Section 1: Year In Review
Promising Practices:
Niswonger Foundation Investing in Innovation Grant
reform was the implementation of new, higher
academic standards, an effort which actually began
three years earlier.
In 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published
a report card outlining the rigor of each state’s
academic standards based on the knowledge
students were expected to know in each grade
and subject. Tennessee received an “F” on this
report card for truth in advertising, ranking behind
every other state in the nation.x The report clearly
showed that Tennessee students were not learning
enough compared to students in other states, and
that Tennessee’s standards were significantly lower
than those in other states. Motivated by this poor
performance, and with significant support from
the business community, former Governor Phil
Bredesen announced that Tennessee would launch
the Tennessee Diploma Project (TDP), an effort
to raise the state’s academic standards to ensure
Tennessee students would be more competitive
nationally.
Throughout the summer and fall of 2007, the
Governor’s office worked with the Tennessee
Department of Education, the State Board of
Education, and other key stakeholders to draft
new, higher academic standards for the state
in reading, language arts, math, and science, in
addition to more rigorous high school graduation
requirements. The group ultimately developed
new academic standards that required many skills
be taught in earlier grades, and that students
develop more analytical thinking and problemsolving skills. The group also developed new high
school graduation requirements that expanded
the number of credits required for graduation, and
required additional math and science courses. On
January 25, 2008, the State Board of Education
officially approved these new standards and
graduation requirements.xi
Teachers began teaching the state’s higher
academic standards to students for the first time
in the 2009-10 school year. To measure whether
students were learning the new standards,
the state made changes to the Tennessee
Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP). The
new version of the TCAP was administered for the
first time in Spring of 2010.
Fourth-Grade Math Standards
Old Standard
(2009-10 School Year and Beyond)
Add and subtract fractions
with like denominators
Add and subtract fractions with
like and unlike denominators and
simplify the answer
Determine the median of
a data set
Given a set of data or a graph,
describe the distribution of the
data using median, range,
or mode
Divide efficiently and
accurately with single-digit
whole numbers
14
New Standard
(Prior to 2009-10 School Year)
Solve problems using whole
number division with one or
two-digit divisors
The State of Education In Tennessee
To educate Tennesseans and raise
awareness about the state’s new academic
standards, SCORE created a coalition
of 30 statewide business and educ ][ۂ