Tennessee SCORE:
State Collaborative on Reforming Education

The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) collaboratively supports Tennessee's work to prepare students for college and the workforce. We are an independent, nonprofit, and non-partisan advocacy and research institution, founded by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in 2009.

SCORE inspires leaders by sustaining momentum around a common education reform agenda, holds a mirror up to the state to illuminate what is working and identify key challenges, and supports work to innovate and develop creative solutions to educational challenges.

SCORE seeks two outcomes:

• Ultimately, every student in Tennessee graduates high school prepared for college and career.
• Tennessee is the fastest improving state in the country on the key student outcomes that will lead to college and career preparedness.
  

SCORE's work is governed by a theory of change that includes embracing high academic standards, cultivating great school and district leaders, ensuring excellent teaching in every classroom, and using data to enhance student learning.

Preparation for a 21st-Century Economy

• There are about three million job openings across the United States that cannot be filled today because of a lack of skilled workers.
• Seventy percent of 25- to 54-year-old African-American men without a high school diploma have no job.
• A college graduate makes an average of $1.2 million more during his career than a worker with only a high school diploma.
• Seven of the 10 fastest-growing occupations in Tennessee require a postsecondary education.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate in 2011 for full-time workers without a high school diploma was 13.8 percent. For workers with a bachelor's degree or higher, it was 4.1 percent.

Source: THEC, TDOE, 2011-2012

Tennessee's Challenge

The biggest challenge is that too few students are graduating from high school prepared for postsecondary education and the workforce.

Despite recent gains, for every 100 ninth-graders in Tennessee, 86 will graduate from high school; of those 86 only 49 will enroll in public postsecondary education; and of those 49, only 51 percent will complete postsecondary education within six years of high school graduation.

According to the ACT, only 16 percent of 11th graders in Tennessee are "college-ready" across all four ACT benchmarks: English, reading, math, and science. The national average is 25 percent.

The average 2011-2012 ACT score in Rutherford County was 19.8. The Williamson County average was 22.9. The state average is 19.2.

There have been important improvements in student achievement data over the past few years. Between 2011 and 2012, the percent of students who scored proficient or advanced in third- to eighth-grade math increased six percentage points in Murfreesboro City Schools and seven percentage points in Rutherford County Schools. The statewide improvement was just above six percentage points.

We have seen even more significant gains in algebra. Between 2011 and 2012, there was an almost 12 percentage point increase in Rutherford County in the number of students who scored proficient or advanced in Algebra I.

Tennessee and U.S. ACT Scores

Source: ACT, 2012

Source: TDOC, 2011 Report Card; THEC, 2012

Source: TDOC, 2011 Report Card; THEC, 2012

Education Reform

Tennessee has an innovative plan to dramatically improve student achievement in our state. The largest pieces of this work are:

• high academic standards for all students;
• supporting and fostering effective teaching;
• turning around the state's lowest- performing schools;
• accountability for students, teachers, schools, and school districts;
• the use of data to inform and improve instruction; and
• a specific focus on the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Looking Ahead

Moving forward, it is our goal that Tennessee be the fastest-improving state in the country in preparing students for the future. We have made significant and important policy changes as a state over the past three years. Now we are faced with the important and difficult work of implementation and turning policy successes into real student achievement gains in every school in Tennessee.

For more information, contact David Mansouri at SCORE, david@tnscore.org.

TCAP* Gains, Grades 3-8: Percent Proficient or Advanced in Reading and Math

* David Mansouri is director of advocacy and communications for Tennessee SCORE.

Table of Contents

SCORE seeks two outcomes:

• Ultimately, every student in Tennessee graduates high school prepared for college and career.
• Tennessee is the fastest improving state in the country on the key student outcomes that will lead to college and career
  preparedness.

Workers with higher education levels earn more and have a lower unemployment rate.

Far too few Tennessee 9th-graders will eventually graduate from postsecondary education.

Only 16 percent of Tennessee 11th graders are "college-ready" across all four ACT subject areas.