Jenna Sharp, principal of Clinton Elementary School in Anderson County, is one of 11 members of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) Educator Advisory Board and is the only member from Tennessee. The term runs from 2024-26.
Sharp told Knox TN Today that “we provide students a culture of continuous education.”
Ah, and how does that work?
It starts with “real-time professional development” and a “culture of trust” among teachers and administrators at Clinton Elementary, she said.
In addition to traditional evaluations, principals do “strength-based coaching,” in which individual teacher strengths are recognized and shared with others, generally during Thursday meetings when the professional staff looks at student data and discusses best practices.
But does this help kids?
The school has roughly 600 students with 60 educators and support staff. Abbey Kidwell is the assistant principal. She won a $25,000 prize as a Milken Educator Award winner in 2023. Details here.
During Sharp’s tenure as principal, Clinton Elementary has been recognized every year as a Reward School by the Tennessee Department of Education for both academic achievement and growth, placing them in the top 10% of schools in Tennessee.
In 2023, Clinton Elementary School was named a NIET Founder’s Award Finalist.
Clinton Elementary School is a level 5 school, which is the highest designation given by the state of Tennessee for academic excellence.
Sharp says “a culture of continuous learning” is important top-to-bottom.
Personal info
Sharp comes from a family of educators and (don’t hold it against her) is the sister of former Shopper guy Jake Mabe. She grew up in Halls and lives there still. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in elementary education, both from the University of Tennessee, and has an education specialist degree in instructional leadership from Tennessee Tech. She taught first and second grades, then moved to Clinton Elementary School in 2011 as assistant principal and was named principal in 2015.
She was East Region Principal of the Year for Tennessee in 2019-20 and in 2019 was chosen as one of Knoxville’s 40 Under 40, an award to recognize achievements by persons under the age of 40.
What is NIET?
NIET is a nonprofit founded by Lowell Milken about 25 years ago to support education reforms/improvements. NIET developed the TAP system for teacher evaluations, rubrics for teacher evaluations and claims to have impacted more than 350,000 educators and 3.5 million students across the United States. Candice McQueen, state education commission under Gov. Bill Haslam, is a former CEO of NIET.
Sandra Clark is the founder of Knox TN Today.