Policy & Advocacy

New evidence shows that access to postsecondary education alone is not enough — targeted coaching and just-in-time financial support help more students persist and complete postsecondary credentials. Over the past five years, Tennessee has paired tuition-free access through Tennessee Promise with proactive completion coaching and completion grants for students with the greatest financial need. This report brings together evidence from the tnAchieves COMPLETE program and Knox Promise pilot, showing that this combined approach strengthens persistence and improves outcomes for students across the state.

Tennessee’s outcomes-based funding formula rewards colleges and universities based on student outcomes. The high-need premium, a newer component of the formula, is designed to incentivize institutions to prepare graduates for careers that meet the state’s economic needs. However, the premium’s current definition relies on broad program categories and does not consistently reward credentials that lead to high-wage, in-demand careers. This memo outlines our recommendation to replace the existing high-need premium with a tiered impact credential bonus grounded in actual labor-market outcomes. 

Public charter schools serve a larger proportion of students from historically underserved groups — including Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students — than their traditional public school peers.