Six Public Broadcasting Stations Partner with State Department of Education on Race To The Top
October 12, 2012
Tennessee’s Department of Education (TN DOE) partnered with the Tennessee Public Television Council (TPTC) in their application for RTT funding. The TPTC brings together six public broadcasting stations across Tennessee including WKNO, WLJT, NPT, WCTE, WTCI, and East Tennessee PBS. In order to maintain structure and organization of this TPTC led project, two stations took lead roles on different aspects of the project to support TPTC through a successful partnership. Given their close regional proximity to the capital, NPT, a community licensee, served as lead fiscal agent and managed the oversight of the contract with the TN DOE. The TN DOE is also looking at TeacherLine, an online professional development resource for PreK-12 educators through PBS. If implemented, NPT would serve as the lead station on this project.
The heart of the RTT partnership with TPTC was to harness the benefits of PBS LearningMedia for the state of TN and work together in the creation of Customized Learning Objects (CLOs), short segments of educational programming posted online as educational tools. The learning objects expected to be produced before June 2013 will include common core professional development pieces in the following areas: 3-8 grade math, K-12 literacy, and middle and high school literacy-based objects for science and social studies. WTCI, out of Chattanooga, served as lead CLO station coordinating with the TN DOE, content contributors and TPTC in production of these tools. Together, the TeacherLine and PBS LearningMedia resources are positioning the public broadcasting stations of Tennessee as a critical resource for districts across the state.
Each of the TPTC stations maintains strong connections with their state legislatures and TN DOE. These close relationships matched with their experiences working in the classroom, led to a partnership that is both successful and beneficial to all involved. Building strong working relationships takes time. As Kevin Crane, NPT VP of Programming and Technology, emphasizes “it is very difficult to start from scratch. It is important to begin garnering partnerships now.” When working with multiple partners, a great deal of coordination, communication and patience is required, but the end result is certainly worth the effort. Debbie Thompson, Director of Education and Community Engagement at WTCI, agrees “This is an interesting project, providing each TPTC station the opportunity to work together and directly with content providers to produce common core assets for teachers. It is a long process, but well worth the effort.”
For more information on these and other partnerships, see our case study handout highlighting other stations success.
