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
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