Nashville teaching jobs will be one of the main focuses of a new statewide education initiative.

Gov. Phil Bredesen recently announced creation of the Tennessee Education Innovation Plan, an initiative that includes a range of education-reform proposals designed to spur improvement in the state’s education pipeline, specifically focusing on improving student performance and graduation rates at both the high school and college levels.

The plan is composed of two bills, including the “Tennessee First to the Top Act of 2010,” which will work toward the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top Fund, and the “Complete College Tennessee Act of 2010,” which will focus on improving college completion rates.


“The stars have aligned this year to create opportunities to make significant improvements in public education in Tennessee,” Bredesen said. “When that happens, we’re obligated as public officials to seize the moment. That moment is now.”

The Race to the Top competition will use $4.35 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create a competitive grant program designed to encourage and reward states that are implementing ambitious plans in four core education reform areas for kindergarten through 12th grade education.

Those four areas include:
1. Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most.

2. Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy.

3. Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction.

4. Turning around the lowest-achieving schools.

As part of the effort to complete these goals, the state will work to remove limitations on the use of the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, a database used for tracking student growth.

“To effectively compete in Race to the Top, we need to unlock the prohibition on effectively using that information to help improve teacher quality and drive change in the classroom,” Bredesen said. “That needs to change. And it takes legislation. The quality of the teacher is so important to a child’s success. Making these changes will move us dramatically toward the goal of improving high school output of our public educational pipeline.”

In addition, the state will work to create an Achievement School District, which will intervene in consistently failing schools; require annual evaluations of teachers and principals; create a 15-member teacher evaluation advisory committee to recommend guidelines and criteria to the Tennessee Board of Education; and allow school systems to create local salary schedules for teachers and principals with state approval.

Based on Bredesen’s talks with a bipartisan group of state lawmakers on how to improve higher education in the state, the Complete College Tennessee Act will propose measures to improve the state’s college-completion rates.

“These strategies are a natural extension of K-12 education reform measures,” Bredesen said. “In fact, Race to the Top places a premium on states that aren’t simply focused on getting kids through high school, but also are looking at college enrollment.”

In addition, the legislation will introduce a new way of funding higher education, replacing the state’s current formula for funding based on enrollment with a formula based on success and outcomes.

The act also will focus on community colleges by expanding common programs and courses to promote consistency and quality across the two-year system; creating a statewide transfer policy; and requiring the Tennessee Board of Regents and University of Tennessee to establish dual-admission and enrollment policies at all two and four-year colleges and universities.