State of Education in Tennessee Executive Summary – 2011-12 | Page 20

SECTION 2: S CORE Card

2012 Priorities
In 2011, Tennessee began the hard work
of implementing education reforms in
classrooms throughout the state.
After passing the most significant piece of education
legislation since 1992 and capturing a Race to the Top
grant, some of the state’s most ambitious policy priorities,
including implementing new teacher and principal
evaluation systems, implementing Common Core
standards in grades K – 2, and co-managing the schools in
the Achievement School District, are affecting educators
and students statewide. In The State of Education in
Tennessee — 2010 report, SCORE established four
priorities that would enable Tennessee to make significant
progress in effectively implementing these and other
policy priorities the state had committed to.

These priorities included:
• Sustained Policy Leadership
• A Comprehensive Strategy for Improving the
Pipeline of District and School Leaders
• A Relentless Focus on Instructional Quality
• Increasing the Capacity of the Tennessee
Department of Education
In three of these areas — sustained policy leadership,
a focus on instructional quality, and increased capacity
at the Tennessee Department of Education — the state
made substantial progress in 2011. The state’s progress
in these areas allowed Tennessee to meet many of its
implementation goals and start to see improvements
in student achievement. Unfortunately, little progress
was made in advancing a comprehensive strategy for
enhancing district and school leadership pipelines.
As schools seek to improve the quality of education
for students statewide, this area will remain of critical
importance
In order to implement reforms effectively and ensure that
they are having positive impacts on students, there are a
few crucial areas that Tennessee needs to focus on as it
moves into 2012.

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THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE 2011–12

This section of the report provides an update on the state’s
progress on SCORE’s 2010    1 priorities and then presents
–1

four priorities for the state in 2012:
• Sustained Policy Leadership
• Robust Professional Learning for Educators
• Strengthening Teacher Preparation Programs
• A Renewed Focus on Enhancing the Pipeline
of School Principals
We believe these priorities will further our goal of
preparing Tennessee’s students for college and
the workforce. By maintaining our commitment to
implementing an ambitious reform agenda and promoting
stronger, better prepared and supported educators and
school leaders, Tennessee can continue to lead the nation
as a state committed to a better future for its students and
graduates. Tennessee has made progress, particularly on
the policy front, but these priorities outline the substantial
work that must be done before our state sees significant
gains in student achievement.

Reviewing Progress
on 2010 – 11 Priorities
Sustained Policy Leadership
Education remained a high priority issue in 2011 for
Governor Haslam and the Tennessee General Assembly.
During the year, policymakers prioritized public education
issues ranging from teacher tenure to public charter
school reform. Equally important, the state maintained its
commitment to implementing its First to the Top goals.
In addition to policymakers, business and community
leaders maintained a strong commitment to supporting
the state’s education reform efforts. For example,
Volkswagen has invested more than $5 million in
educational institutions in the state as part of its Partners
in Education initiative. In addition, the state engaged
and received support from the Tennessee Business
Roundtable, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Greater Memphis Chamber, and other business
groups in developing its No Child Left Behind waiver
application.

Although some civil rights organizations in other states
have expressed concerns about state-level commitments
to addressing achievement gaps for students from racial
minority and lower-income backgrounds, the Tennessee
chapter of the NAACP, Tennessee Urban League Affiliates,
and Memphis Urban League also added their support to
the state’s waiver application. Throughout the year, leaders
from government, business, philanthropic, and civil rights
communities demonstrated a strong commitment to
pursuing improved educational conditions for all students
in the state.

Relentless Focus on Instructional Quality
Although making policy changes is an important first step
to instituting education reform, ultimately, the greatest
effects are realized when policies impact instruction in the
classroom. Most of the work around instructional quality in
2011 focused on piloting and implementing new models
for teacher evaluation in ways that connect evaluation to
human capital decisions, including tenure and alternative
compensation systems. Although these efforts have been
essential in reforming teacher evaluation in Tennessee,
much work remains to continue driving improvements in
evaluations and in assessing successes and challenges.
SCORE will contribute to this work in 2012 by gathering
input on the new teacher evaluation system through a
feedback process across the state.

The state’s adoption of Common Core State
Standards makes a continued focus on
improved instructional quality even more
necessary. The standards will require depth of
instruction that goes beyond the Tennessee Diploma
Project, and represent a paradigm shift in the way we
prepare students for college and careers. Rather than
providing educators with one-time oppo