Race To The Top
January 2010

Race to the Top (RTTT) is a unique opportunity for the State of Tennessee to seriously be in the running for $501 million academic grant dollars. These funds are available for education through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In April, winning states will be awarded monies to improve education in four areas: building and expanding the system of student assessment already in place; preparing students for college and the work force; recruiting, keeping and rewarding productive teachers and principals; and providing effective intervention and inten­sive support for the lowest performing schools.

Under the leadership of Governor Bredesen and Education Commissioner Timothy Webb, Tennessee has submitted an impressive Race to the Top application; it builds on goals of the Tennessee Diploma Project (TDP), but also emphasizes the state's readiness to implement necessary educational reform. This highly competitive race will be won by only a small num­ber of states who are bold in their educational ideas and not satisfied with "business as usual". With last year's implementation of the TOP our state's educational leaders acknowledged the need to better prepare graduating high school seniors to be college or career-ready. By re­quiring all students in Tennessee to complete a rigorous curriculum in high school, the state is helping those students leave high school with the knowledge and skills they need for lifelong success-regardless of their immediate post-high school plans. For more details, visit
www.tn.gov/education/TDP/index.shtml.

Statistics now show more than two-thirds of new jobs will require some type of post-sec­ondary education and training, mandating a greater focus on the skills needed for college and the workforce. For those graduates enter­ing college, the TOP is committed to preparing them to take entry level college courses with­out the need for remedial instruction, increas­ing the chance for success.
The Race to the Top proposal and the TDP include a focus on strategic assessments which include early and regular evaluations of stu­dent learning. These assessments will be the key to providing teachers and principals with a dashboard view of each student. This data can be utilized to intervene or recreate successful teaching methods.

Another component of Tennessee's Race to the Top proposal is the adoption of the Com­mon Core State Standard Initiatives. This effort, coordinated by governors and state commissioners of education across the nation is a commitment to develop standards in Eng­lish-language arts and math for grades K-12.

These standards will be aligned with college and work expectations, embracing a strong and chal­lenging curriculum and will promote the application of knowledge through problem solving, analysis and critical thinking. While the TDP has already introduced aggressive goals and measurements, adoption of these initiatives will ultimately allow us to develop a consistent way to evaluate and compare Tennessee students to those across the nation. It is more important than ever to provide standards aligned with real world demands, so all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society.

With Tennessee's commitment to the TDP and the Legislature's move to change state law to help us succeed, Tennessee is now in a very good posi­tion to win this competition and advance the goals of the Tennessee Diploma Project.
For more information, please visit http://tn.gov/education/recovery.shtmI#RTTT.

Legislators Support Race to the Top

On January 15th, the Tennessee General As­sembly passed the "Tennessee First to the Top Act of 2010", addressing proposed educational reform and positioning Tennessee as a leader in the Race to the Top competition. The bill changed how teachers are evaluated and how the State can approach failing schools.

Previously, state law prohibited the use of stu­dent performance data for the first three years ol an educator's employment. It specifically banned the use of this data until after a decision was made to grant the teacher tenure. The new legislation now requires all annual evaluations of teachers be based on 50 percent student achievement data. Thirty-five percent will be comprised of Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, or growth data, (www.tennessee.gov/education/assessment/doc/TVAASFactSheet.pdf) and an-
other 15 percent derived from other student test­ing measures.

The bill also authorizes the state's education commissioner to take bold actions to improve ironically failing schools by placing them in an "Achievement School District", aimed at turning the school around, building capacity and return­ing the school to the original district.