Tom Foster, a science teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation, has been appointed to the Governor’s Teacher Cabinet.
“It’s a great honor to represent the City of Lynchburg on the state level,” says Mr. Foster. He believes this is a great opportunity to learn from others and work together to address problems and come up with viable solutions that will benefit all teachers.
Mr. Foster also hopes to share some of the practices that have worked for him and those that have worked for other educators. One of his main goals is to find viable options and practices that serve to close the achievement gap and ultimately prevent students from losing interest and/or dropping out.
Lastly, through the collaboration of others, he would like to identify measures to lessen the burden on administrators so they can serve more efficiently as educational leaders.
The Governor’s Teacher Cabinet will focus on the following:
- Identify additional resources, learning tools and professional development opportunities that the Department of Education could make available to local school divisions;
- Recommend strategies for greater parent and community engagement;
- Recommend strategies to improve the K-12 education, higher education and workforce collaboration;
- Identify any needed improvements to administrative responsibilities; and
- Recommend strategies to close the achievement gap and assist disadvantaged students.
The Cabinet includes teachers from every Superintendent Region in the Commonwealth. The Cabinet was created by the Governor's Executive Order Number 63. Click here for more information on the Governor’s Teacher Cabinet.