Tennessee got some good news this past week when the nation’s NAEP scores were released. Our students scored in the top 25 in the country in Science, with steady gap closure over the last six years for African-American, Latino, and EL students as well.  Additionally, female students closed the gap and are on par with their male counterparts in science. These results are the outcome of our hard work as a state to raise expectations for students through rigorous standards and meaningful accountability, but there is still much work to do. Several of our Equity Coalition partners are working to identify strategies for increasing the effectiveness and diversity of the teacher workforce, with reports, articles, and events occurring over the past month that highlight their efforts.  Our Equity Coalition continues to work with the Tennessee Department of Education on ESSA, and we receive regular requests to speak publicly about our work to inform the state’s plan. In another signal to our growing influence, we have been asked to join the advisory council of the new Tennessee Education Research Alliance, where we will push for research that addresses our priorities across the state. I remain grateful for the opportunity to highlight the good work of our partners, and hope you will find our newsletter informative. Please reach out if you have questions or want to learn more about our work.

Paz y gracias,

ESSA UPDATES

The Tennessee Department of Education has entered the Writing the Plan stage of the Every Student Succeeds Act plan set out in early May of this year. In early October TDOE released a status report detailing the work done so far on crafting the state plan. The report also puts forth the major take aways from the Stakeholder Input stage from across the state. The report also identifies critical decision points of each phase of ESSA and puts forth next steps through March of 2017. The Tennessee Department of Education is expected to release the draft plan in early December. The Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition is preparing to respond to the state’s draft law once released. Keep an eye out for action alerts in the coming weeks.

Additionally, this month the U.S. Department of Education put out non-regulatory guidance on early learning in the ESSA. 

Finally, education advocates across the state are invited to participate in a media and communications training on ESSA and equity to be led by the Leadership Conference. Training will take place December 19th from 9am to 4pm at Casa Azafrán. Click here to RSVP.

PeopleFirst Partnership welcomed over 100 educators from the Memphis area for the "More than an Apple a Day: Health Issues and Chronic Absenteeism Summit" hosted at the University of Memphis. The half-day summit aimed to provide information on the number of children in Shelby County affected by health issues that prevent them from attending school, which contributes to chronic absenteeism. Local and national content matter experts shared information on reducing chronic absenteeism, asthma issues, dental issues, mental health, and the critical role of school nurses.

Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition Steering Committee member Laura Delgado has recently been nationally recognized for her work leading the Pionero Scholars Program at Lipscomb University. The program aims to prepare Latino and immigrant students for careers in education, while helping to close the gap between the number of Latino students and Latino teachers in Nashville, and in Tennessee. The program has recently been featured by NPR Latino USA, Jorge Ramos, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and the Hechinger Report.

The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) released recommendations for teacher improvement earlier this month by way of a report titled "Prepared for Day One: Improving the Effectiveness of Early-Career Teaching." The report examines educator preparation across Tennessee and recommends eight areas for improvement including: stronger classroom-based experiences for teacher candidates, greater diversity within the teaching ranks, and closer partnerships between educator preparation programs (EPPs) and the school districts that hire their graduates.