Huffman tells teachers he wants Tennessee to be ‘fastest improving’ state

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman kicked off his year-long tour of the state’s school systems in front of about 400 educators and parents at Creek Wood High School on Wednesday. Huffman outlined the Haslam administration’s mission that Tennessee become the “fastest-improving” state in the nation by 2015, which he called an “ambitious goal.” While Huffman said Tennessee’s education system is far better than it was 10 or 20 years ago, he said it is not keeping pace with other states as well as other countries in the world. By obtaining a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind program, Huffman said Tennessee can set more realistic goals for improvement and achievement growth. Huffman said the state’s schools need to do a better job of teaching core skills that employers want potential workers to have, especially in math. He answered questions from teachers about the new Common Core Curriculum, evaluation processes, the effect of charter school proposals and other education topics. Huffman said he committed to visiting every school system in the state when he was appointed commissioner last year and Wednesday’s event was the first stop in his Tennessee Believes: The 10,000 Teacher Tour in which he plans to visit all 136 school systems over the next year. The tour’s next stop is Nov. 2 in Murfreesboro at the Tennessee Science Teachers’ Association Conference.