As part of a statewide tour Tennessee Education Commissioner Dr. Candice McQueen will host an regional town hall meeting Wednesday in Bristol to discuss changes to education laws and how the state is preparing for those changes.
The town hall meeting for Northeast Tennessee will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 5 p.m. at Tennessee High School, located at 1112 Edgemont Avenue, Bristol.
Last month McQueen released details about how Tennessee is planning to transition to the new federal K-12 education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act.
As part of drafting the state’s plan of response, McQueen launched what she dubbed a “listening tour” across the state, receiving input from more than 2,500 Tennesseans.
“ESSA has provided an opportunity to continue the conversation about how we can build on our successes in Tennessee and leverage ESSA’s state-centered focus to determine what we want our education policies to be,” McQueen said. “Across the state, our educators, parents, and advocates believe we are on the right track, and they want to help us go further in areas like better supporting our historically disadvantaged students, providing more access to early postsecondary opportunities like dual credit and AP classes, and increasing the focus on supporting our whole child. We are taking key steps to do just that.”
Now, McQueen is tour the state once again, this time with a series of regional town hall meetings.
“She is trying to give updates to people across the state, but she also wants to hear feedback,” said Chandler Hooper, Deputy Director of Communications for the Tennessee Department of Education. “That’s part of the goal of this, to make sure everyone has their voice heard.”
One of the things McQueen will be discussing are upcoming changes in response to ESSA as well as other changes deemed necessary by the state.
“Tennessee has been at the forefront of doing what is best for our children’s education for a while,” Hooper said. “There are states that will see far more changes than Tennessee will.”
“There are also different needs in different areas so there are some areas that will see more changes than others,” she added.
The town hall meeting is open to local education officials and teachers as well as parents of children in the local school systems and members of the general public as well.
“All of the first Tennessee District’s school systems have been contacted and invited to attend,” Hooper said.