Trevathan named to education committee
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According to his campaign, the committee is comprised of educators from diverse backgrounds who will pool their experience to create blueprints for education reform in Tennessee. The Education Advisory Committee is one of several committees formed by the candidate to advise him about key fields.
“This is not a political thing,” said campaign communications director Frank Cagle. “Education is bi-partisan. We want to get the best possible ideas to be implemented and Van Hilleary is bringing together first-rate folks in the field of education who have shown success in what they do to give him recommendations.”
To be studied by the 13-person committee will be such state education issues as improving literacy rates and reading scores, the role of charter schools, how to best enact accountability standards, how to best utilize technology in the classroom and how to close the achievement gaps and prevent children from falling through the cracks, as it were. The findings of the committee on these issues and others will be made into a report for Hilleary’s use.
Trevathan said she was honored to be chosen to serve on the committee and looks forward to discussing the issues facing education in Tennessee today. “Van Hilleary is very concerned about education and I am pleased to be able to serve in an advisory capacity and provide him first-hand input,” she said.
Asked what recommendations she would make, Trevathan said she would like to see a stronger emphasis on academics and on making sure every child is learning to his capacity in the style to which he is best suited.
Additionally, she said, she would like to see teachers better prepared to teach. “We need stronger staff development to make our teachers even more effective. We are not equipping them with solutions to improve their instruction. Right now we just don’t have the resources to do it,” she said.