Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 15
Standards
Business leaders and college deans alike
agree far too many high school students
are graduating without the skills they need
to be successful in college or the workforce.
Research has shown that high school
graduation standards that are rigorous and
well aligned with real world demands are
essential for ensuring students graduate
high school prepared for college or the
workforce.18 This research has also shown
that for standards to be most effective, a
state must align its statewide assessment
tests, human capital strategies, and other
state policies with its standards.19
“ T e n n essee s h o u l d b e
co m m e n d e d for i m provi n g
its sta n da r d s a n d h i g h
sc h oo l g r a d uatio n
re q u ire m e n ts i n
recor d ti m e .”
In 2005, it became clear Tennessee had
some of the lowest standards in the country
when Tennessee was one of two states to
receive an “F” for “Truth in Advertising
About Student Proficiency” on a United
States Chamber of Commerce report.20 The
– Mi k e C o h e n , P resi d e n t,
Ac h ieve , I n c .
Figure 3.4
Comparison of Tennessee Proficiency
on TCAP and NAEP in 2007
100
90.0%
Percent of Students Scoring Proficient or Advanced
(Average of 4th and 8th Grade Scores)
88.8%
80
70
60
50
40
30
26.5%
3
10
Math
Reading
NAEP
TCAP
Source: Tennessee Department of Education; National Center for Educational
Statistics
14
First, TDP redesigned high school graduation requirements. As
Figure 3.5 illustrates, the new requirements will likely necessitate
a total of 22 credits for graduation instead of 20 credits. The
number of required math credits has been increased from three
to four, which now must include courses in Algebra I, Algebra
9
II, Geometry, and another higher level math course. Although,
there will still be three required credits for science, students
8
will now have to take either chemistry or physics in addition to
biology. The new requirements also include 1.5 credits in physical
7
education and wellness, half a credit in personal finance, two
6
credits in foreign language, and one credit in fine arts—none of
which were required under the old graduation standards. These
5
new graduation requirements will go into effect for students
4
starting high school in Fall 2009.
Second, TDP is implementing a new TCAP assessment test that
will be better aligned with NAEP so that the percent of students
2
who are proficient on the TCAP will better reflect the percent of
students who are proficient on the NAEP. The 1 was piloted
test
in Spring 2009 and will be rolled out in Spring 0
2010.
26.0%
20
0
In response to this report, in 2007
Governor Bredesen and the Tennessee
State Board of Education launched the
Tennessee Diploma Project (TDP), an
offshoot of the American Diploma Project
(ADP). Founded by Achieve, Inc., ADP is
an effort to encourage states to create high
academic standards and align them with
a rigorous curricula and assessment test.21
TDP has three main components.
T h e S t a t e o f E d u c a t i o n i n T e n n e ss e e
Third, there will be a new set of tests for eighth grade and high
school students. Staring in the 2009-10 school year, all eighth
ii This is in part because the TCAP was significantly easier than the NAEP
but also because TCAP had only three levels of performance (not proficient,
proficient, and advanced) while NAEP had four (not proficient, basic,
proficient, and advanced).
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 births)
90
report cited Tennessee for having the largest
gap between the percentage of students that
were proficient in reading and math on
state exams and the percentage of students
that were proficient in reading and math
on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP). While around 90 percent
of Tennessee students were labeled proficient
on state reading and math TCAP tests, only
around 26 percent of students were labeled
proficient on NAEP reading and math tests
(Figure 3.4).ii