Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 12

including a Governor’s task force on teacher effectiveness, the Tennessee Board of Regents’ Teacher Quality Initiative, and the State Board of Education’s Teacher Training Program Report Card, all these efforts are still in their nascent stages. Third, the state has never systematically focused on creating a highquality pipeline of superintendents and principals. Although the State Board of Education recently passed a policy that in theory would significantly improve the quality of principal training, significant work remains to be done in turning this policy into a reality. Fourth, although Tennessee has one of the best student data systems in the country, more effort needs to be taken to ensure policymakers, superintendents, principals, and teachers use this data to effectively design policies and improve classroom instruction. Finally, Tennessee is only in the initial stages of learning how to effectively use technology in the classroom and creating a seamless transition between high school and higher education. Although the state has made some initial efforts in both these areas, much work remains to be done. Educational Outcomes There are two primary types of educational outcomes that can be measured and compared across states: student achievement and educational attainment. Student achievement refers to students’ performance on standardized tests. Educational attainment refers to the level of education a student completes. This section will first discuss student achievement and then discuss educational attainment. There are only two measures of student achievement that can be compared across states. The first is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a national test given every two years to a representative sample of students in each state. States are required to participate in the NAEP in order to receive federal Title I funds. NAEP measures the achievement level of fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students in a variety of subjects including reading, math, science, social studies, and writing. However, states are only required to administer the fourth and eighth grade math and reading tests in order to receive federal funding. Figure 3.2 shows how each state performs on these tests. The graph shows a composite scale score for each state, a measure that was created by averaging each state’s fourth and eighth grade reading and math scores.12 As Figure 3.2 illustrates, Tennessee ranks 41st in student achievement on the NAEP. Overall, the Southeast performs fairly poorly. With the exception of Virginia, whose average NAEP score places the state in ninth place nationally, not a single state in the Southeast scores in the top half. However, even among the eleven Southeastern states, Tennessee ranks eighth, above only Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.i Besides Virginia, the other leading Southeastern states are North Carolina (29th), Florida (30th), and Kentucky (33rd). The second measure of student achievement that can be compared across states is college entrance exams, specifically the ACT and the SAT. Tennessee students disproportionately take the ACT rather than the SAT. For example, in the 2007-08 school year, 88 percent of Tennessee high school seniors took the ACT.13 In many states, a much lower percentage of students take either the ACT or SAT. Therefore, it is important to only compare Tennessee’s score to the scores of other states who have a high percentage of students taking either the ACT or SAT. Of the 25 states where at least either 70 percent of graduates took the SAT or 70 percent of graduates took the ACT in 2007-08, Tennessee’s average score ranks 16th. Of the seven Southeastern states with at least 70 percent of graduates taking either the ACT or SAT, Tennessee ranks second. However, this ranking is deceptive as many of the highest performing Southeastern states, including North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia, did not have over 70 percent of their students take either the SAT or the ACT. In addition to student achievement, educational outcomes can also be measured by educational attainment, which measures the timing and percentage of individuals receiving various education credentials such as high school diplomas, associate’s degrees, and bachelor’s degrees. Tennesseans are not earning education credentials at a competitive rate relative to the rest of the nation. The state ranks at or below the national average in all measures of educational attain ment, including the statewide high school graduation rate, percent of young people enrolled in college, and college completion rate. In comparison to other Southeastern states, Tennessee ranks in the middle, having a slightly higher than average graduation rate but a below average percentage of young people enrolled in college and a below average college completion rate. Tennessee has the nation’s 32nd highest graduation rate, defined as the percent of entering high school freshmen who graduate within four years. State graduation rates range from 47.3 percent in Nevada to 82.1 percent in New Jersey. Tennessee’s graduation rate of 69.5 percent is slightly above the national average of 69.2 percent. Compared to other Southeastern states, Tennessee ranks third behind Kentucky and Arkansas. Moreover, from 1996 to 2006, Tennessee’s high i The eleven states labeled as “Southeastern” in this report are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 11