Dear Coalition Members,
I hope all of you had a restful close to 2016, and are ready to build on the tremendous progress that we have made over the last year. 2017 will be an important year in Tennessee, and our collective voices are critical to creating sustainable change in outcomes for students across the state. As the high school TN Ready scores recently revealed, we have urgent work to do to ensure that all students are ready for post-secondary success. Our Equity Coalition is accelerating our work in 2017, and we are coming out of the gate with several opportunities to weigh in on Tennessee’s draft ESSA plan, and the implementation that follows. We will hold a second Education Summit in early March, release a new round of grants in the spring, and launch an equity-focused research agenda and digital platform for deeper engagement. Our goal is to amplify our voice and empower Coalition partners and stakeholders across the state through diverse and inclusive opportunities to learn, engage, and act on issues that are critical to the students and families we serve. This newsletter contains multiple ways to plug in, including the chance to register for our Education Summit in early March. We are excited to announce that Kaya Henderson will serve as our keynote speaker, and we will have two full days of opportunities to connect and engage. I look forward to working with each of you in the coming year, and I believe that our shared voice will make a difference for the students and communities in Tennessee.
Gini Pupo-Walker
Senior Director of Education Policy & Strategic Growth
Conexión Américas

EDUCATION SUMMIT 2017

Registration is now open for our second annual Education Summit in Nashville, TN. We look forward to convening the members of our Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition on March 1st and 2nd in order to learn from one another, and to create focus and action plans for 2017 and beyond. Our featured keynote speaker is Kaya Henderson, the former Commissioner of the District of Columbia Public Schools. She will provide us with a national context and unique perspective on the value of our Coalition in affecting outcomes for students in Tennessee.

ESSA UPDATES

The TN Department of Education released their draft ESSA plan December 20th. We are pleased to see that many of our recommendations were incorporated into the draft. We have prepared some key materials and steps in order for us to have a coordinated and thoughtful response. We want to hear from you and make sure your voice is incorporated into our formal response to the plan.
Read the Full Draft
Read Our Summary of the Draft
We will host a webinar on Friday, January 6th, at noon to walk through the plan and provide you with a chance to ask questions or share your reactions. This webinar will cover the key elements of the plan, including portions related to ELs. We will also make the recording of the webinar available that same day.
Register for the Webinar
The Department will hold two additional regional town halls on the state's ESSA plan. These meetings are open to the public and will provide an opportunity to provide feedback on the state's draft plan. Commissioner McQueen and other department leadership will be in attendance. The town halls will be held on the following dates:

110th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly will convene Tuesday, January 10th. Conexión Américas will be tracking education bills weekly for the duration of the legislative session. To recieve a weekly email with legislate updates and action alerts please sign up below.
Sign-up for Weekly Legislative Updates

FEATURED RESOURCE
The Tennessee State Board of Education has released their new Teacher Preparation Report Card which contains four (4) domains: Candidate Profile, Employment, Satisfaction, and Provider Impact. Each domain is comprised of multiple metrics. To date, data has not been collected for the Satisfaction domain, so it will be unscored this year. A provider must have at least ten total completers and must generate a score on at least one half of the metrics in each domain in order to generate an overall performance category rating. For more information, click here.
J A N U A R Y 
2 0 1 7
Save the Date for Summit 2017!
March 1-2 2017 
Equity & Excellence in Tennessee Summit 
Casa Azafrán
See More
Do you know an amazing teacher-leader? Encourage them to apply to become a Teacher4Equity Fellow. The final deadline is 1/9 and they can apply here.
Recommended Readings
MNPS Education Report Card Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
New Network launches to Highlight Policies Impacting TN's Immigrant Students Chalkbeat
Tennessee's Completed School's Plan is Finally Out. Here's What Insiders are Saying Chalkbeat
Helping English Learners Break Through Language Plateaus Education Week
Tennessee's New Education Plan will Bring Big Changes for School Districts The Tennessean
Knox County Schools: Fedefral Civil Rights Complaint to be Considered in Redistricting Plan The Knoxville News Sentinel
How Discrimination Shapes Parent-Teacher Communication The Atlantic
Contribute to the Newsletter
To submit announcements, information, resources, recommended readings or events to be added to the next newsletter please send all information to:
tnedequity@conamericas.com

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