The Tennessee General Assembly returned to Capitol Hill last night to close out the two week Special Session on Education that was called to pass bold initiatives designed to transform education in Tennessee.

The first week of the two-week session focused on improving K-12 education by enhancing teacher evaluations and providing more assistance to underperforming schools. The legislation focuses on the belief that great teachers and school leaders make the biggest difference in student performance.   

Teachers

Currently, state law bans utilizing the value-added data for making decisions regarding teachers, including the granting of tenure. This legislation capitalizes on Tennessee’s two decades of experience with the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) in evaluating student achievement on a year-to-year basis.  Some details of the evaluation process are:

• Requires annual evaluations using teacher effect data in teacher and principal evaluations.
• Establishes a Teacher Professional Development Fund to help teachers develop their skills.
• Allows student achievement data to be a component of all teacher evaluations.
• Thirty-five percent of a teacher’s evaluation would be based on the TVAAS teacher-effect data with another 15 percent based on other measurements agreed upon by the teacher and their evaluator, such as the end of year TCAP tests, ACT or Advanced Placement scores.
• Requires tenure decisions to be based in part on teacher evaluations.

Under-performing schools

On the issue of providing help for under-performing schools, the legislation focuses on early intervention so the state can take action sooner to get them back on track.  The bill allows the Commissioner of Education to move any failing public school or local education agency into a newly created “Achievement School District.” The bill allows for the Commissioner to contract with outside entities to manage the day-to-day operation of any or all schools or local education agencies within the Achievement School District.

The second week of special session saw the legislature turn its attention to the goal of how to get more Tennesseans to pursue a post-secondary education that fits their academic and workplace needs.  It also included a focus on measures to help ensure that students are successful in completing their college degrees or post-secondary academic programs.  Some highlights of this legislation include:

Performance-based funding

This legislation puts the framework in place to retool the funding formula for higher education to make it substantially based on outcomes.  Currently the formula is based primarily on beginning of term enrollment.

Transferrable credits and establishment of a unified community college system –

The legislation directs the Board of Regents to develop coordinated programs and services, including a 41-hour common course catalog to make credits earned at community colleges easily transferrable to the four-year college institutions.

Tennessee Technology Centers

On Tennessee’s Technology Centers, which have enjoyed a very high program completion rate, the bill calls for development of agreements between the technical centers and the community colleges to provide seamless transfer opportunities for students and reciprocal use of facilities and other resources.

Accountability

The bill has multiple accountability measures to better ensure implementation of the legislation.  Several provisions in the bill require date-specific reporting to legislative committees regarding the progress and plans for completion of the tasks laid out in the comprehensive measure.