful citizen and support themselves in the way and the area that they want,” Wilson said. “Whatever their desire is, we want to be able to help them chase their dreams.”
Along with White County High School, the 17 other schools selected to participate in the TAS Initiative are:
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