glossary
ACT College and Career Ready
Benchmarks
The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks
identify the minimum scores students must
achieve on each ACT subject-area test to
indicate they have at least a 75 percent
probability of earning a C or higher in
a typical first-year college course in the
corresponding subject. The ACT benchmark
scores are 18 in English, 22 in math, 21 in
reading, and 24 in science.
Advanced Placement (AP)
Advanced Placement courses are courses and
exams offered by The College Board that
provide students with an opportunity to take
college-level courses and earn credit towards
college while in high school. There are more
than 30 different AP courses across multiple
subject areas.
Annual Joint Report on
Pre-Kindergarten through Higher
Education in Tennessee
A joint report by the Tennessee State Board
of Education and the Tennessee Higher
Education Commission that provides an
annual update on statistics relating to Pre-K
through higher education in Tennessee.
Approval Process
The Tennessee Department of Education’s
Office of Teacher Education and
Accreditation is responsible for approving
all teacher preparation programs in the state.
As part of this approval process, a Board of
Examiners conducts on-site visits at each
program to determine whether the program
meets minimum state requirements.
Charter School Incubator
A nonprofit organization that provides
technical assistance, staff and administrative
support, and other resources to charter
schools from the early planning stages
through the life of the school.
Data Warehouse
A centralized repository for education data
from multiple sources including student
performance and demographic databases,
teacher identification and demographic
databases, financial databases, and formative
and summative assessment databases.
Data warehouses include user interfaces
that provide easily accessible and user
friendly information to principals, teachers,
counselors, administrators, school board
members, higher education institutions and
(as appropriate) parents and students.
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A ROADMAP TO SUCCESS
Differentiated Pay Plan
End-of-course Assessments
The State Board of Education’s “Guidelines
for Differentiated Pay Plans Public Chapter
376” (in compliance with TCA 49-5-611)
requires every Local Education Agency
(LEA) to develop a plan for differentiated
teacher pay, generally through bonuses that
are supplemental to the salary schedule.
Differentiated pay plans can address the
following areas of need: (1) recruitment
of teachers to hard-to-staff schools (2)
recruitment of new teachers (3) filling LEAspecific academic shortage areas and (4)
retention of effective teachers.
As part of the Tennessee Diploma Project,
end-of-course exams will be administered in
ten core high school subjects with the exam
scores being incorporated into the student’s
final course grade. The subjects with end-ofcourse tests are: English I, II, and III; Algebra
I and II; Geometry; U.S. History; Biology I;
Chemistry; and Physics.
Dual Credit
A high school course taught by high school
faculty that is aligned with the curriculum
of a postsecondary course. Students taking )ѡ