MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- With the State of Tennessee in the midst of major education reform, Middle Tennessee State University has announced it will soon offer a Doctor of Education degree in Assessment, Learning and School Improvement.
MTSU College of Education Dean Lana Seivers announced the new degree program late last week and says the first classes will be offered in the fall of 2013.
Dr. Seivers says Tennessee has been collecting the data needed to make better educational choices for several years and the new program will give educators the tools to use that information.
“There’s a wealth of data in the state since back in the McWhorter days when ‘Value Added’ went in. Yet the State of Tennessee has not done a lot with it to help educators learn how to analyze that data and change instruction.”
Tennessee made sweeping and controversial changes to the way the state’s primary teachers are assessed last year. Governor Bill Haslam is promising to make reforms in higher education a focus of his legislative agenda during the next session of the Tennessee General Assembly.