Supporting Effective Teaching in Tennessee: Executive Summary | Page 16
and tenth grade students will take tests to evaluate whether or
not they are “on track to meet Tennessee’s college and careerready graduation requirements.” Eleventh graders will then be
required to take either the SAT or ACT. In addition, there will
be end-of-course tests in ten core high school subjects with the
exam scores being incorporated into the student’s final course
grade. The subjects with end-of course tests will be English I,
II, and III; Algebra I and II; Geometry; U.S. History; Biology I;
Chemistry; and Physics. These end-of-course tests are still being
created but will eventually replace the high-stakes Gateway exam
that students currently must take to graduate high school.
The challenge Tennessee now faces is successfully implementing
TDP and ensuring that students, teachers, parents, and other
key stakeholders are well-informed about the new standards
and that principals, teachers, and instructional supervisors are
prepared to support the new standards. Using a $5 million grant,
the Tennessee Department of Education has implemented
significant professional development opportunities to train
teachers and instructional supervisors about the new standards.
To date, over 15,000 educators have been trained through the
state’s Spring Content Knowledge Institute, eleven three-day
standard training sessions for teachers, and a one-day summer
institute tailored specifically toward principa ls, instructional
supervisors, and accountability supervisors.
Despite these professional development opportunities, three
challenges remain to successful implementation. First, very
little has been done to educate parents, community leaders, and
local government officials about the new standards. This could
become problematic when the new assessment is rolled out
in Spring 2010 because schools previously meeting Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP) may not meet AYP under the new
assessments and graduation requirements. Second, the new high
school requirements will require additional high school math
and science teachers. Although the state is developing online
high school math and science courses to partially address this
challenge (see pages 30-31), much work remains to be done to
identify how the state will ensure there is an ample supply of
math and science teachers to teach these additional math and
science classes. Third, there needs to be further consideration
about how high schools will be able to continue career and
technical education in a manner consistent with TDP.
In addition to TDP, in June 2009 Tennessee agreed to
participate in the Common Core State Standards Initiative,
an initiative by the National Governors Association and the
Council of Chief State School Officers to develop common
standards for 46 states. At the time of publication, it was still
unclear how this Initiative will affect the implementation of the
Tennessee Diploma Project.22
Figure 3.5
Tennessee’s New High School Graduation Requirements
Current Requirements
Requirements for Students Entering
High School in 2009 or After
Math
3 credits including Algebra I,
4 credits including Algebra I, Algebra II or Geometry
Algebra II, Geometry, and a fourth higher level course*
Science
3 credits including Biology
3 credits including Biology, Chemistry or Physics,
and another lab science
English
4 credits
4 credits
Social Studies
3 credits
3 credits
Wellness / Physical Education
1 credits
1.5 credits
Personal Finance
0 credits
0.5 credits
Elective Focus
6 credits
2 foreign language credits
1 fine art credit**
3 elective focus credits***
Total Credits
22
*
**
***
20
This fourth higher level math course can include courses specifically designed to meet the needs of Career and Technical education students
May be waived for students not going to a university to expand and enhance the elective focus
There are six areas of elective focus: math and science, career and technical education, fine arts, humanities, Advanced Placement (AP) and International
Baccalaureate (IB)
15