COOPERATION AMONG HIGHER EDUCATION, THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AND LOCAL EDUCATION AGENCIES IN TENNESSEE.

Weakley County School System This paper discusses the origins of a Tennessee tradition of cooperation among institutions of higher education and state and local education agencies. Relations between the various agencies have not always been cooperative, but the germs of recent cooperation are evident in Tennessee's educational history virtually from the State's beginnings. The original emphasis for having local cooperation between schools and institutions of higher education maybe traced to the placement of student teachers in area schools. Appointment of several task forces, however, to examine the condition of public education in Tennessee during the early 1980s maybe considered the first state-wide effort to bring all levels of educators into one community to determine the direction of Tennessee Education. Through the resulting cooperation, Tennesseans have established a goal of having schools and colleges among the best in the nation; and through the continuation of the tradition of cooperation among colleges and universities and state and local education agencies, Tennessee society is rapidly realizing that goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]