2026 State of Education in Tennessee: Moving Every Student Forward
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Teachers & Leaders
The Future of Tennessee Teacher Evaluation
August 21, 2025
Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system has long been recognized as a national model — both for the reforms that created our multiple-measure evaluation design and for its impact on student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Built to deliver meaningful instructional feedback, the system has driven lasting gains in math and English language arts proficiency. Still, there are opportunities to advance Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system. Because teacher quality is the single most important in-school factor for student success, Tennessee must continue refining this critical tool.This memo outlines three areas of opportunity and key recommendations — presented on August 20, 2025, to the Tennessee General Assembly’s Joint Advisory Committee on Innovations in K-12 Education — to ensure our teacher evaluation system continues to drive instructional growth and student success.
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Teachers & Leaders | Innovative Models | K-12 Success
The Tennessee Approach: Let’s Ask How Changes Can Benefit Students
July 28, 2025
Thanks to student-centered policies, practices, and investments, Tennessee has been a national leader in improving student outcomes over the past decade. As the Trump Administration explores shifting key responsibilities from the U.S. Department of Education to the states, Tennessee has an opportunity to reinforce its leadership by anchoring decisions in three guiding principles. As part of SCORE’s Informing the Conversation series, this memo examines how stakeholders can respond to federal shifts with a sense of possibility and urgency by asking how changes might benefit students.
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Teachers & Leaders | Innovative Models | K-12 Success
Lead in Literacy Case Study: Aligning Teacher Candidate Preparation and Mentor Support Experiences
May 12, 2025
To support strong early literacy educator preparation in our state, Tennessee Technological University (TN Tech) and the Putnam County School System (PCSS) have partnered through the Lead in Literacy network to strengthen TN Tech’s educator preparation program (EPP). This EPP-district partnership is constructing a shared vision for literacy instruction and revising undergraduate literacy coursework methods to bolster skills around the science of reading and high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). This case study outlines their work to date.
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Teachers & Leaders | Innovative Models | K-12 Success
Piloting Instructionally Coherent Literacy Intervention in Knox County Schools
May 7, 2025
Four elementary schools in Knox County tested a literacy intervention approach that brings better instructional coherence to students by using the same high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) that are used in the student’s main classroom, rather than introducing new materials that may follow a different scope and sequence of learning. In a previous report from SCORE, this approach showed promising results when compared with students receiving support in settings that used different materials.
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Teachers & Leaders | Education Finance | Postsecondary Success | K-12 Success
Tennessee Education Primer: A Guide for Policymakers, Candidates, and Advocates
January 15, 2025
Educational achievement in Tennessee has shown an encouraging trend over the last several years: In so many cases, students are reaching new heights and pursuing new endeavors. Much credit is due to the foundational laws, policies, and rules established and implemented by leaders who desire to see students succeed. SCORE’s biennial Tennessee Education Primer — featuring educational statistics, trends, and initiatives — reflects that continuing progress.
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Teachers & Leaders | High-Quality Public Charter Schools | Data Insights | Education-to-Career Pathways | K-12 Success
2025 State of Education in Tennessee: Casting a Vision for Student Success
December 6, 2024
In 2025, SCORE will focus on a critical question that will have a lasting impact on the success of every student in Tennessee: "Are Tennessee students prepared for careers that enable economic independence?" Answering this question requires an intentional look at the entire educational journey and will take greater alignment across K-12, postsecondary, and the workforce.
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Teachers & Leaders | Innovative Models | K-12 Success
Tennessee's Teacher Pipeline: Initiatives to Increase Student Access to Effective Teachers
November 13, 2024
The fourth in SCORE’s Educator Labor Market series, this report looks at how Tennessee is addressing staffing challenges in K-12 districts, how well those efforts are working, and how better access to data can help inform future decisions and investments to address the localized nature of teacher shortages in Tennessee.
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Teachers & Leaders | Innovative Models | K-12 Success
Leading in Literacy: Building Early Literacy Partner Teams
September 26, 2024
Teachers trained in Tennessee are staying in Tennessee to teach. So, what can their training institutions (educator preparation providers, or EPPs) and future districts do to foster an even deeper connection between training and the classroom? The question is particularly important to ensure effective instruction reflecting Tennessee’s new literacy policies. Collaboration between EPPs and school districts is critical. This paper offers both a framework for this new model and an elementary school site visit toolkit.
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Teachers & Leaders | Innovative Models
Unlocking AI: A Primer for Educators
September 24, 2024
As of fall 2023, more than half of all U.S. workers use artificial intelligence (AI) for work. The education field is no exception to this trend, as teachers across the nation are exploring ways AI can transform their work and help students learn. Despite the incredible promise of this new technology, many educators are still at the starting line — nationally, over half of teachers have never used AI. The opportunity that generative AI (GenAI) — programs that can generate text, images, and other media — brings to Tennessee’s classrooms, however, is worth the exploration. Our memo outlines two readily available tools for teachers to either dip a toe in the water or take a full-on first dive into AI to experience the possibilities and limitations of AI in its current state.
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Teachers & Leaders | Education Finance | K-12 Success
Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement: Prioritizing Student-Centered Funding
September 18, 2024
The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) modernized the state’s K-12 education funding formula to focus on individual student need while establishing a foundation of education finance that supports all students to succeed in school, careers, and life. Tennessee should remain committed to the TISA funding formula as a foundational policy that provides the resources for initiatives and investments that drive improved student outcomes.
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Teachers & Leaders | Education Finance | K-12 Success
Policy Pillars Series: Supporting What Works
July 8, 2024
Tennessee’s foundational education policies over the last 20 years have led to significant advances in student achievement. This series highlights research-backed policies that are essential pillars of support in helping students achieve career and life success.
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Teachers & Leaders | K-12 Success
Standards and Assessment: Setting High Expectations and Monitoring Progress
July 7, 2024
Tennessee’s commitment to high academic standards, aligned assessments, and to using data to support improved student outcomes moved our state from the bottom of the pack nationally in education outcomes to one of the fastest growing in the country. We should remain committed to high expectations through rigorous academic standards and aligned assessments that provide essential data about student achievement and growth.
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