Dean lays out education plans for coming year

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer (Tennessean) • September 8, 2008 Mayor Karl Dean put forward a five-tiered approach to improving Metro schools in a speech this afternoon. Dean told the Rotary Club of Nashville that his focus will be on student engagement; teacher recruitment and development; expanding job opportunities for students; increasing school choice, and transforming existing schools by developing "smaller learning communities." "Improving schools can no longer wait," Dean said in a speech to mark the end of his first year in office. He was inaugurated on Sept. 21, 2007.