Tennessee Voices, Episode 251: Jeff Mitchell, head of school, Currey Ingram Academy

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more important than ever to ensure that K-12 students make progress in academics and social-emotional learning.

There has been a backslide due to school closures, remote learning challenges and the volatile nature of the virus, and this affects students with learning differences harder than their peers.

On this episode of the Tennessee Voices podcast, Jeff Mitchell, head of school at Currey Ingram Academy, spoke about how his school has learned, adapted and grown in this environment.

Jeff Mitchell
Jeff Mitchell

Currey Ingram is a private K-12 prep school in Brentwood, Tennessee that has been around for more than half a century. The academy serves students with learning differences that include dyslexia, anxiety and autism.

Mitchell talked about the value of counselors in schools to help students navigate difficult social challenges and most of the graduates go on to pursue college degrees in small private and large public universities alike.

When he was pursuing his Ph.D. at University of British Columbia, he decided he did not want to stay at the university setting to do research. He wanted to be in the field, and that's what drew him to K-12 education. He has worked in Vancouver, Indiana, Alabama and Tennessee.

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About Tennessee Voices

The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.

Please email your ideas for future guests to me at dplazas@tennessean.com. Thank you for watching.

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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: Jeff Mitchell on students with learning differences