Teachers chosen for educational fellowship

Paul Dean has been teaching JROTC at Ooltewah High School since 1998.

He has years of military and classroom experience, and now thanks to the State Collaborative on Reforming Education's (SCORE) new Tennessee Educator Fellowship, he will add educational policy training to his résumé.

Dean is among 22 teachers who have been chosen in Tennessee to be a part of the fellowship's inaugural class. Teachers were chosen from traditional and charter schools, and have 188 years of combined teaching experience in rural, urban and suburban schools.

Adam Moss, a fifth-grade math teacher at Arnold Memorial Elementary School in Cleveland City, also was chosen to participate in the fellowship.

Moss and Dean were selected from more than 350 applicants statewide, according to Teresa Wasson, director of communications at SCORE.

The fellowship will instruct teachers about the history of educational policy and how education is governed. They also will be exposed to policies that are currently being debated, Wasson said.

"This fellowship is a great way for teachers to learn about policy and spread the information they learn to fellow teachers," Wasson said. "We are very interested in developing ways to lift up the voices of educators, specifically as they apply to policy and students in Tennessee."

Moss is eager to gain insight into policies that affect his students, and said his goal is to create more collaboration between policy-makers and teachers.

Dean said he is eager to sit in a room with 21 of the best educators in the state who also are motivated to learn and improve the school system.

"SCORE seems to be about some commonsense educational reforms," Dean said. "They are about implementing common core in a common sense way and I am excited to be a part of this program."

He asked, "why wouldn't a teacher apply and want to be a part of this fellowship?"

Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6592.

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