Over the past several years, results from national assessments and reports revealed that Tennessee was failing to prepare students for success after high school. In 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Leaders & Laggards report gave Tennessee an “F” for truth in advertising about student proficiency levels. While Tennessee reported that over 90 percent of students in grades 3-8 were proficient in math and reading, less than 30 percent of fourth-graders and eighth-graders in Tennessee were proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
