State of Education in Tennessee Executive Summary – 2011-12 | Page 18

SECTION 2: S CORE Card

work with programs to improve, including creating
opportunities for representatives from less effective
programs to interact with representatives from highly
effective programs, creating feedback reports to help
identify strengths and weaknesses of programs, and,
by the end of 2012, including teacher effect data for
all teachers based on new growth measures that are
being developed for teachers in non-tested grades and
subjects. THEC is currently preparing a similar report
card for school leader preparation programs that will be
released in Fall 2012.
Although the state made great strides over the last
year and a half, Tennessee’s work in professional
development and providing continual support to
impact instructional practice and school leadership
has been delayed or postponed. Aside from trainings
on formative instructional practice and value-added
analysis that have been conducted by Battelle for Kids
on a continual basis since Fall 2010, major components
of the state’s professional development work missed
implementation goals this year, including work with
the Leadership Action Tank, a principal effectiveness
laboratory designed to capture and share best practices
from high-poverty, high-performing schools. The state
also delayed work on the Electronic Learning Center,
which the state ultimately hopes to use as a platform to
provide support to districts on a variety of Race to the
Top initiatives, including implementing Common Core
standards. To ensure that Tennessee’s teachers

and principals are continually improving their
practice, the state must remain committed to
effectively implementing these key reforms.

Standards and Assessments
Tennessee’s primary goal with regard to standards
and assessments is ensuring that the state adopts
and transitions to internationally benchmarked K – 12
standards that build toward college and career
readiness and high-quality assessments tied to these
standards.
In July 2010, the State Board of Education adopted the
Common Core State Standards, a set of internationally

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THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE 2011–12

benchmarked standards developed by a consortium
of states. The Department partnered with Achieve
to engage in a Crosswalk Study to determine the
alignment between Tennessee’s standards and the
Common Core. Although the Crosswalk Study found
that there was significant alignment between the two
sets of standards, the Common Core requires a deeper
engagement with a smaller number of standards than
Tennessee currently requires. The state is engaged in a
multi-year, multi-stage professional development plan
to help educators teach the new standards with fidelity
before the arrival of new, computer-based assessments.
THEC began work to integrate Common Core
standards into teacher preparation programs, including
developing new curriculum. As Tennessee continues
to train educators in how to teach the new standards,
it will be important to provide training that helps them
understand the different pedagogical approaches
required to teach students the Common Core, which
includes rigorous content and demands more higherorder skills from students than current standards.
As a governing state in the Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)
consortium, Tennessee has played a crucial role in
the development of computer-based assessments
aligned with the Common Core. THEC has already
been engaged with educating higher education
faculty on the new standards. THEC has also gathered
feedback from faculty members to ensure that the
assessments for Algebra II and English III are aligned
with college readiness standards. These assessments
will replace entrance exams and be used to determine
whether first year students are eligible to take creditbearing courses. Tennessee will begin adjusting TCAP
assessments toward a more Common Core-aligned
model in Spring 2012 to ensure that districts are
prepared for the full transition to PARCC assessments
in the 2014    5 school year. As the state moves toward
–1
2014    5, a challenge will be ensuring that districts and
–1
schools have the technological capacity and training to
implement the new, computer-based assessments and
that teachers know how to integrate technology into
their instructional practice.

Data
The state is working with the University
of Tennessee’s Center for Business and
Economic Research to create a P-20 state
longitudinal data system that will combine
information from a variety of agencies,
from higher education to health and human
services. The system will be used to provide the state
with a comprehensive look at its students and enable
lead ers to see where students struggle on their pathway
to postsecondary education and training. In addition
to regular TVAAS trainings that are being provided by
Battelle for Kids and supported by regional value-added
specialists, the state’s main data platform for educators
is the Early Warning Data System, which will enable
educators to see real-time indicators for at-risk students
so they can craft effective academic interventions to
keep more students on track to high school graduation
and postsecondary readiness.
In March 2011, the Department hosted an educator
focus group to gather feedback on what data elements
the Department should include in the system now
and in the future when additional measures become
available. Construction of the system began in August

2011. According to the Department, the system will be
piloted in Spring 2012 with an anticipated statewide
rollout of July 2012. Since the state originally anticipated
a Fall 2011 launch of the system, they have issued some
data reports, including a ninth grade report to all high
schools, to provide educators with data on many of the
indicators that will be provided through the system.
Although the Department has proactively taken steps to
provide districts with access to information in advance of
the system coming online, turnover at the Department
and a lengthy contracting process has delayed this
important project. Given the importance of this project
to much of the state’s work in improving the effectiveness
of teachers, it is crucial that the state take steps to
make up for lost time. TDOE, aided by its Field Service
Centers, should ensure that the Department has built
in capacity to aid districts in using this system to drive
academic interventions at the classroom, school, and
district levels. Additionally, the state should supplement
the information the system provides by using
information at the state level to support districts when
it identifies consistent, systemic issues affecting student
achievement. An example issue could include a district
lacking the teaching staff to teach the advanced math
and science courses required of all students entering
high school in the Fall of 2009.

School Turnaround
Tennessee’s school turnaround strategies focus on identifying and establishing an
effective support model for the state’s underperforming schools and establishing an
effective Achievement School District that will turn around the state’s persistently lowest
performing schools. In the last year, the state has given significant financial awards to
schools undergoing turnaround, placed effective, long-time educators in these schools,
and hired vendors to engage in whole school reforms.
As part of the First to the Top legislation, the General Assembly provided the Commissioner of Education with the
authority to take over persistently failing schools and create a new state-run Achievement School District (ASD).
After Governor Haslam’s inauguration, he appointed Kevin Huffman to lead the Department as Commissioner of
Education in April 2011. Huffman then appointed Chris Barbic in May 2011 to lead the ASD. Barbic officially began
work in August 2011. Given the timing associated with these transitions, the role of the ASD was altered for its first
year. Instead of directly managing all 13 ASD-eligible schools in 2011    2, the ASD is co-managing the five lowest
–1
performing schools with their home districts. The ASD held community forums with all five schools and their districts
in the Summer and Fall 2011 to inform partnerships moving forward. Co-managing for the ASD has included
working with human capital partners, including Teach For America and TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project),

THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE 2011–12

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