Nashville, Tenn. — Building on the state’s continued pursuit of success for every student in Tennessee, today the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) unveiled its latest report: 2025 State of Education in Tennessee: Casting a Vision for Student Success.
Marking an annual milestone for SCORE and the entire Tennessee education community, the report highlights new statewide goals and six priorities the state should pursue in 2025 and beyond to unlock opportunity for students across the journey from K-12 and postsecondary education to a career. Leaders gathered to hear from speakers and a panel of experts this morning.
“Every point along the education journey matters — from the early years through graduation,” says Sen. Bill Frist, M.D., chairman and founder of SCORE. “At each milestone, there are key indicators of success that build on one another and give students the best chance at a fulfilling education, career and life. If we have the data and the ideas to propel them through that journey, then we must take action and prepare them for their future.”
This year’s report, available today for download, analyzes both the gains achieved in recent years as well as areas ripe for improvement due to persistent gaps in student achievement, postsecondary completion and career preparation. Focused on addressing these areas of opportunity, the goals and priorities include:
- TN2030 goals: Rooted in the idea of collective student success that can take place when one student in every public school classroom in Tennessee makes progress each year in key educational milestones — third-grade ELA, seventh-grade math, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary completion — TN2030 offers four goals to propel the state toward groundbreaking achievement gains in the next five years.
- Credentials and workforce opportunity: Not all postsecondary credentials are unlocking economic opportunity for students. Tennessee should better connect credentials and workforce opportunity using SCORE’s recently released impact credentials framework, which considers annual earnings, job outlook and stackability to identify credentials that lead to careers enabling economic independence.
- Postsecondary funding: While Tennessee has already implemented an outcomes-based funding formula, the formula has not yet translated to student success across the board. During the 2025 formula revision window, Tennessee should improve long-term student success through postsecondary funding by focusing on education measures connected to careers that enable economic independence, simplifying the funding formula, and improving alignment with student outcomes.
- High school pathways: Tennessee does not have the full picture of how its high school early postsecondary and career experiences, like dual enrollment and work-based learning, accelerate student paths to success. Tennessee should focus on high school pathways that prepare students for careers that enable economic independence by incentivizing the most effective pathways, prioritizing high-quality work-based learning and equipping student advisors with robust information.
- Excellent educators: Many districts in Tennessee struggle to fully staff their schools with qualified teachers, with each district and school experiencing their own unique set of challenges. Tennessee should innovate to recruit and retain excellent educators by better understanding local needs, evaluating current pipeline initiatives and piloting new strategic staffing models.
- Public charter schools: Charter students show double to triple academic growth for historically underserved groups compared to their peers in noncharter schools. Yet, public charters face a chronic facilities funding gap and authorizer barriers that create delays in opening classroom doors to students. Tennessee should bolster access to high-quality public charter schools through increased TISA funding, a revolving loan fund with philanthropic support and expanded authorization pathways.
- Foundational policies: Rigorous standards, aligned assessments and teacher evaluation have each made Tennessee a leader in setting the bar high for students and teachers. Tennessee should recommit to the foundational K-12 policies that have advanced student success.
“Advancing these priorities requires a shared statewide commitment to pursuing solutions for the most important challenges our students face along their educational journeys,” says David Mansouri, president and CEO of SCORE. “We encourage leaders across our state to join us in envisioning a future where more Tennessee students have a clear path to opportunity.”
SCORE unveiled the report during an annual gathering of nearly 200 statewide stakeholders invested in Tennessee’s student success. During the event, Mansouri and Frist expanded on the goals and priorities. Additionally, a panel of leaders from across the state discussed practical applications, barriers to overcome and next steps. Panelists included: Dr. Rebecca Ashford, president of Chattanooga State Community College; Stuart McWhorter, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development; Dr. Andrea Poynter, executive director of Nurses Middle College Nashville; Dr. Clint Satterfield, director of schools for the Trousdale County School District; and moderator Barbara Hyde, chair and CEO of the Hyde Family Foundation.