The Education Consumer's Clearinghouse

Tennessee's contribution to the general education debate. These folks from all walks of life, and all across the country, including professional educators who are here as parents and taxpayers, network to share information and strategies about public education. This group is run by East Tennessee State University Professor John Stone.
http://www.education-consumers.com/

Charter School Resource Center
of Tennessee

6363 Poplar Avenue, Suite 410
Memphis, TN 38119
Phone:901-844-0046
Toll free in Tennessee: 1-877-844-0046
Fax: 901-844-0045
E-mail: TNCharters@aol.com
Web Site: http://www.tncharters.org

MNPS.net is an independent citizens group of Metro Nashville parents working to improve that school system.

"Metro Nashville Public Schools. A place were all children can learn. MNPS.net is committed to this cause and charged with making our district successful yet accountable. We believe that parents have a vested interest in the success of the district. Our organization is committed in joining together parents to create a unified voice in academic excellence."

Tennessee Education Association

Tennessee's National Education Association chapter website.
I think their mission statement says it all. You may notice that children are not mentioned.

Mission Statement:
"The Tennessee Education Association promotes, advances and protects public education, the education profession, and the rights and interests of its members. " (Adopted by the Representative Assembly, 1996)

Here's an alternative:
Professional Educators of Tennessee
http://teacherspet.com/

PET was formed to give teachers a professional alternative to the union that dominates Tennessee's teachers. It gives teachers a choice. PET provides access to professional liability insurance, legal assistance, state lobbyist that represent PET only in Educational issues, state meetings with all professional members having an equal vote, and much more--all for hundreds of dollars less than union dues.

Tennessee School Boards Association

1130 Nelson Merry Street
Nashville, TN 37203
1-800-448-6465

These following organizations very useful but are not specifically about Tennessee:

The Education Intelligence Agency

Mike Antonucci is director of The Education Intelligence Agency, an organization that conducts public education research, analysis, and investigations. His weekly Communiqué is available at http://members.aol.com/educintel/eia or from EducIntel@aol.com .

EducationNews.org

The World's Leading Source of Education News 7 Days a Week
http://educationnews.org

Jeanne Donovan

has an excellent resource site for all parents and taxpayers concerned about educational policies. Though her emphasis is on Texas she also has an abundance of resources for all parents to utilize. She has everything from STW to why your child may not be bringing home any work. If what you're looking for is not here--I'll be surprised.
http://www.fastlane.net/~eca

Campus Security Statistics Website

http://ope.ed.gov/security/
The OPE Campus Security Statistics Website is your direct link to reported criminal offenses for over 6000 colleges and universities in the United States. If you are thinking of attending college in a large urban city, a small liberal arts college, a specialized college, or a community college you can find their security statistics here

By October 1 of each year, a school that is Title IV eligible is required to publish and distribute an annual campus security report to all current students and employees

National Council on Teacher Quality

a new nonprofit organization devoted to the pursuit of teacher quality by bringing
common sense to bear on this urgent national priority. Here's their Tennessee Page: http://www.nctq.org/states/tn.html

The Kossor Education Newsletter
http://www.voicenet.com/~sakossor/

The Kossor Education Newsletter contains timely, useful information for parents and others who are concerned about public education in America. Steven Kossor is a Licensed Psychologist and Certified School Psychologist who is in private practice in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kossor, as a conservative and professional psychologist has written much regarding what is going on in America's classrooms.

Parents In Charge
http://www.parentsincharge.org/

Our Mission
Parents in Charge is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to informing the American people about the real problems and the real possibilities in education. Our broad coalition of supporters are united under the belief that every child - regardless of race, creed or household income - deserves an equal opportunity to receive a quality education and that parents should be in charge of their children's education.

Separation of School and State Alliance

The Alliance is a grass-roots non-profit organization founded in 1994. Our mission is to inform Americans how education can be improved—especially for the poor—by ending government involvement in K-12 education.

Textbook Reviews by the Mel Gablers of Texas

The Gablers are famous for finding textbook errors of all kinds.
"We review public school textbooks from a conservative, Christian perspective.
We can show you what's wrong and how to fix it."
http://members.aol.com/TxtbkRevws/

Textbook League

William Bennetta edits a newsletter called The Textbook League, out of California, which reviews middle school and high school textbooks. He says that of the 300 or more he has reviewed "at least 75% have been so blatantly incompetent that I could say, with certainty, that the people who wrote them had no idea what they were writing about.

Gateways to Better Education

(run by Eric Buehrer) is a national ministry dedicated to providing Christian parents with greater security that their public school children will grow up spiritually strong, morally sound, and academically accomplished. This site has parent tips, research, resources, education and Christian links as well as "holiday restoration" information.

Cutting Class
The PTA Plays Hooky from Educational Reform
http://www.policyreview.com/summer95/thhaar.html

Charlene Haar
Policy Review
Summer 1995, Number 73
[Here's a snippet to whet your appetite.}

Why the PTA Is Weak

PTA's ineffectiveness can be attributed to six inter-related areas:

Misdirected resources. At the local level, the PTA has become a fundraising auxiliary for school districts, while its child-advocacy efforts have focused on social, non-educational issues.

Stifled debate. Many PTA officials stifle open discussion of controversial issues and discourage parents from questioning the PTA's official positions.

Ignorance. Most PTA members have no idea of the policies advocated in their name by the PTA hierarchy at the national and state levels.

Careerism. The PTA's national officers are elected by a restrictive process that requires a national PTA presidential candidate to make a commitment of nearly 10 years to rise "through the chairs." Consequently, many PTA national leaders serve long after their own children have left school.

Transient membership. Parental interest is often high at the elementary-school level, tapers off in middle school, and all but disappears in high school. As a result, PTA officers and professional staff have inordinate influence.

Teachers-union influence. National PTA policies, which often are automatically adopted as state and local PTA policies, reflect the dominant influence of the teachers unions, especially the National Education Association (NEA).

Here's the rest of the article.