Maury County Public Schools (MCPS) was recently recognized by LEAN Frog and the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS) as a Runner-up Winner in the 2016 “Tennessee’s Best K-12 Practices” Contest.
Superintendent Dr. Chris Marczak accepted a $1,000 cash prize for his school systems entry “Keys to College and Career Readiness” at the MCPS board meeting last week.ξ Marczak said, “I am honored that Lean Frog has chosen the Maury County Public Schools’ grassroots systemic and systematic improvement process of the 7 “Keys” to College and Career Readiness as an innovative practice in Tennessee.ξ We have already started to see the fruits of our labor with the County and School Board investing in the intentional education of children and are excited to see what the coming years bring for education in Maury County!”
The MCPS “Keys to College and Career Readiness” program is designed to ensure that all students have access to high quality academic programs that will give them a great start on life.ξ This systemic and systematic alignment program guarantees that all 22 public schools within the system are conjointly working on academic success for all their students.
This was the inaugural year of the Tennessee’s Best contest which recognizes best practices and innovations in K-12 public schools that impact student achievement and promote effective and efficient use of public resources.ξ The contest was open to all public schools in Tennessee. Entries were evaluated on three main criteria:ξ creativity, sustainability, and impact on students.
“We were impressed with Maury County’s focus on teacher and principal inclusion in the decision-making process” said Sherri Headrick, LEAN Frog Director of Marketing and Personnel. “The keys ensure that all staff members know what to focus on and why.”
The action plan for “Keys to College and Career Readiness” was to collect data from multiple sources to get a better understanding of at what level students needed to be at by certain grades, ensuring that children are college ready by the end of their high school careers.ξ With a grand total of 9,327 responses the “Keys” were easily identified and can now be used to put students on the pathway to success. As boardξchair David Bates remarked “We appreciate the $1000 prize and we look forward to putting it to good use in continuing to improve our K-12 practices.”
PICTURED ARE David Bates, MCPS school board chairman; Byron Headrick with LEANfrog; Dr. Chris Marczak, superintendent of MCPS
