2014-15 State of Education in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 4

In order for the state to successfully transition to technology-based assessments, Tennessee foundations, business
partners, and Centers of Regional Excellence (CORE) should
support district leaders in their efforts to upgrade technological infrastructure and access in their schools. Additionally,
districts must prioritize schools’ efforts to provide students
with early instruction on technology and keyboarding skills to
prepare them for technology-based assessments, and success in college and career.
While summative assessments provide important feedback to
teachers and students about growth and progress achieved at
the end of the school year, formative assessments provide this
information to teachers throughout the year. For this reason, it
is important for CORE offices to provide district and school leaders with support in their selection of formative assessments
to ensure they are aligned to Tennessee’s State Standards and
provide educators with the information they need to improve
student learning.

Ensure the continued and improved implementation of Tennessee’s
State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics.
Tennessee’s State Standards are now implemented across
all grades statewide. It is important to ensure that the
current public review process of the standards is focused on
continuous improvement and results in higher standards
for Tennessee students, not lower standards. Additionally,
policymakers should refrain from passing legislation
changing the state’s standards while this process is ongoing.

To ensure the standards reach all students, continued support for teachers and school leaders is critical as they work to
integrate the new standards into their daily practice. Professional learning opportunities should be offered to additional
teachers and school leaders around the state, providing more
educators with the resources they need to successfully transition to new standards. It is also important to continue to engage parents and community members on the standards, informing the larger public on what the standards are and why
they are important to Tennessee students’ academic growth.
As educators continue to implement Tennessee’s State Standards, school districts have an important role to play in providing educators with support and guidance in the selection
of high-quality, aligned learning materials. CORE offices,
school districts, and the Tennessee Department of Education
should create a tool or network that allows Core Coaches, instructional coaches, and teachers to share aligned resources
with one another.

Elevate the teaching profession in Tennessee to ensure that
high-quality candidates pursue a career in education and that
Tennessee’s current teachers receive the support they need to
improve student learning. The first step in improving the qual-

ity of teaching in Tennessee is to recruit high-quality candidates to the profession and ensure Tennessee’s teacher
preparation programs provide teaching candidates with the
skills needed for success in the classroom. In order to improve the quality of preparation programs, it is important for
the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Department
of Education to develop a more rigorous teacher preparation
program approval process that focuses on outcomes such as

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teacher retention and teaching effectiveness, in addition to
inputs such as selectivity of candidates and rigorous curricula. While the State Board of Education passed the Educator
Preparation Policy in October 2014, laying the foundation for
improvements in preparation programs in Tennessee, it is
essential to ensure this policy is implemented effectively and
that it yields significant improvements in teacher preparation
throughout the state.
In order for current teachers to improve their instruction
and experience ongoing professional growth, it is essential
to provide teachers with high-quality coaching and support
throughout their careers. School districts and CORE offices
should offer professional learning opportunities for school
leaders on the teacher evaluation, providing them with the
skills they need to support and coach teachers toward instructional improvement.
It is also important to recognize and reward highly effective
teachers for the work they do to improve student learning in
classrooms every day. In the 2013-14 school year, several districts had the opportunity to develop teacher leader models
for their schools. It is important for school districts to work
with the Tennessee Department of Education to expand these
teacher leader models throughout the state and to explore
other innovative ways to provide teachers with leadership opportunities throughout their careers. In order for Tennessee
to attract and retain high-quality teachers in its schools and
districts, it is important to provide teachers with competitive
levels of compensation. Tennessee currently lags behind other states in teacher compensation, ranking 40th in average
teacher pay.4 In 2014, Tennessee made a commitment to being the fastest-improving state in the country in teacher pay
and it is important for Tennessee’s leaders to maintain that
commitment in 2015.
While Tennessee students have shown impressive growth in
math over the past several years, Tennessee achievement
data indicate that students in grades 3-8 continue to struggle
in reading.5 For this reason, it is important for key leaders including the Tennessee Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (TACTE), the Tennessee Higher Education Commission
(THEC), educators, and other experts in literacy instruction to
convene a taskforce to develop a strategic plan around literacy performance for Tennessee. This strategic plan should
focus on developing instructional skills in literacy for both
current teachers and incoming teachers.

Transform instruction through high-quality school leadership
that meets local needs. While effective teaching yields im-

proved learning for Tennessee students, school leaders provide teachers with the support they need to improve instruction and student learning in their classrooms. For this reason,
it is important to improve all aspects of the principal pipeline to increase district access to high-quality school leaders.
The first step in creating effective school leaders is recr uiting
high-quality candidates to principal preparation programs
and improving the quality of those preparation programs to
ensure they are providing principals with the skills they need
to be instructional leaders. To do so, the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Department of Education should
work to develop and implement a more rigorous principal