Co-Planning to Improve Outcomes for Students With Disabilities: Lessons From IGNITE Nashville
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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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Data Insights | K-12 Success
The Future of State and Local Assessments in Tennessee
September 23, 2025
Assessments are essential for monitoring student learning and strengthening schools. The Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) measures student progress toward Tennessee’s academic standards and has been central to improving proficiency and growth. The results empower families, educators, and policymakers to make data-driven decisions that support stronger outcomes for students. Over the past 15 years, Tennessee’s commitment to high-quality, standards-aligned annual assessments and transparent reporting has contributed to the state’s significant advancement in student achievement.
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Data Insights | Education-to-Career Pathways
Using Data And Driving Innovation For The Future Of Work
November 7, 2023
All Tennessee students should earn degrees and credentials that prepare them for careers that enable economic independence. From K-12 to postsecondary to workforce development, more can be done to better prepare students for this goal, and this can only be done by looking at data across systems and using that information to drive innovation.
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Teachers & Leaders | High-Quality Public Charter Schools | Data Insights | Education Finance | Postsecondary Success | Innovative Models | Education-to-Career Pathways | K-12 Success
2024 State of Education in Tennessee: Building A Brighter Future
December 5, 2023
Tennessee is a leader in piloting and scaling efforts to strengthen student success. Foundational strategies have been grounded in high expectations for educators, schools, and students – from the time students enter the classroom to the time they receive a degree or credential. This work is yielding demonstrated results for students. However, while progress has been made, it is clear more needs to be done. Tennessee’s next challenge is to expand its vision for education so that each student not only has the opportunity to succeed in school but also has the opportunity to be prepared for a career that enables economic independence.
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K-12 Success
Tennessee Education Data & Opportunities to Advance Assessment
February 4, 2026
As part of our ongoing efforts to advance Tennessee’s foundational education policies, SCORE made a presentation on Feb. 3, 2026, to the Tennessee House Education Committee about the importance of our assessments systems. SCORE Vice President of Policy and Government Relations Aleah Guthrie and SCORE Director of Government Relations Jocelyn Pratt shared an overview of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) and how each contributes to Tennessee’s long-term improvement strategy. They also highlighted student progress on both measures and offered recommendations to improve assessment systems and reporting timeliness. Watch the presentation below and read our Future of Assessment memo for more about the importance of assessment and strengthening it.
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Innovative Models | K-12 Success
Tennessee Opportunity for AI in Education
June 6, 2025
As Tennessee begins discussions around what types of policies and supports are needed for artificial intelligence (AI) in education, it’s critical to better understand the trends among early-adopting educators as they pilot AI tools and evaluate the impact on student learning. This memo provides a set of recommendations to the state’s AI Advisory Council and is designed to help policy and education leaders reinforce Tennessee as an incubator of innovation that prepares students for careers of the future.
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Education Finance
Federal Career and Technical Education Funding in Tennessee
May 28, 2025
Career and technical education (CTE) in Tennessee plays a critical role in preparing students as they pursue careers that can enable economic independence. As part of our Informing the Conversation series, this memo explores Perkins V, the federal funding stream available to states to support and strengthen CTE options for students and enhance accountability for student outcomes. Perkins V nationally distributes about $1.4 billion in state formula grants under Title I funding. As part of the 2018 reauthorization of the Perkins Act, greater emphasis was placed on evaluations and support for evidence-based strategies in CTE education. This emphasis aims to ensure that CTE options available to students are better aligned to regional labor market needs, setting students up for success as they enter the workforce.
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Education Finance
Federal Education Funding in Tennessee
April 17, 2025
Proposed changes to federal and state education systems — including funding — are on the horizon, resulting from a spring 2025 federal executive order that will put states at the center of education conversations. The executive order and actions that follow are expected to result in new structures, shifted responsibilities, and different funding paths coupled with a reduced role of the federal education department.
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Postsecondary Success | Innovative Models | Education-to-Career Pathways
Work-Based Learning Participation and Success
May 12, 2025
This first memo in our Building Pathways to Success series explores the current status of work-based learning (WBL) in Tennessee. This foundational knowledge shows us the strength of defining what constitutes a WBL experience but also highlights where Tennessee is falling short in assessing the impact of these experiences on future learning and future career pursuits.
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Data Insights | Innovative Models | Education-to-Career Pathways | K-12 Success
SCORE Institute: AI's Impact on Education and Career Pathways
January 17, 2025
How can education and workforce leaders work together to explore the transformative potential offered by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and equip students with the skills and knowledge to be successful in careers of the future? A virtual SCORE Institute, AI’s Impact on Education and Career Pathways, on Jan. 13, 2025, focused on this very important connection as the influence of GenAI grows in real time across Tennessee.
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Teachers & Leaders | Data Insights | Innovative Models | K-12 Success
2009 State of Education
January 1, 2009
Education is the key to both Tennessee’s future and the future of every individual who lives in our great state. In a recent speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, President Barack Obama said, “We know that economic progress and educational achievement have always gone hand in hand in America…Let there be no doubt: the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens.” The same is true for states – the future belongs to the states that best educate their citizens. These states will be more successful recruiting businesses and will be better able to control the costs of healthcare and other social services. Citizens living in these states will have more opportunities and live healthier and more prosperous lives.
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Innovative Models | K-12 Success
Connecting the Dots: The Environment’s Impact on Student Success
October 14, 2025
In 2024, SCORE launched the Connecting the Dots series to spotlight emerging issues beyond our core priorities that are increasingly impacting student success in Tennessee. This year’s symposium focused on how the changing environment — from extreme weather disruptions to the effect on current and future careers — is impacting students’ learning, physical and mental well-being, and long-term opportunities. This memo serves as a continuation of the day’s discussions and includes speaker insights, key data, and practical action to benefit students, our workforce, and the planet.
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