State of Education in Tennessee Executive Summary – 2011-12 | Page 6

Exec ut iv e S ummary

When SCORE released its State of
Education in Tennessee report in March
2011, Tennessee had passed a series of
policy changes that transformed the state
into a national leader for education reform.
Building on these early policy successes, 2011 ushered
in the beginning of the tough and challenging work of
implementation — of turning policy changes into tangible
student achievement gains. While progress continues to
be made, there is much work left to be done to prepare
Tennessee’s students for college and the workforce.
The need for maintaining the momentum for education
reform continues to be driven by both an economic
imperative as well as recent scores on a range of student
assessments. Recent data show that, within seven years
of graduation, Tennesseans who complete a credential
beyond a high school diploma earn, on average, $10,000
more per year than those who do not. Currently, only 31
percent of adults in Tennessee have an associate’s degree
or higher. And while students in grades three through eight
showed improvements on the Tennessee Comprehensive
Assessment Program (TCAP) in 2011, only 15 percent of
students in the state are college-ready across all four ACT
benchmarks (English, Reading, Mathematics, and Science).
These statistics served as a continued impetus for
Tennessee’s policymaking efforts in 2011. Education reform
formed the core of Governor Bill Haslam’s first legislative
package and dominated the attention of the first session
of the 107th Tennessee General Assembly. Both tenure
reform and charter school expansion, priorities for the
Governor, became law. In addition, the Achievement
School District, the body tasked with turning around the
state’s lowest-performing schools, was given authority
to authorize charter schools that are within the District’s
jurisdiction. The General Assembly sought a number of
other education policy changes, many of which became
law, including replacing Tennessee’s collective bargaining
process with a system of collaborative conferencing, and
expanding online education.
2011 also marked the beginning of much of the
implementation of Tennessee’s First to the Top reform
plan, and a significant part of this work focused on the
state’s new teacher evaluation system. The Teacher

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THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE 2011–12

Evaluation Advisory Committee (TEAC), created through
the 2010 First to the Top Act, submitted a full evaluation
plan, including four observation models, to the State
Board of Education in April 2011. The system was
implemented statewide in the Fall of 2011. To aid in the
implementation of the system and to gather feedback
on potential improvements from educators and other
stakeholders, SCORE began a statewide listening and
feedback process on the evaluation in early 2012, with a
report on the feedback process due by June 1.
Other major implementation efforts in 2011 focused on
school turnaround. In Fall 2011, the Achievement School
District began co-managing five schools in Tennessee and
assisting with operations in eight others. In addition, the
ASD began authorizing new charter schools to open in
2012. Charter school expansion increased in the state as
well, bringing the total number of charter schools operating
in the 2011    2 school year to 40.
–1
Additionally, Tennessee’s educators began implementing
the Common Core State Standards in grades K    in the Fall
–2
of 2011 after a series of summer trainings.
To more accurately identify schools that need additional
support, Tennessee announced its intent to seek a waiver
from certain provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) law in late Summer of 2011. The formal waiver
request, submitted in November, sought to replace NCLB
with an accountability framework that is aligned with the
state’s First to the Top plan. In February 2012, the U.S.
Department of Education granted the request. Tennessee
will replace the Adequate Yearly Progress measurement
with a goal of raising overall achievement 3 to 5 percent
every year, while creating three new categories for schools
based on their performance (Reward schools, Focus
schools, and Priority schools).
Finally, significant implementation work took place
in regional and local school district settings. The
Greeneville, TN-based Niswonger Foundation continued
to implement the Northeast Tennessee College and
Career Ready Consortium (NETCO). The Memphis
City Schools’ Teacher Effectiveness Initiative began the
third year of its four-pronged plan to improve student
achievement by identifying, supporting, and developing
effective teaching. And a number of school districts
in Tennessee moved forward with alternative salary

schedules for educators, rewarding teachers and principals
for their ability to increase student achievement levels.
In order to implement reforms effectively and ensure
that they are having positive impacts on students, there
are crucial areas that Tennessee must focus on as it
moves into 2012. We have outlined four priorities for the
coming year to ensure our state is the fastest improving
in the nation with regard to public education. 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.
First, sustained policy leadership will continue to be
critical, as the implementation of Tennessee’s ambitious
reform efforts could lead to discomfort as new approaches
replace old standards. In particular, the state will need
to exhibit continued commitment to implementation
of educator evaluations and high academic standards.
SCORE encourages policymakers to maintain their
commitment to First to the Top, recognizing challenges
will inevitably arise as the state tr