The State of Education in Tennessee: Strengthening Schools through Effective Leadership
One of the most important
things we can do to transform
our [schools] is to have each
one led by a great principal.
focus groups with principals across the state during Spring
2013, SCORE heard consistently that principals wanted more
opportunities to collaborate with their colleagues in other districts. The CORE offices are working to provide opportunities
for school leaders to work together across districts through
the principal collaborative initiative. Additionally, the TDOE
plans to use the CORE offices to provide support for the implementation of the principal evaluation system.
As part of the 2010 First to the Top Act, all public school principals in Tennessee are required to have annual performance
evaluations. Fifty percent of the overall evaluation score is
based on qualitative measures, 35 percent is based on schoolwide academic growth measures, and 15 percent is based on
student achievement measures. The Tennessee Department
of Education is currently piloting a revised principal evaluation tool during the 2013-2014 school year and will make
revisions based on the results of the pilot, as well as recommendations from the Administrator Evaluation Advisory
Council. The current rubric to measure qualitative standards
was informed by the revised Tennessee Instructional Leadership Standards (TILS), which “identify core performances
of effective instructional leaders.”xx The TILS were developed
and refined using best practices, current research, and the
experiences of Tennessee educators. The revised standards
are a promising step toward an improved principal evaluation system, but it is critical that di 7G&