Lexington City Rotary Club Tuesday, March 1, 2016 Dr. Candice McQueen, Commissioner of Education

Tennessee Succeeds

In the spring of 2007, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released an education report card for all states. Tennessee received an “F” in the category of Truth in Advertising when comparing proficiency on Tennessee assessments to National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Tennessee also received an “F” in the category of Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness. CALL TO ACTION.

RESPONSE: RAISE STANDARDS INCREASE ACCOUNTABILITY ALIGN ASSESSMENTS 2011–12: Tennessee earns approval for first ESEA waiver and led nation in implementing statewide teacher evaluation model 2012–15: Evaluation model modified each year based on feedback from the field 2015: USED approves Tennessee’s application for four-year waiver renewal 2008: TN adopts higher standards through the Tennessee Diploma Project 2010: State Board unanimously adopts the Common Core State Standards in ELA and math : TN completes overhaul of Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses. 2014: Review process for new math and ELA standards begins. 2011–12: Tennessee students begin completing CRA in math, applying multiple skills to solve a problem 2014–15: All students in grades 3-11 took writing assessment and social studies field test online 2015–16: First year of TNReady!

SUCCESSES TO DATE. Fastest improving state in the nation on 4 th and 8 th grade NAEP Consistent gains on TCAP every year since new assessments in 2010 Fastest growing graduation rate of any state ACT statewide average has increased to

TCAP RESULTS:

BUT, WE STILL HAVE ROOM TO IMPROVE. Less than half of all 3 rd thru 8 th grade students are proficient or above in reading. Tennessee still ranks in the bottom half of all states on the Nation’s Report Card or NAEP. In fall 2014, 43% of high school graduates did not enroll in postsecondary. Almost 60% of first-time freshmen in TN community colleges took at least one remedial or developmental course. Tennessee’s six-year graduation rate is 28% for community colleges and 58% for universities.

SUCCESS AFTER GRADUATION 71,403 Students 2008 Cohort of High School Freshmen Students who graduated from high school and entered the workforce and earn an average salary of $9,161 annually, far below the poverty line. Only 6 percent of students who were enrolled after one year completed a degree or certificate within two years.

OUR VISION. Districts and schools in Tennessee will exemplify excellence and equity such that all students are equipped with the knowledge and skills to successfully embark upon their chosen path in life.

OUR GOALS. Tennessee will continue rapid improvement and rank in the top half of states on the Report Card. MEASUREMENT Tennessee will rank in top half of states on 4 th and 8 th grade NAEP in The average ACT score in Tennessee will be a 21, allowing more students to earn HOPE scholarships. MEASUREMENT The class of 2020 will be on track to achieve 55% postsecondary completion in six years. The majority of Tennessee high school graduates will earn a certificate, diploma, or degree. MEASUREMENT Tennessee will have an average public ACT composite score of 21 by 2020.

OUR PRIORITIES

TNReady

What is TNReady? TNReady is the new and improved TCAP test in math and English language arts (ELA) for grades TNReady is a part of TCAP. TCAP includes grades 3-8 achievement tests and End of Course exams for science, social studies, math, and English. TNReady has fewer and better questions than the former TCAP tests. The new test in math and ELA is designed to assess true student understanding, not just basic memorization and test-taking skills.

What happened? Over the past few months, the department and districts worked together to strengthen our technology infrastructure and prep systems and devices across the state. On Feb. 8, a new issue we had not experienced before caused a network outage at the test vendor’s site that interrupted testing for some students. Nonetheless, nearly 20,000 Part I subtests were successfully completed on Feb. 8. In order to protect our students’ instructional time and better ensure they have a positive test experience, we decided to move all students to a paper-and-pencil version of TNReady for the rest of this school year. This change applies to both Part I and Part II of TNReady, as well as social studies.

Where are we now? In addition to those completed on Feb. 8, there were 171,000 TNReady and U.S. history tests completed online in 99 districts during the fall. It’s important to remember that TNReady on paper is still TNReady. The questions your student practiced on a computer are the same types of questions they will see on the paper version of TNReady, and those questions will ask your child to use critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. In addition, developing keyboarding and typing skills are both part of our state’s digital literacy expectations (which apply to grades K-12) and match the real-world demands we are preparing our children to meet. So, all of this hard work to improve technology infrastructure and device access will still benefit students’ learning.

Questions?