Eric.ed.gov – Race to the Top. Tennessee. State-Reported APR: Year One

This paper describes Tennessee’s progress in implementing a comprehensive and coherent approach to education reform from the time of application through June 30, 2011. In particular, this report highlights key accomplishments over the reporting period in the four reform areas: standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction, great teachers and leaders, and turning around lowest-achieving schools. Tennessee’s application for Race to the Top laid out an ambitious education reform agenda at all levels–from the state to the school district to the classroom. The state established equally ambitious goals for improving both teacher and leader effectiveness and student achievement. In the first year of implementation of the Tennessee First to the Top initiatives, the state made modest gains towards achieving those goals. From 2010 to 2011, overall student achievement in the two primary focus areas of the grant, 3rd grade reading and 7th grade math, increased by 2 percentage points and 7 percentage points respectively. The implementation of Tennessee’s reform agenda has been complex and not without its challenges, but the state has made significant progress in a number of key areas over the past year. Tennessee has made the most significant progress in the area of great teachers and leaders-specifically the development of a new teacher and principal evaluation system, recruitment initiatives, and strategic compensation plans. The state has also laid the groundwork for significant progress to come in the next year on standards and assessments, data systems, school turnaround and STEM, specifically through initial awareness training for the Common Core standards, planning for an early warning data system, establishing charter schools and a co-management process for the state’s Achievement School District, and creating two new STEM platform schools. Local education agencies that are experiencing gains in student achievement are executing on First to the Top plans that support these initiatives and have a comprehensive focus on the state goals. [For the parent document, “Race to the Top Annual Performance Report,” see ED529267. For the state summary report, “Race to the Top. Tennessee Report. Year 1: School Year 2010-2011. [State-Specific Summary Report]”, see ED529330.]