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