When you think of “best places to work” type lists, you don’t often think of school districts — but maybe you should.
Tennessee school districts are making strides toward the top of that proverbial list, especially if a list existed that measured the best place for teachers who want to see all students achieve early literacy success. With a clear vision for how to teach literacy and aligned expectations and supports from preservice to the classroom, Tennessee schools are truly amazing places to begin and grow a career.
The emphasis begins at the state level: Tennessee mandates alignment between the instructional approach used in public school classrooms — explicit foundational skills instruction — and the instructional method educator preparation providers (EPPs) must focus on in their coursework. The state also requires districts to adopt and purchase high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) in literacy and has policies in place that require EPPs to train teachers on how to use them. This gives teachers a leg up on learning the research-based approach for teaching students to read plus access to training on the kind of curriculum required in the classroom.
This kind of onboarding is critical. While research has shown that having an effective educator in the classroom is the most important school-based factor for student academic success, it also shows that new teachers, on average, are less effective than their more experienced peers. Given that 80% of the first-year educators prepared by one of Tennessee’s 44 EPPs start their career in a Tennessee classroom, legislated alignment between district and EPP preparation practices — particularly around early literacy — is critical to fostering and sustaining systematic impact on student learning.
So, does it work for the students, too?
The short answer is: Yes. The alignment and emphasis on teacher training and materials is part of what’s working so well for Tennessee students. Tennessee reached a record high in English language arts proficiency this year, solidifying pandemic learning recovery. And with less than 40% of students in Tennessee reading on grade-level, this approach to literacy instruction will prove to be even more important as we continue efforts to close learning gaps in the state.
This is all great news, but can it be sustained, and can future new educators expect the same benefits?
At SCORE, we hope the answer to that question is yes. And we took action this past year to bring together a network of local districts and EPPs to create a framework for bringing further alignment to this work. We summarized the partnership efforts of the past year in a recent report, Leading in Literacy: Building Early Literacy Partner Teams, which includes:
- An implementation framework for integrating existing EPP and school district partnership policies with a specific focus on early literacy, essentially building a content-specific model for collaboration.
- An elementary school site visit tool kit to support EPPs, districts, and school teams across the state as they take this critical first step and facilitate conversations to co-construct a vision and create next steps in this work.
Though you may not see Tennessee school districts on a Fortune 500 list, this increasingly seamless pathway to prepare our newest teachers for literacy instruction is a benefit to applaud and grow. Read our report to learn more about the work we’re doing with partners across the state to ensure this alignment continues.
Karen Lawrence is SCORE’s senior director of networks and partnerships.