Writing on AI, education data, and running a school district from a terminal.https://blog.jasonhorne.org/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-most-misleading-number-in-education/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-most-misleading-number-in-education/“Proficient” on a state test is a college-ready bar, not a passing line. What the scariest headline of testing season actually counts.Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-15000-quote-we-answered-with-a-webpage/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-15000-quote-we-answered-with-a-webpage/A vendor wanted $14,994 for six translation devices. We built the same thing as a free webpage in a day. The math, the build, and the question to ask before signing any AI…Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/abs-challenge-tracker/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/abs-challenge-tracker/I used to be a baseball purist, but I really love the innovations the game has added in the past few years. The pitch clock has made baseball much more enjoyable to watch.…Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-one-game-left/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-one-game-left/The bracket model that picked Duke now picks Michigan. The full stacked ensemble says Michigan 66.9%. A late-round specialist model trained only on Elite Eight, Final…Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/how-i-monitor-38-education-bills-while-i-sleep/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/how-i-monitor-38-education-bills-while-i-sleep/On March 30, a Senate amendment quietly changed the virtual school closure bill to shift authority from the state to individual LEAs. It wasn't in the bill summary. It…Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-the-bracket-breaks/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-the-bracket-breaks/The machine learning bracket model went 5-for-8 in the Sweet 16 and 2-for-4 in the Elite Eight. Then Duke’s championship prediction died on Braylon Mullins’ three-pointer…Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/notes-on-public-failure/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/notes-on-public-failure/"Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died." - George R.R. Martin from A Storm of Swords That quote has been rattling…Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-sweet-16-predictions/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-sweet-16-predictions/The model went 33 for 48 through two rounds. Five Round of 32 upsets blew up half the bracket. Here’s what the stacked ensemble says about all eight Sweet 16 games.Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-k5-screen-ban-hb2393/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-k5-screen-ban-hb2393/A couple of weeks ago, I walked through one of our elementary schools during math block. Half the kids had pencils in hand, working through problems on paper. The other…Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-round-1/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-model-vs-march-madness-round-1/I built a stacked ensemble to fill out my NCAA bracket. It crushed the chalk and missed every upset. Here’s the scorecard.Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/i-let-a-machine-fill-out-my-bracket/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/i-let-a-machine-fill-out-my-bracket/Every March, I fill out a bracket with the same strategy: gut feeling, a vague memory of who looked good in February, and the unshakeable belief that this is finally the…Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/predicting-achievement-without-test-scores/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/predicting-achievement-without-test-scores/Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/multi-ai-to-single-command-ff/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/multi-ai-to-single-command-ff/I built a Claude Code skill that replaces a messy multi-AI fantasy football workflow — draft prep, live drafting, weekly matchups, and trade analysis — all from a single…Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-kids-arent-the-only-ones-submitting-ai-slop/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-kids-arent-the-only-ones-submitting-ai-slop/AI slop is showing up in school newsletters, company emails, and public communications everywhere. Learn how to recognize it and five best practices for using AI as a tool…Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-school-letter-grades-machine-learning-analysis/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-school-letter-grades-machine-learning-analysis/Can student demographics alone predict a school's letter grade? Using machine learning algorithms like Gradient Boosting and K-means clustering, this analysis explores the…Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/2024-25-tn-school-letter-grades-third-year-analysis/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/2024-25-tn-school-letter-grades-third-year-analysis/The Tennessee Department of Education released the 2024-25 school letter grades on December 18, 2024. This is the third year of letter grades under the revamped formula…Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-tn-state-board-of-education-re-world-language-credits/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/an-open-letter-to-the-tn-state-board-of-education-re-world-language-credits/Dear Members of the Board: When I was in college at ETSU, I had the chance to study in Paris twice. We stayed at the Cité Universitaire, a community built after World War…Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tasbo-presentation/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tasbo-presentation/You can find my TASBO presentation here .Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/fantasy-football-powered-by-notebooklm/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/fantasy-football-powered-by-notebooklm/When researching fantasy football strategies, you’ll notice that they almost all say the same thing: draft Ja’Marr Chase or Justin Jefferson in the first round. Beyond…Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/wu-wabi-ai/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/wu-wabi-ai/What can a Philip K. Dick novel teach us about the authenticity of AI-generated work? This post explores the cultural ideas of Wu and Wabi in the age of generative technology.Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/operations-improve-academics/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/operations-improve-academics/School operations are not just behind the scenes. This post explores research showing how facilities, HVAC systems, nutrition, and support staff directly impact academic…Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/bluebooks-for-bluebloods/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/bluebooks-for-bluebloods/As AI tools like ChatGPT become more common in schools, some educators are reaching for bluebooks in an attempt to restore academic integrity. But are we asking the right…Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/how-to-show-up-and-stand-out-in-an-interview/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/how-to-show-up-and-stand-out-in-an-interview/Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/my-greatest-concern-for-ai-in-education-the-invisible-handshake/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/my-greatest-concern-for-ai-in-education-the-invisible-handshake/I had a mentor teacher who was fairly unethical, and once said to me, “Horne, if you start getting complaints, give ’em all A’s. Those complaints will dry up.” It was…Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-school-letter-grades-a-machine-learning-update/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-school-letter-grades-a-machine-learning-update/In early 2024, I published a blog post exploring how machine learning could predict Tennessee school letter grades based on demographic data. That analysis provided…Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/voucher-eligible-non-public-schools-in-tn/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/voucher-eligible-non-public-schools-in-tn/This post features an interactive table and map to help you explore the approved schools. Using the TN Non-Public School list , I made an interactive table of the…Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/vouchers-in-northeast-tn/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/vouchers-in-northeast-tn/Only 12 private schools qualify for vouchers in Northeast TN. Part of the voucher law said that only private schools that were category I, II, or III can receive voucher…Fri, 14 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/2023-2024-tn-letter-grades-standout-schools/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/2023-2024-tn-letter-grades-standout-schools/In my previous blog, I provided a detailed breakdown of the TN Letter Grades. In this post, I want to shift focus and highlight the schools that stand out as outliers,…Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/comparing-2022-2023-and-2023-2024-school-letter-grades-in-tennessee/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/comparing-2022-2023-and-2023-2024-school-letter-grades-in-tennessee/The impact of school letter grades on schools, school leaders, teachers, and students has largely unfolded as anticipated. It's not just a coincidence that letter grade…Sat, 28 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/six-years-of-improvements-in-campbell-county/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/six-years-of-improvements-in-campbell-county/I only have a few weeks left in Campbell County, and I wanted to reflect on it. I want to write about the improvements that we have made since I’ve been here. In district…Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-letter-grades-an-unsupervised-learning-clustering-approach/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-letter-grades-an-unsupervised-learning-clustering-approach/One of the more interesting ways to look at data is to use machine learning to sort your data into clusters. The particular tool I used for this is called K-Means…Mon, 18 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tisa-dashboard/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tisa-dashboard/I decided to build a TISA Dashboard to keep track of funding coming in the next year. I wanted to also keep track of numbers that inform the dashboard in order to spot…Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/what-do-you-tell-teachers-about-ai/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/what-do-you-tell-teachers-about-ai/I have spent the past year and change exploring the possibilities, limitations, and risks of Large-Language-Model AI, especially ChatGPT. In my role at work, I haven’t…Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/fourth-grade-adequate-growth-explained/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/fourth-grade-adequate-growth-explained/Here is my video presentation.Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-letter-grades-a-machine-learning-approach/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-letter-grades-a-machine-learning-approach/This blog continues the series on TN School Letter Grade data. You can find the first post here . The same dataset applies. Having looked at some of the preliminary…Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/a-preliminary-look-at-tn-school-letter-grade-data/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/a-preliminary-look-at-tn-school-letter-grade-data/Summary I analyzed the statewide school letter grade data and found that poverty and race significantly impact the letter grades schools receive. The disregard for…Sat, 13 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-school-letter-grades-explained/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tn-school-letter-grades-explained/Introduction Whenever you write something, you’re always supposed to have audience in mind. I do not have one in mind for this blog. It can be for educators or laypeople.…Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/creating-gpts-and-the-future-of-edtech/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/creating-gpts-and-the-future-of-edtech/ChatGPT plus users now have the ability to make their own GPTs. Think of these like personalized ChatGPT bots that have specific parameters. For example, the first one I…Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/josh-heupels-penalty-rates/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/josh-heupels-penalty-rates/Despite Josh Heupel’s success as a football coach at both the University of Central Florida (UCF) and the University of Tennessee (UT), and also despite perennial gaudy…Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/indian-trail-presentation/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/indian-trail-presentation/ChatGPT AI: What teachers need to know. by Jason HorneWed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/niswonger-day-of-learning-2023/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/niswonger-day-of-learning-2023/What I learned talking Calculus at 44 years old. by Jason HorneMon, 16 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/greeneville-techblitz-presentations/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/greeneville-techblitz-presentations/Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-tn-readyeoc-rankings-and-average-proficiency/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-tn-readyeoc-rankings-and-average-proficiency/I wanted to see where my county ranked annually with other school systems in the state in terms of TN Ready/EOC proficiency. I also wanted to compare our county with other…Wed, 19 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/teta-summer-institute-presentation/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/teta-summer-institute-presentation/Wed, 12 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/building-an-artificial-intelligence-tool-to-predict-test-scores/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/building-an-artificial-intelligence-tool-to-predict-test-scores/You can find the tool here. Using different variables, about how reliably can we predict test scores? For this project, the answer was around 40% reliable. Project…Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/three-months-of-chatgpt-part-iii-learning/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/three-months-of-chatgpt-part-iii-learning/Of all the uses that ChatGPT has, how it has helped me learn things is my favorite. Currently, I’m working on a second master’s degree in Data Science, and it has proved…Sun, 26 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/three-months-of-chatgpt-part-ii-teaching/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/three-months-of-chatgpt-part-ii-teaching/Generally, I teach two different classes: MEDA 3570 - Educational Technology for Pre-Service Teachers, and ELPA 5400/6400 - Developing Learners and Instructional Leaders…Sat, 25 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/three-months-of-chatgpt/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/three-months-of-chatgpt/Admittedly, I’m not going to use ChatGPT to write this. One reason is that I need as many writing samples of my own writing that I can get in order to train it to write…Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/chatgpt-collections/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/chatgpt-collections/I will add to this when I create more of these: AI Generated Teacher Emails AI Generated 504 Accommodations AI Generated Principal Emails or LettersSat, 24 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/chatgpt-discussion-question/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/chatgpt-discussion-question/This it the discussion question I’m going to post for my undergrad Educational Technology class. How do you think AI will change education in the future? Play around with…Sat, 24 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/chatgpt-and-education/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/chatgpt-and-education/ChatGPT is a new tool that has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach education. Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is a large language model that is trained to…Sat, 10 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-investment-in-school-achievement-tisa-schools-template/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/tennessee-investment-in-school-achievement-tisa-schools-template/I created this template so that districts could calculate their TISA for individual schools as well as the district using the Department of Education’s TISA Calculator.…Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/data-primer/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/data-primer/Because of some TikToks I had seen where teachers were complaining about how irrelevant looking at last year’s testing was to their teaching, I thought i’d make a Data…Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-state-of-education-in-tennessee/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/the-state-of-education-in-tennessee/I wrote this as part of an application package to get into a learning academy. I am sharing it here for posterity and because I think you’ll find it interesting. The state…Mon, 31 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/jqqhftziovluagkcql8zayq69ynpr0/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/jqqhftziovluagkcql8zayq69ynpr0/I’m just now getting into running, but it wasn’t an overnight success. When you’re large, it’s hard to get going. When you’re older, it’s even more difficult. Here are…Sun, 26 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/initial-research-into-financial-geographical-and-population-effects-on-academic-achievement-part-2/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/initial-research-into-financial-geographical-and-population-effects-on-academic-achievement-part-2/After Part 1, I got a lot of people asking me to give the rankings for the School Systems in TN. I could not find specific financial information for municipal/special…Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/initial-research-into-financial-geographical-and-population-effects-on-schools/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/initial-research-into-financial-geographical-and-population-effects-on-schools/I haven’t even done a lit review yet, so don’t look for much here other than some raw data and some preliminary tests on it. I am only using data from Tennessee. Someone…Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/changes-in-attitude-when-you-look-at-studentsfamilies-as-clients/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/changes-in-attitude-when-you-look-at-studentsfamilies-as-clients/Updated for 2026. The customer service mindset below matters more than ever as families weigh public, private, and online school options. In my six years at Tennessee…Wed, 27 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/what-a-percentage-raise-means-for-most-tn-teachers/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/what-a-percentage-raise-means-for-most-tn-teachers/If you read the headline here , it says Governor Lee is proposing a 4% raise for teachers. When you get down into the text, it actually quotes him more closely which says,…Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/more-about-synchronousasynchronous-learning/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/more-about-synchronousasynchronous-learning/I have dishonored myself. I used my résumé to support an argument. This is bad behavior, and I don’t condone it, but I do get frustrated when people who have done online…Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/five-things-i-wish-id-known-when-starting-a-virtual-high-school/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/five-things-i-wish-id-known-when-starting-a-virtual-high-school/In 2012, I was the leader of a team of teachers who developed (before COVID) a successful online school, Tennessee Online Public School (TOPS). While we ended up creating…Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/lets-hear-it-for-online-teachers/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/lets-hear-it-for-online-teachers/I’m not writing this to be mean to anyone. I’m just writing it to get these thoughts out of my system. When I was principal of Tennessee Online Public School , most of the…Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/asynchronous-versus-synchronous-online-delivery/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/asynchronous-versus-synchronous-online-delivery/If you translate one of the ways to say “Don’t jump to conclusions” from French to English, you would say, “There’s more than one donkey at the fair named Martin.”…Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/blended-learning-the-role-of-the-leader/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/blended-learning-the-role-of-the-leader/"This job would be great if it weren't for the parents." I've heard principals say that more than once, and there is some truth in it even though 95% of my experiences…Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/blended-learning-mindset-2/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/blended-learning-mindset-2/[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="588"] Remember Harry Wong? [/caption] If you started your teaching career in the late 90's or early 00's, then you probably…Thu, 12 May 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/blended-learning-mindset-1/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/blended-learning-mindset-1/This summer I'm going to train two different groups (so far!) of principals on blended learning. I guess I'm qualified to do this since I've been leading an online high…Tue, 10 May 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/fir/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/fir/Well you have to write something for your first post. I hope to keep a blog about everything I'm interested in here. Whether it's education, music, pop culture,…Thu, 10 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/inbound-marketing-1/https://blog.jasonhorne.org/blog/inbound-marketing-1/Even though this site isn't designed to be Inbound Marketing for myself, it's something I've been thinking a lot about because of my job. I am the principal of public…Thu, 10 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT