Opportunities are provided for communities throughout the region to exchange innovative ideas and network among peers. In addition, assistance with local school level web sites is available. A new accountability system has been put in place in which teachers are judged based on the test scores of their students As a result, the curriculum is being modified across the grades to emphasize those things that are on the exam and to deemphasize those things which are not. This act overshadows any curriculum reform or desire to teach inquiry. The teachers are doing this with the full knowledge of the principals.
All persons involved are very concerned that the exams are driving the curriculum.
For the most part, this is seen as negative, but some teachers and principals disagree. The greatest policy impact occurring in the Cocke County schools is related to the statewide assessment that is being put in place. There is almost unanimous resistance throughout the system to the notion of judging teachers based on the test scores of their students. Most of the system personnel we interviewed neither understood nor trusted the value-added testing system being used throughout Tennessee. A variety of school system staff emphasized that it is not fair to evaluate teachers based on student test scores because there are simply too many factors that go into a student's test performance and the testing period takes place in a concentrated period during only one small segment of the long school year.