Director of Schools Speaker at Rotary Club
by Bob Augustin Jr.
Director of Lawrence County Schools Bill Heath, Ed. D., was the special guest speaker at the February 13, 2009 meeting of the Lawrenceburg Rotary Club. Dr. Heath presented a program on the Tennessee Diploma Project (TDP). The TDP's goal is to prepare Tennessee students to become productive and competitive members of the state's and nation's work-force by aligning K-12 standards to skills needed for college and the workplace readiness in the 21st Century.
Heath stated that, while Lawrence County School's Report Card, released in November 2008, showed that Lawrence County students had received the highest scores ever by Lawrence County students on the ACT test, our students' scores were still lower than the state average which is lower than the national average. He also pointed out that the graduation rate in Lawrence County had been dropping in recent years. The TDP is designed to increase high school graduation, and thereby increase enrollment of students in college, by aligning the standards in high school with the standards required by colleges and the workplace.
The new standards mandated by the TDP will effect only those students who will be Ninth Grade and below beginning the 2009-10 school year. The Ready Core requirements for graduating high school are 22 credits which must consist of : English - 4 units; Mathmatics - 4 units; Science - 3 units; Social Sciences - 3 units; Wellness and Fitness - 1.5 units; Personal Finance - 0.5; and Electives - 6 units. For more details of the Tennessee Diploma Project, go to the state of Tennessee's website at state.tn.us/sbe/TDP%201-23-08.pdf .
Photo: Polly Marsh, President Lawrenceburg Rotary Club, Bill Heath, Ed. D, Director of Lawrence County Schools, and Rotarian Ron Evans.
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