Press Release- Interim Chief Mark Gibson will be Cleveland’s Chief of Police beginning today. Chief Gibson will begin his duties this morning.
Press Release- Interim Chief Mark Gibson will be Cleveland’s Chief of Police beginning today. Chief Gibson will begin his duties this morning. He will take his official Oath of Office during the official City Council meeting on September 28th at 3:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend. There will be a reception following the City Council meeting to be held in the Police Service Center Community Room. “The process has been good for our community, and I appreciate the members of the Interview Panel who assisted with the selection of the finalists, crafted the questions used in the interviews, and conducted the public interview sessions. Their thoughts about each candidate’s answers to the interview questions were extremely helpful. I will always be grateful for Dr. Paul Conn, Chamber President Robert Bradney, and Police Consultant Larry Wallace’s assistance in the interview process for our Chief of Police. It was a good process to look at the qualities of each candidate. Mayor Rowland, several members of our City Council, and several citizens attended the public interviews.” stated City Manager Janice Casteel. STATEMENT FROM BRADLEY COUNTY SHERIFF ERIC WATSON ON THE SELECTION OF MARK GIBSON AS CLEVELAND POLICE CHIEF I am very pleased at the selection of longtime Cleveland Police Captain Mark Gibson as the City’s new Police Chief. I consider Mark a strong colleague, as we both believe in truthfulness and transparency in law enforcement, as well as expecting only the highest in character and best in behavior from the men and women employed by our agencies. Chief Gibson and I have met numerous times during his time as Interim Chief of the Cleveland Police Department, seeking ways to cooperate more fully in today’s often-dangerous climate. Congratulations to Mark Gibson, from all of us at the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office, on your selection as permanent Chief of Police for the City of Cleveland. The Chattanoogan Reports- A top Volkswagen official has apologized after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board (EPA and CARB) revealed their findings that while testing diesel cars of the Volkswagen Group they have detected manipulations that violate American environmental standards. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, chairman, said, “The Board of Management at Volkswagen AG takes these findings very seriously. I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will cooperate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case. Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of this matter. The Cleveland Daily Banner- The Tennessee Task Force on Student Testing and Assessment, formed by Tennessee Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen and comprised of 18 educators and education leaders from across the state, has made recommendations addressing concerns of “too much testing.” These recommendations are supported by Cleveland Schools Director Dr. Martin Ringstaff. The report concludes six months of discussions and research and hopefully will ensure the meaningful use of assessments across the state. The task force’s work and recommendations focused on four key areas of assessment: 1. Reducing unnecessary or redundant student tests; 2. Transparency in testing; 3. Aligning tests to postsecondary and workforce expectations; and 4. Supporting districts around test scheduling and logistics. “I support the recommendations,” said Dr. Ringstaff, “We (Cleveland City Schools) do not test kindergarten and first grade anyway, and eliminating the EXPLORE and PLAN are smart moves,” Dr. Ringstaff continued. “Our focus should be on the student and not the test. Redundant testing frustrates educators as we stay focused and do our very best for the students of Cleveland City.” This story continues on our website mymix1041.com You can view a complete list of task force members online: http://www.tn.gov/education/news/14299. You can also review the complete task force report online: http://tn.gov/education/topic/assessment-task-force. After gathering feedback and input from teachers, parents, and educators across the state, the task force offered a series of 16 tangible recommendations to help reduce unnecessary or redundant student tests, including at the state level, the elimination of the kindergarten and first-grade annual standardized tests; elimination of the mandatory EXPLORE (8th grade) and PLAN (10th grade) tests; and continued requirement of the ACT or SAT for 11th grade students, but not the adoption of ACT’s new alternative ASPIRE test. Among other recommendations in the report, the task force requested that test items from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) be released to students, parents, and educators in order to provide better information and more transparency on student understanding and performance. “Assessments help educators measure student learning, but we must ensure that the assessments we invest our time and resources in are providing meaningful and actionable information to teachers, parents, and students to actually help improve student achievement,” Commissioner McQueen said. “As I have traveled the state listening and learning from teachers and parents, I have heard repeatedly that we must make sure that we aren’t duplicating state and district efforts on assessments that take away from important instructional time in the classroom,” McQueen added. While Tennessee students will spend only approximately 11 to 12 hours or one percent of the school year taking state-required TCAP assessments each year, the task force concluded that some districts are utilizing and requiring a variety of additional benchmarks or formative assessments throughout the year to measure student progress that are not always used for instructional decision making or might be duplicative of the information derived from state assessments. To address this concern, the task force developed specific principles to help guide district, schools, and teachers as they select and evaluate benchmark or formative assessments given throughout the year, emphasizing that teacher or school-made benchmark assessments best measure student progress toward annual goals and inform instructional change. The task force also developed principles for using statewide annual or summative tests and for test preparation and logistics. Additional recommendations in the report include ensuring that higher education continues to be involved in the validation and use of TNReady to determine entry-level college coursework and creating more opportunities for parents to provide feedback both at the state and district level. The task force concluded the report with areas it recommends for further analysis, including more work on district grading practices and policies and the usage of screening tools in early grades. Commissioner McQueen formed the task force last spring spring as a result of feedback from the field about the amount of testing, quality of testing, and associated test preparation discover this info here. The task force includes no educators from Southeast Tennessee, but House Education Committee Chairman John Forgety of Athens is a member.
