Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 38

Governance issues are further complicated by the fact many Field Service Centers. As Figure 3.17 illustrates, these centers education decisions are made at the local, rather than state, are located across the state. Each of these centers employs ten level. Tennessee has 136 school districts, including 95 to twelve staff members including specialists in career and county school districts, 27 municipal school districts, and 14 technical education, federal programs, special education, special school districts. These districts technology, school improvement vary greatly. While eight districts only planning, and assessment and testing. operate a single school, Memphis City These centers were originally intended Schools operates 190 schools, more than to serve as the primary state resource for the number of schools operated by the local school districts. However, this goal T e n n essee h a s a 56 smallest school districts combined. has only partially been realized, at least in Each of these districts is governed by part because of the Department’s recent f r act u re d a n d d is j oi n te d a local school board, which is solely hiring freeze and limits on staff travel. responsible for appointing the district syste m o f e d u c atio n superintendent. County and municipal Additionally, in 2005, the state created a school districts do not have their own series of regional and local P-16 councils, g over n a n ce t h at m a k es it taxing authority but instead must rely as Figure 3.17 illustrates. Operating on taxes collected and allocated by under the Tennessee Board of Regents, d i f f ic u lt to co n siste n t ly the County Commission (for county the councils are composed of higher school districts) or both the County education, K-12 education, business, i m p l e m e n t n ew re for m s Commission and local city council and community leaders in each region (for municipal school districts). Special or locality. The goal of the councils is to school districts possess their own bring multiple stakeholders together in a n d po l icies e f f ective ly. taxing authority, although the General each area to improve standards, teaching Assembly sets a separate cap on each quality, and the transition from high district’s maximum tax rate. school to post-secondary education. Although a strong structure, the vast Despite this complicated governance majority of P-16 councils are still working system, there are at least two additional statewide structures to identify ways to be most effective. If given sufficient resources that could be helpful for implementing statewide education and direction, the Field Service Centers and P-16 councils could reforms. The first is the Department of Education’s nine provide a strong infrastructure on which statewide education reform efforts could be built. Figure 3.17 Map of Regional P-16 Councils and Field Service Centers Note: Each color represents a different regional P-16 council and each star represents a Tennessee Department of Education Field Service Center. Source: Tennessee Department of Education 37