2015-16 State of Education in Tennessee | Page 87

based on number of years teaching and level of degree completion.184 Drive to 55 – Governor Bill Haslam’s Drive to 55 initiative aims to increase the percentage of support, leader and teacher effectiveness, balanced Tennesseans with a college degree or certificate assessment systems, and response to instruction to 55 percent by 2025. This initiative encompasses and intervention.183 several different programs including Tennessee Promise, which offers two years of tuition-free Constructed Response Assessment (CRA) – CRAs community or technical college to Tennessee high are math assessments that were offered to students school graduates.185 in grades 3-8, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. CRAs were optional in the 2013-14 school year. CRAs Dual Credit – Dual-credit courses are high school were intended to provide teachers and students with courses taught by high school faculty that are assessments that reflect the level of rigor that will aligned with the curriculum of a postsecondary be present on new, aligned math assessments. The course. Students taking a dual-credit course can results from these assessments did not factor into receive postsecondary credit if they have satisfactory teacher evaluations or student grades. performance on an end-of-course assessment designed by the postsecondary institution. 186 Differentiated Pay Plans – Differentiated pay plans tie a teacher’s compensation and incentives Dual Enrollment – Dual enrollment is a to professional learning, student achievement, postsecondary course taught at either a leadership roles, a willingness to teach in high-need postsecondary institution or high school that allows subjects or areas, and other measures. Differentiated students to simultaneously earn postsecondary and pay plans differ from traditional salary schedules, secondary course credit upon successful completion which uniformly increase teachers’ compensation of the course.187 86