Tennessee Voices, Episode 371: Dwayne Tucker, CEO, LEAD Public Schools

David Plazas, Nashville Tennessean
·1 min read

Public schools, whether traditional or charter, have faced many of the same challenges over the years.

Included among them are ensuring all students are proficient in reading, retaining students, and ensuring buy-in from parents and the community.

Then, there is the issue of recovering from pandemic “learning loss” and understanding and adapting to artificial intelligence, which is changing the education landscape.

On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, Dwayne Tucker, chief executive officer of LEAD Public Schools shared his stories and the challenges he is working to solve.

A few years after joining the board of LEAD Schools, Dwayne Tucker became interim CEO and was named to the job permanently in May.
A few years after joining the board of LEAD Schools, Dwayne Tucker became interim CEO and was named to the job permanently in May.

A Nashville native, he said he was among the first students to be bused across town in court-order desegregation plans

He graduated from Tennessee State University and worked in the private sector until retiring in 2005.

Before he was CEO, he was a LEAD board member and talked about concern about uneven academic outcomes among students of underserved communities. LEAD serves 2,400 students in six schools across Davidson County.

He also addressed the political tension between proponents of traditional public schools and charter public schools and spoke about their similarities and differences.

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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.

Watch past episodes: Tennessee Voices videocast

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. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063 or email him at dplazas@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Video podcast: Dwayne Tucker, CEO, LEAD Public Schools