all right everyone we are live starting about one minute for the hour is 12:30 Central Time 1:30 eastern time and I call this meeting to order Casey Griffin onor staff will call the road to establish a quorum Mr
Griffin Mr cins here miss Roberson the hour is 12:30 Central Time 1:30 Eastern Time Miss Roberson Mr Hall here Mr
Gentile here Victoria Mr Jensen here Miss Johnson here miss Maxwell here miss mcin here Mr
mullenhour here Mr Wells here Mr chairman here Mr chairman you have a quorum Clare Quorum is present there and we're duly convened at this time I call on our general counsel Miss Rachel supe
to read the statement of necessity for an electronic meeting Miss supe sup you lose her there she is Rachel I see her yeah somehow we lost you're muted
Rachel I will try her on my cell make sure see what's going on oh Danielle can read that statement or not if she's prepared to if Rachel can't if you give me just one moment Mr
chair I will look for it if we cannot give Mr P there thank you Danielle I's doing that uh bons can you demute yourself and speak so we know that we can hear you also okay yeah we can I was just going to ask bonie if she could unmute herself and speak because I
don't think she responded oh I apologize if you were calling on me and I didn't hear it but I must have been having some tech issues yeah we're uh Rachel we're ready to read the statement of necessity for the electronic meeting if you would
please thank you good morning Rachel supe general counsel pursuant to Tennesseee code annotated section 84 4 108 B3 the Tennessee State Board of Education hereby submits its determination of necessity for at
special called board meeting held electronically at 9:00 a. on February 21st 2025 TCA section 491301 requires that the State Board meet at least quarterly due to the
inclement weather on the date of this meeting and to ensure the safety of state board members staff and the public um in avoiding hazardous travel conditions on the morning of the meeting the state board made the determination that its regularly scheduled quarterly
meeting on the morning of February 21st 2025 should be held electronically this meeting includes a consideration of a number of revisions to the state board rules and policy as well as approval of the charter school
authorization evaluation reports thank you think that addresses the meeting tomorrow tomorrow but it the same goes for our Workshop today uh which was scheduled originally for uh this afternoon in in Nashville this is the
workshop in pursuant to Section 8 of policy 1.400 the board meetings policy workshops or meetings of the State Board sitting as a committee of the whole also please remember our board meetings policy as well as TCA 844-1873
of the board to be taken by call of the role therefore I'm going to move that we board this board dissolve into a committee the whole for the purposes of conducting our Workshop Mr Griffin Would you please call the RO you need a second go ahead and second darl yes
please do I don't think we necessarily did for the committee to the hold but that would be go ahead please second Mr Griffin okay Mr James would you please call the call the role for the committee the hold for vote Dr Morrison would you call the role
chairman I AP we got a message this morning from it that there have been some issues with with teams and internet platforms today so I'm wondering if that is what is an issue um yes give me just a second I'd be happy to call the
role this is um Rachel I have Nathan on the line he is trying to log in but is having some issue with teams so it might just be one more moment if uh Dr Morrison can call the roll Lo hey this is going to be not an alphabetic order so forgive me okay
Larry Jensen here Mara Johnson here Warren Wells this this excuse me this is this is a vote Yes I to dissolve into committee the whole so this is a I
or nay vote so I can start over if we need to hear eyes yeah member Jensen member Jensen hi member Johnson Mara I
member Wells hi member cins hi member Maxwell I member auberson I member mullenhour hi member Holt
hi I'm forgetting back and turf back Turf I member eie chairman eie I I so we have a a I vote I declare then
we are a committee the whole for the purposes of conducting our workshop and I just like to say a couple of things to reiterating what Miss Sue said in her statement is um unfortunately we're not in in person uh obviously we we're seeing that through this uh virtual
meeting and um uh I truly value the interactions that we have uh when we are in person I think they're much better than they are virtually but again I think safety first and that's what's most important right now and so uh that that requires us to do the virtual
meeting as we have so we'll bear through it we'll get through it and um I will also open this up to any other opening remarks if any other board members like to make an opening remark if none Dr Morrison would you like to make a couple comments just to Echo what you said
chairman Eevee I I really hate that we're not together I also very much value those interactions as a board with the staff at the department and the State Board legislator guests others that were planning to present it was and I I I've told many of you I feel for superintendence and having to had to make this call earlier in the week
because we weren't sure how much sow was coming and we had people flying in driving in and it seemed The Prudent thing to do to move online but clearly that also has its issues so thank you all for bearing with us as we have a little bumpy start here um Even in our virtual format we're well accustomed to
that as a board and I know we're going to have some great discussions today and certainly some important things coming before you tomorrow so thanks to all of you who are dialing in and look forward to some good discussions we we had plan thank you we had planned to meet with the teacher
advisory Council that's one of the highlights of the year is to getting to hear from the teachers and have that interaction and I just hope that we'll be able to reschedule that because that is very valuable to us so with that uh I want to remind all presenters to give their name and position before addressing the board
and I remember remind our presenters to avoid jargon where possible so that everyone listening can understand the subject matter first item on the list is authorizer evaluations Mr Nathan James and I want to make sure everyone
can hear me after having restarted my computer three times um Microsoft teams will will not function on my computer so I'm joining via my phone and uh I'll ask Katherine on our team to put the slide
deck up and I'll go through on my end and have her Advance there joining from the phone I'm not certain that I guess I'll be able to see it um when that happens Nathan it is on the screen for
oh oh it is okay yeah mine's all black interesting all right um okay well I'm I'm GNA be proceeding not able to see what you're seeing but I'll I'll have a a matching slide deck up on my on my uh
computer screen in front of me so this is our 2024 authorizer evaluations I'm Nathan James I'm the deputy executive director for legislative and external Affairs for the State Board of Education next slide we're on number two to at this point what's an authorizer this is a local Board of Education or a public
uh the public charter of the school commission or the ASD and they make decisions regarding approval of a charter school application and the renewal or revocation of a charter school agreement and a school that's a charter school is a it is a public school that operates within a school
district structure but has allowed maximum flexibility slide three please so there are currently 115 public charter schools serving 4 40,000 students um Memphis and Shelby County
has the greatest number of charter schools with 56 open and operating Rutherford and Knox have the fewest with two schools each in the case of Rutherford uh there's start actually in August of of
24 so moving on to slide four let's take a look here in red Nathan Nathan you want questions as go through or would you prefer us hold the questions to the end your call you know I'm I'm happy to do uh whatever the
board wants I I will tell you there's an awful lot of of uh text and good information in this so it might be the best use of time to to let me get through it and then come back but I also don't W to you know I don't I don't want
to stop something that a member needs to address urgently either so we hold questions unless it's something urgent then thank you okay okay so we're looking at uh slide number four so in red are your Charters and in
blue are your public schools generally this chart represents a percentage of public schools earning each letter grade distinction based on their 23 uh 24 data we've got approximately 71% of Tennessee Charter Schools earned a c or higher uh
Charter Schools who earned a d or F letter grade uh will be eligible for an accountability here just as districts will be beginning with a 25 uh 26 school year so just to to give some some extra
meat on the bones that's uh we had five A's one from Memphis Shelby County two from Metro Nashville two from the charter school commission we had 30 bees uh or 27% of Charters that's one from
Hamilton County 15 from n Shelby County nine from mnps that's Metro nille Public Schools and five from the charter school commission we had 44 C's or 40% of Charters that's six from the achievement School District Two from Hamilton County
one from Knox uh 21 from shubby uh 10 from Metro Nashville and four from the charter school commission we had 19 D's or 177% of Charters and that's two from the achievement School District Four from
Hamilton uh eight from Shelby uh four from Metro Nashville and one from the charter school commission and there were 12 F or 11% of Charters and uh that's five from the ASD uh seven from Shelby
County and uh so just to to kind of put the the overall numbers in context for everyone let's take a look at our Charter authorizers onto Slide Five there we've got the achievement School District with 13 Hamilton with six Knox
with one Memphis and Shelby County at 52 Metro Nashville uh at 25 rord County uh open two in August of 24 so you remember I mentioned that a couple of slides back and the Public Charter School commission
which is sitting at 12 at the moment going on to slide number six we'll look at the charter performance by authorizer now this chart that you're looking at represents the percentage of public schools earning each letter grade
distinction based on their 23 24% data um and uh again it's just a a different different way of looking in charter schools aren't a d or an F should be eligible for an accountability Hearing
in 2526 uh I know we're repeating that but I want to make sure that everyone everyone gets that U they're certainly part of that process let's go on to
seven evaluating our Charter authorizers our our law was updated in 2019 to require the board uh to ensure the effective operation of authorizers and evaluate authorizer quality that's in 49131 145 and that process began by the
board staff in 201 21 uh now we've had the question why why are there you know three this time and uh and it's because they they operate in uh in cohorts so each authorizer is assigned an evaluation cohort and
they're evaluated at least every two years and so this report marks the conclusion of of the the board's full a second full cycle of authorizer evaluations our responsibility to ensure the effective operation of authorizers
and evaluate authorizer quality started in in 19 and um I want to be clear that today I'm discussing uh those first evaluated in 2022 and today's outcomes represent
their second evaluation in each case so moving on to slide eight let's take a look at uh who our evaluation team members are Ali Reed's on our our state board staff and she's on on my team with legislative and external
Affairs and she's an evaluator we've also got David Hartman National Charter School consultant works with the ven education Lauren yna canelli or I she told me how to pronounce this and I'm just sned I'm sorry but anyway she's
uh independent evaluator um Miss fineberg and Goodman and Mr mccan from Rutherford County you'll notice on on the right hand side you'll see evaluators and you'll see evaluation Shadows our evaluation teams
are comprised of experienced authorizers and evaluators with three evaluators and an evaluation to Shadow each we hire these National Consultants with experience serving on our evaluations as well as other states who conduct similar authorizer evaluations to serve on the
core evaluation team in addition we extend the opportunity for Tennessee authorizing staff members in a non evaluation year to serve as an evaluation Shadow to provide an opportunity to fully experience the evaluation process while removing the
pressure and responsibility of scoring an evaluation these a shadow evaluations do not weigh in on the evaluator scores so the shadow folks while while they have uh less experience we found it to be an excellent way for for folks to see
the process from every angle uh so that's that's how that's how that decision was made let's go to evaluation evidence base that's so we're on slide number nine at this point each evaluation
focuses on a two-year term and it considers a comprehensive set of evidence our evaluator teams spend a full week together reviewing documents reviewing authorizers School leaders and developing developing a consensus on the authorizers ratings and feedback that's
included in the evaluation reports which you will vote on tomorrow uh documents and narrative explanation we look at that it's our first bullet point up there they have six weeks to submit anything honestly that they think is relevant that makes them look good
exonerates the decisions that they have made uh the school leader interview is an optional one hour conversation with the review team and the document debrief is the interview with the authorizer where all of the information submitted is discussed and the teams get the
chance to ask a probing questions and again authorizers get to share the context why they made the decision they did why they went out it the way they decided to and the appeals history is needed that's U included and uh of
course the uh the charter commission has that appeals decision some of you serving remember when we used to so uh we're going to slide number 10 so here you are our evaluation is
based on the 21 standards within the State Board policy 6111 and the State Board evaluation rubric uh is is based on those standards and authorizers receive scores on individual standards and an overall score that uh that's aligned to the
table you see here if an authorizer earns an exemplary for consecutive evaluations they are exempt from next evaluation authorizers who receive approaching satisfactory or unsatisfactory are required to complete a corrective action plan and they are at
risk of losing a portion of their authorizer V funds so let's see here let's go ahead slide on to the next uh slide number 11 these are about valuation outcomes
now if if it is all right Mr chairman I'd be happy to take questions on the first section and and then so we don't get too far away from those and I'll do my best to to field them for you as as you know alli's our our team lead on
this work and uh she drill me on it and I hope I I'm uh the resource I need to be for you thank you Mr James any questions or comments for Mr James to this point question yes was that Vice chair
cins uh no this is Larry Jensen question yeah yeah please identify yourself because I you're not on all my everybody's not on the screen that I have so please yeah Mr Jensen we do thank you um I'm curious about a couple of things uh you you mentioned the
number of students I could you repeat that in in charter schools uh yeah me get back I think it's 40 44,000 if I recall correctly um and then I I would appreciate uh Memphis Shelby County
Schools Mr James at some point just I don't need it right now but I'd like to know that that total of think 52 schools just curious um in in the uh in the Shelby County Charters is that what you're asking yeah
the number of students in 52 schools okay I'm G to make a note of that while we're I'd also like the Davidson County that they re those two counties represent you know 75 schools or 77 schools so be
helpful to just as information I did have a question about your evaluation Shadows you there was nobody on that from either uh Davidson or Shelby County
I was just uh that's an observation and question doesn't need an answer but uh it seems like if youve got 75 schools that are in those two areas that they would seems like there ought to be some uh representation
on that evaluation team just an observation I'm happy to jump in on that Nathan if you want that's a great Point uh Mr Jensen for for one Metro Nashville is up for evaluation during this cohort so that's why no one from that area was on this
time and I believe we can check with Ali Shelby County has definitely had representation um in the past it may just not be in this cohort we have to remember that if if uh if the you know in this case Metro and
um Memphis were both being evaluated you you can't do that on your own evaluation you can do that when it's off cycle so so they could uh again the point of the shadowing is to be able to see uh the
process really kind of Soup To Nuts and uh to gain insight for their authorizer staff um but uh but it's not considered appropriate for those folks to be doing that um to evaluate their own employer
okay all right final my last question is go back you've had a grade uh you had the the scoring Matrix that you had up there yeah let's see the evaluation rubric and rating so we're on slide number 10 yeah my question there is you
mentioned letter grades uh in the first part of your presentation and then this are those equivalent they in other words a I see dark Marson head no and I told Nathan I would I would happily play back up like said since Ally is not able to join us
today no those are different uh rating scales Mr Jensen this is the scale on which the standards referenced in our stateboard policy around quality authorizing these evaluators are evaluated against those standards the letter grades are just additional information now that as a state we have
letter grades for all schools across Tennessee so it's just to juxtapose those two data points for you this is a different scale for evaluating the authorizing standards versus the growth and achievement of the students in the schools that the these um that are being
served okay well you know I never did very well in math and in school and in English so it's hard for me to comprehend that but I it just it wasn't clear to me so thank you for the
explanation Mr yes ran Hol yes Mr Holt um just to follow up on Mr Jensen's questions about um Shelby County and mmps participating in the authorizer shadows um has mmps participated as an
evaluation shadow in the past I'm I'm not 100% certain uh I'm almost 100% certain Ryan we can find out but I know alli's really intentional about making sure that this opportunity is available and that we encourage particularly our large authorizing districts to participate so I'm almost 100% sure
great I was just thinking that's it seems like a great way to get Buy in from the the districts as a part of this process so I assume that that was the case but yeah glad to hear that I certainly remember discussing it I I just I'd hate to say you know with with as a matter of metaphysical certitude
that that was 100% the case but but yeah I think I think Sarah's right so all right thank you that's all I got other questions I I will just make a comment and do have one question uh I think that
student EV that evaluation Shadow thing is an outstanding way to share Lessons Learned and to help so whoever came up with that great kudos to you uh my question is on the rating that is just strictly a new numerical average there's
no waiting that one factor is any better than another factor is that correct well that it is it is a a numerical rating as far as the the individual portions like X will be worth this number of points and why versus
that number of points I'm in a beautiful technological situation in that uh for some reason uh although I had it all prepared here in front of me prior to having to restart my computer to attempt to get on uh the meeting which wouldn't
come up the uh all of the the data points for how much each one is worth was up on my screen and now I keep getting a Magical Mystery air when I'm trying to pull it up so I I unfortunately can't answer the precise amount that each uh it's averaged across
the standards though I mean it's not really weighted in so much as and you I think you'll get into this a little bit more in the presentation e but across the different standards that are being evaluated it is an average of the rating that's what I I thought because I mean the rubric has several things that each
uh area is is uh evaluated against but it is just a straight numerical average there not you know some Factor isn't more important than another factor which is fine just as long as we understand that thank you I appreciate any other questions if
not go ahead Mr James to the next section very good okay so we'll go to slide number 12 let's look at the achievement School District this is of course a Statewide state level authorizer within the Department of Education it was established in 2011 to
serve as an intervention for some of the state's lowest performing schools there were uh 13 schools in the 23 24 school year uh that's uh decreased to three schools in the 2425 school year 4,456
students um and uh let's see zero uh approved schools in development uh the four schools that have closed are Humes Preparatory Academy Martin Luther King Jr Memphis Scholars Florida Kansas
and Raleigh Egypt uh so these schools have rapidly transitioned out of ASD and we do not yet know what's the the final three schools uh as they make plans to Transit out of the district as well if we go to
slide 133 let's talk about the areas of of strength there they established a performance framework that includes academic organizational and financial indicators utilizes that framework to annually evaluate schools this has been an area that
certainly is going well updated its uh Charter agreements to incorporate the established performance framework and clearly Define the rights and responsibilities of its schools uh they've uh established and implemented a compliance monitoring system that informs the annual evaluation of its
schools and includes indicators to ensure schools are protecting the rights of all students uh this uh this by the way was based on feedback from the last time they went through this process in 2022 those areas have have become
strengths to slide 14 we'll look at the areas for growth there uh they they include that that they devoted a portion of their authorized or fee funds collected from its school for expenses
Beyond those relevant to authorizing or allowable in state law and under state board rule um there's trouble there on publicly communicating the academic organizational financial performance outcomes and with schools via its annual report uh does not consistently utilize
its monitoring process to inform the need for intervention in non-emergency situations when intervening does not consistently follow its intervention policy uh some of these unauthorized expenses included teacher bonuses uh the law
requires that the authorizer fee need to be used on specific authorizing duties and this information was reported from the ASD to the tdoe Charter team in 22 and 23 and uh remembering that for this
evaluation the reporting time was the 23 uh the 2223 school year um so if if you look at uh the rule it it has some you know all of the
the things that that are applicable that you could use the fee for uh spelled out including implementation of state board approved quality authorizing standards in sement for travel and external reviewers um I've got the the next steps in that
information here if we need to or I can wait for for questions um if we look go ahead oh do you want questions uh as we go through each of the different uh
school districts being evaluated you want all that to I don't think that's a I don't think that's a problem uh to let's wait till you finish the school finish the information around this district and then information on the school okay we can do that so then going to slide 15 overall they have a rating
of 2.19 or or satisfactory um submission of a self assessment in this uh school year must address steps taken to distribute the misallocated authorizer fee funds directly to the authorizers impacted charter schools in
accordance with our rule so the next step on that would be send a letter of finding to the Department of Education and the ASD citing the issue uh following the board meeting um this this um hasn't happened before but that's
something that your adoption of of this report tomorrow will begin to trigger the next steps all right I'm I'm happy to answer questions on this one best I can questions for Mr James one
question I'm sorry I forgotten how many ASD schools do we have left Jensen would you please identify yourself when you speak up sorry Larry Jensen so we take it back to slide 12 and you'll see 13 schools that's decreased down to three schools
so they are they are certainly winding down but remember this this period of time is is looking at the um 2223 school year so but yeah they're they're certainly in wind down I think Miss Johnson had her hand
raised yes Mara we lost you Miss Johnson can you hear me now yep okay marshia Johnson district 7 just for clarification all right the rating scale
is based on the standards the 21 standards correct correct yes but the grade am I understanding that you're saying that that standards are not included in making the letter grade the
the letter the letter grade uh comes from a different portion of law from our Rule and so what you have is a situation where different portions of the law require these these different things to be going on at the same time okay so and just to to to add on to what
Mr James was saying the letter Gres remember that's what we voted on and have just begun to roll out for the first couple years here that apply to all Tennessee Public Schools traditional schools Charter Schools alike correct so the authorizer evaluation standards the ratings we're looking at are unique to the authorizers and the charter schools
that they authorize the letter grades those are more Universal so we're just trying to Overlay those data points for you okay just I I also appreciate that it's maybe more confusing than we thought so thank you for clarifying okay and I will say Mr Jensen we we will
the the number of uh total uh students in Metro Nashville and and Shelby County I believe is included so other questions for Mr James Nathan Mr mull hour thank you
sir Nath a couple questions one the the the issue of the of the funds um is this a first impression issue have you seen this before how has this been addressed uh how quickly does the department seem to be addressing this
concern I um so this has not happened uh before actually there's not been a um one of these reports that's had that issue in in the past so
um I I think that remains to be seen I'd let the department you know they they could answer perhaps how that'll go but the the technical process is is that um this is this is a a workshop item uh today so the board takes no action on it uh
tomorrow we'll adopt the report and at that point in time that will trigger uh the board officially notifying the department of of the situation uh so both a letter will go to uh the ASD and
to the commissioner and U you know it it'll be sort of an interesting situation as as I understand it because the because you're talking about schools that are that are rolling out from the from the ASD but uh Nathan I think M I
think m g Gord has raised her hand wants to respond from tdoe great miss Gordon hi Shannon Gordon Chief Operating Officer and Acting Superintendent of the ASD since February of 24 um just a couple of Notes One
currently the ASD is serving three schools Kirby Middle School Wooddale Middle School and Hillcrest High School for a total of 1,352 students um so this fiscal issue
occurred um back in 2023 um and was really uh an allocation of of resource issues attaching it to the wrong funding source and not an intentional misuse of uh authorizer fee
um just an allocation uh of a particular expense to the wrong bucket um a fund by a former employee um and so not an intentional
misuse um of the authorized uh by that former employee just literally allocating an expense to the wrong account got it thank you Mr Gordon so just to clarify this was the the issue at hand was a single transaction is that
correct or is this a systemic or repeat repeated transaction I I think it was a A in that period of time that were attached uh to to uh the authorizer
fee during that particular uh period of time and M Gordon um you said that you're now in charge of uh of this uh C program uh are you going to remain in charge of this program for the foreseeable future or is this a
temporary position that you've taken on um I'll oversee this until we transition uh the end of the ASD so much Mr chairman Ryan Hol well uh can we
I think Miss Sue wants want to address what we're talking about right there if that's okay oh sure then I'll I'll come to you next thank you chairman eie I just wanted to um remind that you know while the achievement school district is in a bit of a unusual posture because
it's um under tdoe we don't have today at this Workshop our other authorizers here um to kind of comment or engage in questions and uh I just want to perhaps suggest that some of the questions that are um specific to the authoriz ERS might be more appropriate
for um Nathan's Presentation tomorrow when perhaps the department would be you know presenting um and is there you know to respond um you know again just out of uh e Equity to our other um authorizers
who are not here today um might be better to have those questions tomorrow I think I think uh in our discussion today at the workshop we ought to be able we we should raise the questions that we have and that gives uh
the authorizer whether it's ASD or some of the others uh the visibility of what we're going to ask so it'll be prepared hopefully tomorrow to answer those questions if that makes sense Mr hope thank you Mr chairman a question from Sarah and Nathan and I just forget
is is the academic um results of the schools authorized by the authorizer part of the rubric for evaluation and things like tboss or and what I'm getting at is letter grades like as we now have the letter grade system if if one of the things will look
I know a lot of it is procedural like are they doing the things they were supposed to be doing as an authorizer but if a part of the evaluation is what is the academic what academic results are the schools that they have authorized been receiving then what are we looking at to measure that that's a
great question I'm happy to take it first Nathan if you want or okay yep and then I did my stuff is working now so it actually brought up all of the the requirement if you want to take it I'm happy to give it to you the short answer is and then I'll let you fill in additional information Nathan it's not
explicitly factored in Ryan in part like the letter grades is still so new we've been doing this longer than letter grades have been issued um what is factored in though are intervention policies for low performing schools you closure activities things that would be triggered by student achievement results
um but the actual achievement itself because we're evaluating the authorizers systems and processes you know are they doing right by their schools in terms of the balance of support intervention um it doesn't Factor an explicit of those outcomes yeah way to think about it is
is this this is this is more about uh is is the authorizer uh executing Charter agreements with performance framework that includes clear measurable attainable academic Financial organizational performance standards and
targets um that a a school must meet for the purposes of renewal so it this is this is really at the nuts and bolts of the authorizing process to make sure that it's it's done fairly and and to to these high standards thank
you um I've got a question Nathan my understanding you said that this evaluation was based on the 2022 2023 school year is that correct yes sir okay and then the self assessment based on
this evaluation is to be submitted to us in the 2025 2026 school year so that's like three years later the the benefit of these authoriz these evaluations whether it's this or the letter grad stuff is to help
and support school districts and cool school systems to improve how they're functioning that just seems like a long time from the time that we do the evaluation till the time that the self assessments being submitted and so you know some of these things I'm glad to
hear from Miss Gordon that you know the issue on the the funding is not a habitual issue but sort of a one-time uh Mis uh appropriation of the wrong account or something like that but if there is something in there that's
important just three years seems like a long time to get a self assessment uh back uh to to make progress and making Corrections is there any thoughts on how we can speed that process up any or anything well you know I I will
certainly certainly share that um you with u with other folks on staff um in terms of the the time frame for it to go on and part of this I I think part of this reflection that they share with us uh
later on I is that uh there a recognition of of what's going on what's coming out in in the report and what they've done to change on that or how they're they're dealing with it and you know to follow up on on the previous
point it's it's very important to remember that uh of course these these letter grades those evaluate schools our process here is about evaluating the authorizers specifically and and what
they go through uh to to make sure that the best decisions are are reached for the students in that District just as a kind of a good way to about that I understand that but our process should be to provide suggestions for
improvement to overcome these things so all I'm saying is if there's a way that we can we can do it in a more timely man I think everybody wins so that's just just something for us to to think about okay other questions on she School District before we move
on Mr James All right so going to slide 16 and 13,8 students uh were enrolled in uh the 23 24 school year in terms of their 27 schools um this is uh their
first charter school was open in 2007 and they serve approximately 16% of their students they've had no uh schools closed since the 1st of September 2022 and none in development
uh let's talk about areas of strength for Metra Nashville they've approved the charter agreement by updating the uh terms of its agreement to better align with quality authorizing standards and establish a process of discussion of mutual agreement on those terms and they
refrain from directing or participating in education decisions or choices that are within the purview of its charter schools and uh uh they notify new Charter applicants and existing operators of its authorizing decisions of writing and the documents and factors that determine those decisions those are
areas of strength and so if if we look at uh also areas of growth uh there's been some note that they have not necessarily involved members of the authorizing staff that is to say their authorizing staff uh with
the greatest understanding of Charter School autonomy and accountability and four of its seven Charter decisions were overturned by the appet body that's a public charter school um commission so not defined or communicated renewal
criteria to its schools and that impact the decision to deny a renewal for one of its schools and it lacks an Lea board approved Progressive intervention policy and that is required by TCA 491312 C so um a board approved
intervention policy should have been adopted by 1 of August 23 uh they do have an adopted process which is strong but it's just got to be uh voted on by the metro school board so it's not that they aren't uh addressing some of these
issues but it is is required to be in a policy and that policy's got to be adopted by the board itself their overall rating is a 2 .9 was satisfactory uh they've got some required follow-up actions and including
a submission of a self assessment 25 uh 26 school year any questions for Mr James on Metro National Public Schools okay Mr James go ahead all right so we're going to slide number 20 at this point in time it's a public charter
school commission this is a agency established in 20 2019 my public chapter 219 of the 111th General Assembly to serve as the state's Charter School appellant body and authorizer for any charter school that it approves on
appeal uh they've got 13 schools in operation remember when we had them what were we up to five or six Sarah at that point in time so it's it's gotten to be quite a big operation as you any of you know who U come come up to the office
they're uh housed on the same uh in the same building that we are and on the same level they've got 4796 students as of the 23 24 school year there are 11 in development and they've had no schools closed they've
had rapid growth the new start and renewal appeal uh Pathways as well as ASD transition schools so moving on to 21 let's talk about areas of strength they demonstrated
strong commitment to the Quality Charter authorizing standards and continuous Improvement through ongoing professional development and impactful Improvement planning utilize experienced review teams in their Charter application processes uh prepare thoughtful rubric findings and questions for capacity
interviews and public hearings drafts detailed and comprehensive recommendation reports and incorporates a performance framework into its Charter agreements and connect set framework standards to compliance monitoring site visits and annual reporting
um so certainly very strong in that area we're looking at slide 22 now uh identified areas of growth they've made positive updates to authorizing activities based on school feedback yet there does remain
a level of frequency and duplication to oversight in certain areas that create uh administrative burdens on a schools uh there's a consistent a lacks consistent evidence of only amendments to schools that demonstrate through
preparation and strong academic results as required by its approval criteria and does not communicate does not clearly communicate the criteria for Renewal or have an established closure protocol and they should have a closure protocol um
but that requirement lives in policy and not in Rule and the policy does not have a force of law uh overall you take a look at the work done there it's a 3.76% or exemplary exemplary uh which by
the way uh Mr cbins uh and uh Mr Jensen Memphis earned that distinction last year and so if we're looking at U uh required followup actions public recognition and highlighting best practices by the state board and uh also
exemption from the 2026 evaluation for receiving two consecutive exemplary scores uh there is a submission of a self assessment in its non evaluation years let talk a bit on uh number 24
there about the best practices they set a clear mission for authorizing it ensures its policies processes and practices align with that mission uh they've updated performance Frameworks to provide schools an option to incorporate uh Mission specific goals as
part of its annual evaluation uh clearly defined communicates a robust and comprehensive reporting process for Gathering performance and compliance data and this is big I mean you know it ought to be highlighted there and they consistently use uh it's ongoing
oversight intervention evaluation processes to determine when that intervention is needed um so their mission is to provide positive academic and life outcomes for Tennesse students through access to high quality of public charter
schools so overall I'm happy to take questions on a charter school commission best practices or we can move on to the overall evaluation history on slide 25 whichever the members would prefer comments are questions for Mr
James Larry Jensen question J um do you have a list of those schools that I miss that where they are they're statewide right oh for the public charter school committee yeah uh I don't but I'll tell
you what as soon as I'm done uh giving this presentation I will look it up and send it to you I can tell you Mr Jensen it's Memphis Nashville and Rutherford County are the locations okay yeah but we can follow up with the specific schools but I would like to see a list of those schools to when not now but
when you can that'd be helpful thank you you will you will have it as soon as I'm not talking into the camera anymore for Mr James I was just going to note that the the list is also included in the
report should we yeah Miss supe Miss supe when you speak please identify yourself again we don't have everybody on on our screens because we got the slides and we just have a portion apiz thank you for the
reminder comments or questions I'll just say this uh certainly congratulations outstanding for uh Tennessee Public Charter School commission glad to see best practices being shared with other districts and and the the shadow evaluations I think
all this is working together so that we can continue to uplift uh each one of our Charter Schools no other questions or comments Mr James go ahead yeah so we're going to go to slide number 25 okay so this graph shows the overall scores of each of our
three authorizers evaluated in 22 and 24 which visually demonstrates the growth that's happened in just two years uh so your red one is 22 blue is 24 we made updates to our evaluation standards between the first and the second
evaluation Cycles remember the first time we did this we were one of what four maybe five jurisdictions in the country that was doing this work and uh it it was uh you know a unique Challenge and wanted to get it uh the right way we
the the best way we could but we were also very open with everyone around the state that as the process goes it'll be refined and of course every time that that happens it's it's done in a very open and public way and and uh try to bring folks in to have those discussions
but we did make updates to our evaluation standards between the first and second evaluation cycles and we're especially proud of the work that's been happening with the charter commission is they've maintained exemplary status across to consecutive eval ation earning them an exemption from their next evaluation that's that's a pretty big
deal when it comes down to it so uh let's go to Reflections overall let's go to slide 27 we're focused on continuous Improvement that's Gathering evaluation process feedback from authorizers valuators turle school
leaders is what I was referring to before when an entity like the State Board of Education takes on this work and remember that we were doing what very few uh very few agencies or or U
you know ever decide to do and that is to say to the folks who who will listen and who are making law on this process that they're ought to be a dedicated uh Charter commission um a lot of times uh you know government entities just uh try
to grow and grow but the best practice was for there to be uh a dedicated Charter commission and for us it was how do we how do we put together and collect the best practices and things that the
responsible authorizers uh need to do and that's that's some work that we took on with with alacrity and and I think we took it on pretty zealously and I'm I'm very proud of our team for that work so that
means annually updating these evalu ation documents and processes of preparing for a deeper analyses of evaluation results to determine a need for further updates um but it's also frankly when something works you know leaving that alone making sure that it's
it's uh not change for changes sake and not just uh because you can do a new thing you do a new thing and and that's uh that's something that that I take particular pride in in terms of the the work of our team and especially uh
Valley read on our team so uh going on to 28 let's let's talk about the authorizer resources these are these are uh things that we make available for the uh authorizers around the state all the different
districts and remember we're in the unique spot of being the evaluator of that process so you want to be helpful and you want to provide resources and assistance to point districts and and
authorizers in the right direction without compromising without compromising the U the ability to wear the the black and white stripes when it comes time for evaluation and so that's something that we've done and and that's
another another piece that I'm proud of you see we do bonly authorizer connect meetings uh this uh allows our staff uh uh to facilitate with any of the districts that are authorizers now or have interest in becoming an authorizer
it provides the opportunity for uh those folks in that Community to build relationships with each other while also finding out what's worked well around the state in addition to what are what are best practices and what they ought to be doing we've engaged with the
Tennessee organization of school superintendant and uh School boards Association uh building additional uh member buyin and engagement through trainings and evaluation uh participation so if your District's going to get into the business of of
charter schools uh certainly it's it's very important for all the students of Tennessee that the best practices be followed uh National Association of Charter School authorizers uh that's they dedicate funding to cover annual
membership dues and engage and and professional development opportunities with this National Organization as well as the national network produc District authorizers that's newly established there is a Tennessee chapter that provides additional professional development and resources to uh support
its authorizers uh I'll tell you we look at this landscape on an annual basis because if you were to take uh if you were to take this stuff from 10 years ago or even five years ago it it would look differently there's a a lot of
places around the country that maybe it's a university does the authorization in some states it's almost you know it's kind of the Wild West in terms of who authorizes Charter Schools but I would say our approach has been level and metered and and appropriate
and that's something that that uh I think the the board itself ought to be proud of in terms of maintaining that going to slide 29 happy to uh answer any questions or offer whatever I thank you Mr James any questions for Mr James other
questions Mr chairman Ryan hold yes Mr H could we go back to uh slide 25 please your numbers are one off of what our numbers are uh Nathan
because the cohor to evaluation history so yeah I just wanted to use this as a jumping off point to say that um I know there's been a lot of work that went into the continued authorizer evaluations and and wanted to commend Ali Reid all all the authorizer
evaluation team ASD mmps the charter commission I mean these the data here is I think encouraging to see that now we've got a comparison Point 2022 and 2024 and to see the SD numbers improve the mnps
numbers improve and obviously the commission's numbers are still um excellent I know a lot of work went into that um and that is is just really good to see um because as you all said it's just important that when we have an a significant number of public charter
schools and increasing number of students in those schools that we have strong authorizers and and it's just great to see that work um look to pay off based on the data that that we now have so just wanted to to say that and wish allly was here to for her to hear that but um it's great to to see the the
fruits of this work Mr H very good my understanding Mr H is that she is watching from Argentina well go go enjoy yourself in Argentina all instead of watching this support
shop questions or comments no questions or comments thank you Mr James and and I agree thank you Ally for all that you do and uh uh made a lot of progress in the last couple years we'll continue to make that next
item is scores impact credential framework Miss Leah Guthrie and Miss Mary Cy Mets from score and they come on let me just say this is uh several of us attended the uh fast forward Summit last week that score had it was an
outstanding meeting uh it grows each year uh they had National Speakers they had State speakers and I just really really excellent job for sport that's miss cth and
miss thank you chairman e um it is wonderful to be with you all this afternoon I'm Mary Cyprus met I am our senior vice president of strategy with score and I have my colleague Aaliyah Guthrie who leads policy and government relations at score here as well and
we're excited to share with you all um about some work that we have been um involved in but really in partnership with many folks across the state over the last several months um that was released at the end of last year that we're excited to update you all on and then answer questions you have about it
because we think there's lots of um exciting opportunities and connections to K12 education on that um so I'll walk us through that and then if you all have questions alah and I will be here to to help answer those but just as a quick background um for those of you who who
don't know score was founded in 2009 by former US Senate Majority Leader bill fris um with the goal of ensuring that we can support students in our state um and to bring Partners together in doing so and we started our work um at the
organization Focus premier on K12 education but we now also think about student outcomes through postsecondary education and Rel to their Career Success our our mission today is really to ensure that all students have an
excellent K2 of education and they have the opportunity to earn post-secondary degrees and credentials that prepare them for careers that enable economic independence and that's an important goal and when we think about that goal we have to be able to know what what are
the degrees and credentials that are actually leading students to careers that enable economic independen and there has to be a way of defining that we know that as a state in Tennessee we have prioritized um education and we have
prioritized Workforce Development and we prioritized connecting the two um in over many years and want to just start by saying that this isn't a new conversation for Tennessee um it's one that we know has been ongoing and the reason we're able to have even more
robust conversations today is because of the work that has happened already um we have prioritized foundational policy um improvements and investments in K12 education we have invested in early post-secondary career opportunities for
students while they're in high school um in vocational um education through the give act and through AIP Tennessee we have invested in the expansion of our teats um we have also prioritized completion at the postsecondary level
and through all of this we can go to the next slide here we have really been able to um see an increase in Tennessee we know that today 63% of jobs require some type of postsecondary degree or credential and over the last um since
2013 we have made significant um improvements in our efforts to have tennesseeans earning those degrees in credentials where we're almost at 48% today we have haven't yet met that 63% but because of the prioritization that we've had as a state we've been able to
make um significant progress towards that but we haven't met it but more importantly and we can go to the next slide I think the thing that we're really um thinking about also is that we don't know a lot about that those 48% of um tennesseans that have those
credentials we don't know if they're actually degrees that are needed um specifically by Workforce we don't know what the earnings are that are associated with those degrees that were credentials and at score one we've been thinking about how do we ensure that all students have the opportunity to earn
degrees and credentials that um prepare them for economic independence it feels important to be able to connect those two things um and so one more slide here of just context before we dive into what we've been
thinking about not only are we talking about um earning a high school the diploma and then going on to some form of post-secondary Education or Workforce training um certificate we're also talking about a much more complex maze we've ever seen um in in the country and
in Tennessee before because we know that there are over a million over one million unique um opportunities of credentials that students have the option of pursuing today and that is so much information um for them to consider
and so that is with that information in mind score set out over the past year to really think about what information would we want to know about the degrees and credentials that students are earning in Tennessee to be able to
prioritize how are we supporting them towards the degrees and credentials starting as early as their K12 education and throughout the process and this is important to us I think for a couple of different reasons
um one I personally am a a mom I am have been a classroom teacher here in Tennessee and it feels really important that all that we're doing to support our students now is truly setting them on a path to to success and I think about my
own postsecondary journey and I think a lot of it was up to luck and a lot of it was making good decisions and it feels very unfair to leave that kind of luck um in the hands of so many students across our state and so important connect it to the amazing Economic Development and Workforce Development
opportunities we have in our state um so the the next slide um we score took a step back about a year ago now um to really imagine what would it look like to know what outcomes could be expected from the
degree or credential a students earning whether that's a industry credential that they're earning in high school uh associates degree that they're earning a bachelor's degree or even an advanced degree that they're earning and then if we could understand those outcomes how could we then um Target supports and
resources to guide students towards those um those Pathways and those outcomes um so that there's more information for the students to have greater Economic Opportunity and ultimately for our state to have greater Economic Opportunity and so we s out to
Define um what is an impact credential what is a credential that has um the type of impact that leads to a career that enables economic independence for students and I think I finally figured out how to um navigate my own slides
thank you for the support up until now but we did not want to do this alone um here at score we wanted to really think about it in partnership with stakeholders from across the state and so we brought together State leaders K12 leaders postsecondary leaders um student
support organizations business industry Partners as well as National experts because we know other states have thought about this also to come together over really um nearly nine months um to think about what would it look like to
Define impact credential in Tennessee um we were grateful to have darl cobbins as part of uh this process and had engagement with a number of other of you throughout the process as well but grateful to Daryl for sitting on the um in the working group and being engaged throughout this process it felt
important to have um stakeholders from all different sectors coming together to really Define what is the impact we want to see from degree credentials in Tennessee um and score has always been an organization that values data and so we started with the data and we
partnered with the University of Tennessee Knoxville's voy Center for business and economic research to um to help us look at this data and what we we asked them to help us do is identify what is all of the information that we could know about degrees and credentials
today in Tennessee uh what do we have data and information on and so what you see here in Black are the the metrics that they were able to help us identify and this was really helpful to not only know what do we have what information do we have as a state but also what is the
data quality of that information and so there is more information on some of these than others we brought that list to the working group and we discussed it and we also um identified additional measures that are important that tell us
more about um the impact of a credential so we know that earnings tell us something we know that the job outlook for careers connect to that tell us something we know um portability and stackability tell us something but we also know that um income Mobility tells
us something we know that skills tell us something we know that there's also societal and individual excuse me societal value and individual purpose associated with degrees and credentials as well so we discussed and looked at what information we have on all of these
metrics um and had a couple of takeaways one was that there wasn't a single measure on this list that the group thought told everything or told the whole story and that was important that we needed to be thinking about this in a framework sense with multiple measures
second the great felt like it was really important for earnings to be considered as part of um this discussion because when you think about economic Independence for a student for a Tennessee and earnings has to play a role in that um from there we also we
looked at many um uh many other things as well we looked at what have other states done um Tennessee is not the first state to uh uh try to Define this um LOF have this lofty goal of defining impact for credentials and so we looked
at what other states have done and we saw that there are states that have thought about it as an Roi measure we have we saw states that have thought about um multiple measures but only um
for um two two-year degrees in um credentials we saw others who have only thought about it for industry credentials we have some that had thought about it across the hall Spectrum but just using one measure and so there wasn't exactly a state who has done it exactly like we wanted to be able to do into the sea however um we
were able to learn a lot from that and get a lot of inspiration to put into ten context we then um our data team at score partnered with the data teams at the various State Partners who are engaged in this process at TC at um
Department of Labor and otherwise to really think about um how do we develop a framework and I am excited to share with you all this very detailed slide that I'll try to break down for you a little bit but this slide is the framework or the definition for impact
credential in Tennessee um and what we wanted to be able to do is know is a degree or credential going to lead a student to to have the opportunity for a career that enables economic independence and we created a definition through this framework that
looked at three different measures in determining that earnings job outlook and stackability with earnings and job outl being really the the two driving measures and stackability being conditional knowing
that often times um the credential or degree of student learning is not their final destination and they're getting it to be able to take a step so that they can later take another step or to couple it with another degree or credential and we felt like that was really important
to to note and that um that goal of being able to sack should not um make a cral not valuable even if it doesn't yet meet the criteria for the other measures but I want to talk about earnings and job Outlook so you see three different columns here we labeled them by stars
but we are not trying to to Market this or say we're marketing experts on that but just to help distinguish between the two and I'll start on the left which the left is really the minimum threshold we identified with the partners in the working group as what is an impact credential in Tennessee um it needs to
connect to earnings um a median earnings five years after graduation of at least the minimum L wage for a single Tennessee in and so that's 43,124 but the careers that should be connected to a certain degree or credential and how are those jobs growing in
Tennessee um and we looked at that and so if they're growing at least um 8% which is about half of the state average over a 10year period then that is um in that one star category and so if a
credential is connected to $443,000 of earnings five years after graduation and there's a 8% um job outlook for careers connected to thatal then it is an impact credential in our mind and in this framework and that
didn't feel like enough information we the group really decided that there needs to be a spectrum of understanding the impact of credentials and so we created what is a tiered approach here we think that once our category is great and those are credentials that are tied to the workforce opportunities in our
state um and are needed in our state today and support Tennessee but we want to know more um and so we created two additional tiers that have higher earnings and also have higher um job outlook um levels associated with them I'll flag that on this right tier um
that 1.6% that is the state average for job growth um and so wanted to have that as kind of the marker there and we worked backwards by 75 50% of that on the job outlook and then in reverse on earnings starting with the um living
wage for Tennessean we increase that by um 15 to 75% um for the earnings and so that is the framework that we developed and I just want to give you a a quick look at some modeling of how that breaks
down um this again is not exactly um exact information about every credential that is offered in Tennessee but this is looking at um the data that is available about degrees and credentials that are offered in our state um and that we have information on
and so you can see about 25% of those credentials do not meet um the threshold here about 33% meet that one star that impact credential threshold with about 8% of those um being in that conditional stackability category and then an
additional about 20 to 21% for the two and three star categories of um of the modeling um we this is more information than you need probably but this model was using
about 244 credentials um going through the framework we used um learner level data from tbr's program so our tcats and community colleges um and um information from our
universities as well we um don't have data on all of different for all every single degree in credential that's offered in Tennessee I just want to I want to be clear about that but this does we feel very confident our partners um who are part of the working group confident in this modeling as being a
good representation of what is expected um and to give you some examples of what falls in here um I think that's something that's often talked about it does not um fall into this um onear category were above not
because it doesn't have the job uh uh excuse me because it doesn't have job offerings available we hear often that it is fast growing there are cosmal jobs available but because it doesn't offer the earnings um that are needed for this
um my own degree at journalism degree falls into the one star category um some other examples for you an associates degree in computer systems um is a two star category and the Bachelor's in computer science is a three star category and there's lots of examples I
could give throughout each of these but just wanted to give you a sense of um both bachelor's degrees Associates degrees and um industry certifications kind of fall they all fall have examples across the full spectrum of um of this
framework so what do you do with this information and I'll go through just a quick bit more and then I'd love to answer any questions that you have but I think this is the really important meat of it so we have this framework that really prioritizes earnings and job outlook and that should be looking at
earnings and job outlook when we um consider degrees and credentials in Tennessee and how we're um prioritizing them and so what could you do with this framework um is I think really important to consider and we identified a couple of areas that we think could really be
considered that I want to share broadly and then I wanted to do a a quick um click deeper on what does that mean in the K12 space knowing what you all are focused on specifically but one is we have a framework like this could drive a line between our education and Workforce
systems we know that um we have had the pril of having incredible Economic Development as a state and our Workforce Development efforts are um in incredible to support that and we believe a framework like this can ensure that education in Tennessee students are
prepared to realize that Economic Opportunity um our state has second is we are investing resources in funding into Pathways for students starting at a very young age and a framework like this could help us Target
those and prioritize resources to best support students towards economic independence um we also know that students receive incredible supports in our state and our state has prioritized ensuring students have supports through advising um through opportunities they
have available to them and a framework like this could really help to Target those supports um ensure they're that they're having the greatest impact and then finally we also think it could be a talent development tool for industry leaders we heard from a lot of the industry Partners in the group that this
can really help to ensure that they have the the talent that's needed and that uh they're at the table co-creating the opportunities um to priortize degrees and credentials that they need for their their Workforce goals so that's what we've been thinking about broadly and
then specifically at the K12 level um and looking ahead we really think there's incredible opportunity to apply this framework um to ensure students have access to these opportunities um a few ways score believes um this
framework can really expand opportunity for students in Tennessee um is kind of multifold but I'll I'll go through each of these quickly and we can um spend time diving in if that would be helpful but first we believe the Tissa
funding formula is incredible and we think that the CTE Progressive study um outcome bonuses uh that are aligned to high in high wage careers for CTE funding um as well as the outcomes bonuses um that are available through
Tissa um and the tiers around industry credentials uh all have the opportunity to be aligned I think one thing you'll hear us talk about a lot is we are prioritizing and incentivizing many different things that are all connected but not necessarily the same as a state and we think particularly with tea
There's an opportunity to really align um these resource incentives that we're creating that are incredible um to be B around impact credentials so there is a a a single measure um second we are so fortunate in our state to have so many early
post-secondary and career opportunities um like youth appr initiatives like work-based learning um um and other episodes available to students um but they're they're also broad they could be targeted towards providing opportunity for students to earn impact credentials
an earlier um stage and a more accelerated Pace um to ensure they have the opportunity to really beat their own career goals connected to that dual enrollment um continues to increase um across the state and it's such an incredible opportunity for students um
and so fortunate in our state for the the state to be funding so many of those opportunities for students and we know that um and it that not all students are leveraging those dual enrollment opportunities really in a sequence or in
a pathway that puts them on an accelerated path to a degree or credential and even at sometimes they're really functioning more as random Max of dual enrollment and we believe a framework like the impact credential framework could really help to create alignment for the sequencing of those
opportunities and help students um have a more accelerated pathway um then similar to Tissa uh we have various college and Care Readiness indicators in our state we have the College and Career Readiness indicator
we have ready graduate um we have a promoted industry credential list um and we think that all of these are really important and there's an opportunity to align them to um a common definition or framework so that there is more
consistency around what to prioritize and um keep an eye towards student impact and then finally I'll just like advising um which we think is such an important opportunity for students particularly K12 students um because we know how much
uh that trusted and relationship driven advising support students on their Pathways and we think advising is crucial to ensuring students are aware of impact credential opportunities knowing they can choose whatever path um they want to be on but how do we ensure students know what outcomes they could
expect from various degrees um in credentials and then also how could a tool like this framework be used in um high school and Beyond plans that students are that are being developed with students in the K12 years um and can support them throughout their High
School experience and that and so those are um quick hits on the ways that we see opportunities for a framework like this to really help to connect um the important work that's already underway in Tennessee around Pathways starting as
early as middle school if not younger um to really ensure that all of that work is not um resulting in students leaving it up to luck and chance and that there really are opportunities for students to earn degrees in CR digitals particularly
in an accelerated way that prepare them forage uh that enable economic independence so I'm excited to share this update with you all as I know y'all are thinking about many opportunities connected to this um wanted to share with you all course um recommendations and thoughts here but also would always
be happy to discuss um how elements that this could be used we don't see this as a prescriptive framework we really see it as a an opportunity to for how to you start thinking about earnings and job outlook and stackability and is a conversation starter um and so that's what we hope it can be with you all as
well but thank you for the opportunity to share today and aah I would be happy to answer any questions that you all have this man it's a very good presentation a lot of things to think about talk about questions from our board members
I just mention go ahead no go ahead Mr Jensen you go ahead uh a couple of things first thank you for the work you're doing it's over the last number of years there there seems to be this continuous Improvement that's occurring and uh that that's a a good thing and I
appreciate everything y'all are doing couple of questions I had um when you think about uh how you're communicating how are you communicating parents you talked about students and that's all wonderful but a lot of times
parents perhaps are not as well informed about what those opportunities are and may even have resistance to CTE because of historical uh thinking that said oh we got to go to four-year college so how
are you communicating uh with with the parents and then I have a followup on that thank you mron that's a great question as a parent um I I certainly value that question and it is one that came up a lot during the working group um process as well the the one thing I
would say is I I think score recognizes that we're probably not the leading Communicator to parents um but we are hopeful that a resource like this could be a tool that is used by the organizations um that are communicating with parents and by schools and districts um you know I
mention advising My Hope Is that this isn't just advising that's happening directly with students but also it is um could be used to inform parent um communication and that those High School Beyond plans they're being shared with parents that information through this framework could really help um families
to have information on that as well as a followup just I have particular concerns about underserved neighborhoods and uh I have school districts that are in urban as well as suburban and I was in the Germantown
school probably six or eight months ago and they said I asked that question and they said the parents are calling us though the parents are pushing there I have do have some concerns about how we are communicating in neighborhoods where
we need greater engagement uh by the parents I just like to make sure that that's a priority in some form or fashion the other question that that I had is how is the accountability being handled for districts to make sure if
we've got aund whatever 41 districts how are we making sure that those districts because some are probably doing a really good job and I suspect there are others that are not what's the uh the the approach to making sure this is
continuous and and the coverage is good across the entire state by districts yeah great question aiah you jump in here too I think a couple of the opportunities I just mentioned um the alignment of the college incer readiness indicators as accountability measures as
well as the uh TSA opportunities we really think there alignment of um what's being measured and what's being um funded creates an opportunity for districts have Clarity around um what to what to prioritize so those would be the
a couple of the places that we would recommend yeah and we um Aaliyah Guthrie with score um thank you again for having us today and um just Echo what Mary Cypress has shared as you all know our uh Federal accountability plan includes a
measure called Ready grad which is slightly different than the outcomes that are articulated in the Tissa outcomes bonuses which is also different from the definition of the of CCR within
the a through F letter grade system which is our state accountability um and then we have um tiering of CTE programs within um how we fund CTE programs through Tisa and we also have a promoted
industry credentials list and there is a lot of overlap um but they're they're not all um you know designed exactly the same and not to say that they should all exactly mirror one another they serve different purposes um but that is I
think an area where alignment could be improved to create Clarity for schools and districts and then for students and parents as they're choosing Pathways and our kind of hypothesis is that um this that
alignment should be towards what is the long-term best interest of students so looking at wage and demand um so that they can be successful in life and then how do we ensure our Educational Systems are lined up so that students are on a
path towards that future success um so there's lots of different levers um that that we're interested in and I think um feel like there's a lot of momentum around this conversation one final question Mr chairman if I may um how are you
responding to Industry that uh comes into your into the area the example in Memphis is got xai coming in here yall musk this massive investment and end that's a basically in some ways
a enlarged opportunity how is industry being how is that being responded to so that we're able to get to the that kind of opportunity for kids in this part of the state and there's more come by by the
way on that so it it is it taking a year is it six months is it immediate that's my it's more of a timing question I'm sure there's stuff going on I'm just asking how responsive are we being to those opportunities here but across the
state that's such a great question um one of the things that was really important in the job Outlet portion of this framework was that it was not just focused on what is the job outlook today but what was what is the job outlook um looking out into the future and so that is what's prioritized kind of a 10year
span that currently looks out into 2030 and it's using steny Department of Labor data to to drive that I will note though that there are two limitations of this and I should have mentioned uh I think we think this is an important first framework and there are data limitations to it and there are enhancements that
should be made to it um one thing the group really discussed that's not yet considered in this framework is regional relevance knowing that particularly for some of our fast growing um in in demand jobs those are coming into a region and needing to quickly launch and uh for our
specific to a certain region in the state knowing how up Brad and um unique our state is from east to west and so this framework does not yet consider Regional relevance but we think that is something that could be added to it in the
future thank you appreciate it other comments or questions let me just say a couple of things one um at the fast forward Summit and you use it here I had never thought about the word stackability I mean it's uh when you
think about it it makes a lot of sense and and I like that term and when I think about the State Board of Education and tdoe in the past we've always focused on
k312 or pre k312 Stephen Gentile uh they focus on higher ed the labor works focuses on Workforce and seeing that integration now the focus in the state P20 you know from preschool into the
workforce is so critical for us to meet those Workforce needs and this is a challenge to score I think you all are in a very very unique position and what you do and going back to Mr Jensen's comments about inside the state we had geographical differences too and we have
differences whether they're rural or Urban or Suburban differences but but you you are in a very unique position I think to help bring this together to meet all the workforce needs to help us work together to connect to break down those silos that we need to do so very
good thank you for the report any further comments we've got a short break here uh till uh 2:15 Central Time 3:15 uh Eastern Time thank you m Mets and Miss Guthrie we'll see you thank you so much
for having us yes for e e e e for e e e
e e we will start back in two minutes for for before we go to our next item I wanted to share uh this comment that tdit shared with its staff says today
Microsoft and other internet service providers are experiencing several global technology issues please be patient as these issues are widespread but intermittent Microsoft and other vendors have confirmed that the the issues are being addressed and should
slowly improve so we're not all incompetent here we've got technology giving us challenges uh and so if you had been kicked off or can't get on uh it's understandable I will encourage board
members to if they can to turn on their cameras uh understand if you're not able to do that to maintain service next item on our list is algebra 2 report Mr Michael durine and Dr Allen coverstone thank you chairman and
members of the board good afternoon Michael derline executive director of policy and research with the State Board public chapter 583 of the public acts of 2024 directed the State Board in collaboration with the Department of Education and the higher education
commission to explore potential alternative courses to Algebra 2 as a reminder our graduation requirements indicate that students must either take Algebra 2 or integrated math 3 to graduate board staff contracted with Dr
Allan coverstone to produce this report Dr coverstone has worked in education for over 30 years and has a rich history of Engagement in Tennessee education policy and practice through his work with Belmont University Metro Nashville Public Schools and he previously served as a member of the Davidson County
School Board in drafting this report Dr coverstone explored recent shifts to Tennessee's standards for Algebra 2 National research and practices and he spoke with many members of the State Board mathematics Educators who previously served on our mathematics standards committee repres
representatives from ttoe and Tac and the president of the Tennessee Business Roundtable we know this is a complex topic and we are thankful for Dr coverstone hard work and the engagement from Educators and stakeholders across the state with that I will turn it over to Dr coverstone Who will present his
findings and respond to any questions you all may have thanks Michael and uh thank you chairman elely and uh Dr Morrison good to see you all I appreciate you're inviting me here today and for engaging me to support preparation of this report
as Michael said my name is Alan coverstone and I'm honored to present this report on Algebra 2 Alternatives in mathematics Pathways in Tennessee I'll start by saying engaging and clear Pathways in math can make the subject more accessible and meaningful for the
students uh as well as for the teachers in the schools and can help strengthen student preparation for their future careers uh a lot of that overlaps with some of the conversation from the previous report the research uh stakeholder engagement and Analysis Michael spoke to and went into this
report are all aimed at ensuring that the mathematics Pathways available to Tennessee students are rigorous relevant and accessible and that they're aligned with both post-secondary and career aspirations of all Tennessee students so today I'll walk you through the key
takeaways in the report you've had it for a little bit of time and hope you've had a chance to take a look at it uh if not um I can certainly follow up with any questions you may have as well I'll share what uh We've learned in the process and uh what the Tennessee context might uh might offer in terms of
potential alternatives to Algebra 2 so Michael already mentioned the legislative Mandate of public chapter 583 and the collaboration of the Departments involved much thanks to everyone who took time to speak to me and share your perspectives uh that was much appreciated and I learned a great
deal on the process uh we'll turn now to the purpose of the report the the key objectives of this report are really three uh sorry four first to evaluate alternative mathematics courses that align with Workforce and post-secondary demands second to ensure that courses
that we consider are always academically rigorous and rigorous in comparison to Algebra 2 third to understand the Tennessee context including recent changes in Algebra 2 standards and the introduction of Pathways aligned math
courses like mathematical reasoning for decision-making and how the Tennessee approach align with act benchmarks and postsecondary expectations or post secondary admissions requirements and then lastly to understand efforts underway and some other states that have
implemented multiple mathematics Pathways and consider their implications for Tennessee as we move forward in this work as well the choice to introduce new courses whether you introduce them as onetoone substitutes for algebra or as part of a larger pathway in math is
never made in a vacuum this report helps understand more fully how Tennessee has approached the need to develop strong math students who are well prepared for post-secondary opportunities and careers uh and and prepared for careers that meet the needs that our state has uh by
also looking at approaches in some other states uh which are aiming to address similar needs this report we hope offers a holistic look at the algeb toe question in the context of a student's entire mathematics experience and the opportunity for that uh that's available
to students in Tennessee you would consider alternatives in the first place historically Algebra 2 has been a standard requirement for high school graduation but as educational and Workforce demands have evolved some are starting to ask does algebra 2 or requiring Algebra 2 for all students
still serve all students best interest uh Research into the case for multiple math Pathways and even individual course substitutions for a course like Algebra 2 suggest that Algebra 2 is essential for stem careers but many non- stem careers
require different mathematical competencies such as data literacy and qu quantitative reasoning although it's important to note that these are built on a foundation of Concepts that are also in Algebra 2 courses Workforce needs are increasingly shifting towards
skill in data analysis financial literacy and applied problem solving and that's another reason that uh people are looking into these questions a third reason is a single track approach roach to mathematics uh may play a contributing role in individual
decisions perhaps to drop out or to uh decide not to access post-secondary educational opportunities for students whose career paths may not require or they may not perceive to require Advanced algebra and finally some other states have successfully implemented
mathematics Pathways allowing students to choose mathematics courses aligned with their interests and goals but as I said above I'll talk more about how those decisions are not made in a vacuum either so this report looks at the algebra 2 substitution question in light
of those challenges in questions of course these are not the only questions the report also considers challenges created by mathematical uh multiple mathematical Pathways such as ensuring that students are well prepared to make their choices uh for a pathway based on
actual career goals and and aspirations as well as extensive preparation to do the work in advanced math classes and not just in order to make it easier for them to graduate for example giving students real choices in their math Pathways will require at a minimum strong guidance counseling and teacher
preparation to offer meaningful choices uh and not just choices where some some students end up on a default pathway or end up in a course that uh they just aren't teachers trained to teach yet or that may not serve their long-term goals so turning attention to some of
the key findings in the report uh we really address three key findings that I think organize the the bulk of the report and and they are these first that Tennessee recently revised its Algebra 2 standards to improve relevance and uh they in that revision placed a greater
emphasis on statistics data analysis and applied problem solving all things that are based in Algebra 2 or foundationally in Algebra 2 but are often developed and applied in the context of different Pathways or different career options when you talk about multiple pathways
in addition because Tennessee requires four mathematic credits for graduation multiple Pathways preparations run through a range of fourth grade Ma sorry fourth math courses and and I recognize you can take them in different order but I'll call them fourth math courses uh
meaning that beyond the algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 Sandwich uh there is opportunity for an additional course which can be aligned to uh different career fields and different post-secondary opportunities uh and Tennessee has done some of that work as
well secondly instead of Simply substituting a single course for Algebra 2 a more effective approach is to develop multiple mathematics Pathways that align with student aspirations and Workforce needs in the state or region uh that can be accomplished in a variety
of ways but it's more likely to achieve the objectives that we have for our math instruction and career preparation uh than than simply one-off substitutes that are not not aligned with that and then finally a strong mathematics pathway structure requires continued
collaboration between K12 education higher education and Workforce stakeholders to maintain alignment across all levels of education and for every student that P20 uh span and on into the workforce is important there spending just a little bit of time
on Tennessee's recent Algebra 2 standards revisions because I think they're critical to understanding the context of this discussion in Tennessee uh Tennessee revised those standards and they were implemented in the 2023 24 school year so the school year
just prior to this one uh the goals of the standards review and the revisions that were made align with the goals of course substitutions and Pathways reforms in other states including the desire for more College access alignment Workforce Readiness as well as just
graduation for students who might find themselves styed in an Algebra 2 course the standards revision included several key shifts in the content of the algebra 2 course in Tennessee uh they included things like increased emphasis on
statistics probability and real world applications which is extending those foundations and the skills that go into that in Algebra 2 into uh more analytical and decision-making and problem solving environments also in the new standards integrated algebraic and
GE GE geometric Concepts more fully to enhance conceptual understanding uh and and reduce some of the abstraction that occasionally gets in the way of some students being able to master that effectively Additionally the the
standards revisions uh removed some of the less universally applicable or what we might consider more abstract topics in Algebra 2 uh which are now covered in pre-calculus standards in Tennessee uh and therefore align with that stem
career pathway and then last ly the standard shift also was intended to create more time and space in the school year to allow instructional improvements and changes uh that would include bringing in more practical and Hands-On instructional
strategies we take the data from just a single year with all of the grains of salt required for that the initial data it seems to suggest that there's been some changes in the first year of implementation of the algebra 2
standards uh moving from 2023 to 2024 uh and looking at Algebra 2 end of course examination performance here shows a significant reduction in students who were scoring below expectations and a similar increase in students whose
scores were approaching expectations and that seems to be where most of the shift is uh while the data also show an uptick in students meeting expectations that increases smaller and those exceeding expectations remained fairly fairly constant I don't want to overe extrapolate this but this is the kind of
data that you can look at to determine whether the standards are having their intended effect and to evaluate whether changes and additions should be made we're talking about uh these changes in Tennessee standards it's it's important not simply to focus in on
Algebra 2 because in addition to the changes that were made there uh there has also recently been added a mathematical reasoning uh pathway course known as mathematical reasoning for decision making uh this is a course that students can take that is built on the foundations of Algebra 2 that could be
taken as a fourth math credit uh and it really does uh aim to accomplish a lot of the Practical applications and um use of statistical modeling and data analysis uh in real world context and so for example uh the thing some of the
things that are included in this course are Financial mathematics personal business and financial decision making uh algebra and linear programming which is um necessary for enabling optimization techniques that can be used in advanced problem
solving uh data analysis statistics and probability which in which go into interpreting and making decisions based on data uh as well as GE geometry and measurement uh which is made applicable to real world scenarios and mathematical modeling so this is a lot about data
analysis data literacy and mathematical modeling in order to uh enhance the skills that are needed in career Fields not just stem career Fields but really these days all career fields are moving in those directions or at least most of
them in terms of intended outcomes if you take all of this together T's recent revisions in Algebra 2 and the addition of mathematical reasoning for decision-making are designed to make meaningful impacts on the same intended outcomes that we talked about earlier
Workforce preparation postsecondary read Readiness and making math more relevant accessible and engaging for students the mathematical reasoning for decision- making course as a fourth Math course creates a pathway in in itself that aligns well with Workforce Deeds
especially in the non-stem fields it provides students with critical quantitative reasoning skills that are applicable in fields like healthcare business and public administration and together the revised Algebra 2 standards and the mathematical reasoning for decision- making course effectively
introduce a more tailored math pathway that supports a wide range of career trajectories in Tennessee and we need to see how that's going to play out turning our attention just briefly to some of the lessons from the national landscape uh of course Tennessee is not
alone in reconsidering its approach to high school mathematics in the way that the standards rision did recently several other states have done things like implemented Flex Flex math Pathways including statistics data science or quantitative reasoning uh other states
have reduced Reliance on a single Algebra 2 requirement while remaining rigor while maintaining rigor which means they're Shifting the foundations for uh quantitative decision making and problem solving that are grounded in algebra into Pathways courses so that
those standards are not left out or something that a student simply bypasses and uh additionally they've strengthened alignment between High School Co coursework and post-secondary expectations and there's some interesting uh ways of linking uh those
together effectively that are uh you know that have some examples out there in the country but I will say that Tennessee is also a place where that kind of linkage is something that has been prioritized and I'll mention something about that in just a minute so the review of national Trends under for
for us underscores that multiple Pathways can support Student Success and Workforce preparation without lering academic standards however most of the content in traditional Algebra 2 courses is typically included thumb Weare in that pathway since it is foundational
for the applied Concepts that Pathways seek to advance so the graduates will be better prepared for a range of career opportunities and accelerating career opportunities in fields that uh may be taking on new elements of mathematical reasoning uh as well as new Fields Al
together that we're seeing these days let report also provides a snapshot of the varied approaches to credit requirements and whether or not Algebra 2 is explicitly required at the state level the takeaway here from these pie
charts and I know it's hard to read pie charts especially after lunch when you might want dessert the takeaway here is that the approaches aren't as widely differentiated as they appear so for example and I'll just walk you through a few pieces of this uh on the the chart
starting on the chart on the left 16 States and the District of Columbia I require four math credits only 20 and 28 only require three requiring three versus four doesn't guarantee that students will opt out of math after algebra 2 and in fact a lot of students
who are progressing whether toward a stem career or toward Advanced postsecondary education uh may continue to select uh that pathway without any any regard or understanding or even knowledge of the degree to which the state recommends or requires three
versus four however sincere efforts to help the students choose their best pathway may require more investment in guidance counseling and teacher preparation depending upon the specific context in each of those States and so they may be accomplishing similar kinds
of things in terms of content but doing it using different levers also forces outside of the State uh level education agencies and other states also play a role in shaping the reality that students follow so for example in California State doesn't make
any specific credit or course requirements for math at All State University system does require specific credits and courses that create a de facto Statewide requirement there depending upon the direction that people are considering and so different states
use different levers Tennessee's situation is unique and that's really why uh we wanted to dive in as deeply to the current state of Tennesse with regard to Algebra 2 revisions and the introduction of the res course finally on the chart on the right side um you
see wide VAR a wide variety uh regarding the question of what is the highest Math course that is required by each state in the United States Again by state level AG uh education agencies so they are uh starting with the the light blue in the
lower left corner uh and with with apologies to uh people who can't see the color uh uh I'm sorry and I led you the wrong way starting with the the medium blue that's on the upper right side of the uh the P you see 20 uh you see there
uh 20 uh which is composed of oh okay I'm gonna stop for a second I tried to make this clear so that I wouldn't introduce confusion so forget everything I just said starting over leftand corner light blue we're going to go light blue green and dark blue you can see those three around the left that's a total of
20 four light blue 10 green and six dark blue that requ Quire algebra algebra 2 or integrated math but with various approaches to substitution that's why they're divided some of them some of the substitutions uh assume an equivalent an
equivalent course and some substitution pathways are creating exceptions to the course but most are requiring some form of equivalency there so 20 require Algebra 2 or integrated math 3 as their top course while the highest course specified in um other state requirements
is geometry that's 10 states algebra one is the highest required uh that is specified at the state level in three states and there's little or no specific contract requirement in the remaining 18 jurisdictions so I think again the takeaway is different states are
approaching this in a collab in a in a in a collage of different ways um and the role of the state level ucation agency is not always the same Visa the role and significance of a State University system or other forces uh
District uh District discretion Etc in establishing standards uh which would be hard to track but which may have a very similar effect across different states in terms of what courses people will take all right turning our attention to
supporting math Pathways in Tennessee more specifically it's worth noting and the report includes the reality that Tennessee um that in Tennessee promoting strong Su is multifaceted it's a multifaceted effort that involves lots of people strong foundations in math are
critical to Workforce preparation and post-secondary Readiness and Tennessee tackles that goal in a variety of ways including expanding access to math pathway initiatives uh things such as PA to college advised Tennessee and the seamless alignment to an integrated
learning supporter sales program are all efforts that are attempting to improve preparation and access to math Pathways and Advan math Pathways into postsecondary education and career Readiness also in Tennessee um strengthening professional development
for teachers and counselors is underway uh to support students in navigating pathways through initiatives like the math implementation supports grant program and the math implementation networks concept and then finally leading efforts to promote teacher
preparation and training exist in Tennessee uh especially in strong mathematics education and Tennessee has been a leader in some of these areas uh these efforts are important and helpful in advancing the goals that we have for math education in Tennessee so turning our attention then
to courses that may be considered as Alternatives uh with all the caveats above uh in terms of considering these courses for the way that they shape a student's total progression of math uh making uh you know making a little bit more sense and connecting a little bit
better to the goals that we have and pursuant to chapter 583 we've identified some courses that may be considered for substitution for the algebra 2 requirement each of these identified courses is presented conceptually and they would need to be developed through
rigorous standards development and revision processes that the State Board employs also the report identifies the value of monitoring and following the data when making course requirements and substitution decisions and the importance of considering new courses in
the context of aligned Pathways that serve students better uh some very often then Standalone substitutions so in addition to mathematical reasoning for decision- making we've identified some other potential alternative courses that you see in other areas uh these include
courses such as statistics and datais uh these skills are essential for students for pursuing business and Healthcare variety of career Fields data science which covers data visualization ethical use of data and fundamentals of machine learning uh elements that are
certainly certainly becoming more important every day integrated statistics and quantitative reasoning which would combine statistical reasoning algebraic modeling and data analysis and uh and integrated math models uh these courses offer more
applied approaches to math by integrating Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 content across three integrated credits Tennessee already offers this pathway but very few of Tennessee's uh school districts are currently offering it uh these courses
align with modern Workforce demands and support students in developing critical thinking and analytical skills relevant to their career goals uh some other courses that we considered are uh courses like transitions to co transition to college mathematics uh
this course if were introduced as a fourth course would help students meet the requirement to enter credit bearing college math courses without first enrolling in prep Preparatory or Bridge courses when they enter the state's many post-secondary institutions uh another example would be career
oriented math Pathways and and here we're uh aligning uh pretty tightly with Career and Technical education uh Pathways and processes in some states Pathways like these support strong CTE Pathways and ensure that students do not miss crucial mathematical Concepts that
they'll need to succeed in their chosen career they can therefor be therefore form a strong partnership uh with a strong CTE course of study uh and then modern Algebra 2 coures under this mantle embrace the goals of Tennessee's revised Algebra 2 standards and in many
ways it has elements of modern algebra in it uh and go deeper into things like quantitative reasoning modeling real world application problem solving all of which is aligned with the rigor that's necessary for the future career fields that they'll enter as well so that's a a
collection of the types of courses uh that may be considered that are um also in in implementation in different ways in different places but they would have to be uh developed and and made for Tennesse specifically uh to align with the overall standards that you already
have in place some additional considerations uh investigation led us to include these um uh as things that that should be kept front and center in these conversations and when making any changes in course standards or requirements and those include first
align the courses and requirements with post-secondary admission and placement requirements so you do not foreclose options for any student students that may have chosen something or not known where they wanted to go when they had to make a critical decision secondly provide guidance and support for
counselors and teachers mentioned before but this is critical to helping students make the right choices uh without missing any Preparatory steps and to ensuring that new courses are taught by teachers who know the content of those courses and can teach them well uh and then in Tennessee you have the
opportunity to coordinate Guidance with high school and Beyond plans mentioned in the previous report as well uh and outlined in state board policies 2.12 and 2.13 and finally Monitor and evaluate outcomes and follow the data in making
changes uh because it is uh able to give us a a a pretty good window into the overall effects uh that changes and standards can have finally we conclude with a few recommendations our findings suggest that Tennessee is approaching
its math thoughtfully and the recent changes to the Algebra 2 course and the introduction of mathematical decision making are aligned with the goals of multiple Pathways that are tailored to the unique needs and and goals of students uh keeping an eye on continuous
Improvement uh we concluded with these recommendations first Monitor and evaluate Algebra 2 standards revision and the mathematical reasoning for decision-making course a couple of recommendations for uh multi-year student outcome data and assessing
alignment with act benchmarks and College placement tracking where students go use different who who who matriculate through different mathematics Pathways the second major recommendation is to continue to expand high quality math Pathways uh the career
field is always changing beond the lookout for those needs that are there uh math courses and Pathways aren't the only way to respond to those but they may they may play an important role in responding to those uh so look for appropriate ways to strengthen the fourth credit math options that are
already uh available in Tennessee including a statistics course that's already there alongside mathematical reasoning uh cons and and career align cour When developing career align courses uh do it in partnership with industry uh and the the people who are
on the ground and then lastly uh consider substitution only if outcomes support them uh Elevate postsecondary alignment uh make make sure that that is maintained andure rigor is comparable to Algebra 2 and maintain an advance ten pioneering work in strong teacher
preparation and student report so that concludes my overview and I am happy to entertain your questions and uh let me just thank you again for this opportunity you Dr coverstone very very good uh questions or
comments chairman e this is Sarah Morrison I'll just buy people some time because I'm sure they're thinking of some questions I just to thank Dr kstone particularly for your work on this and just the extent to which you were able to talk to stakeholders across our state and nationally I think it really has come together in a a nuanced way that will be very instructive for us as we
try to consider what additional changes and sort of Evolutions are needed in our math Pathways so want to thank you and I'm sorry the weather and our sort of decision to Pivot meant that we weren't in person together but really appreciate the great work um that you did in collaboration with a lot of stakeholders on this well thank you had a lot of help
from your offices and uh a particular shout out to Brianna I think was was in in the document as much as I was so thank you so much no surprise there well great I'm sure people have has her hand
raised you're muted I'll defer to the board members first uh chairman okay uh Miss Johnson I just wanted to again thank
Allan for all of his hard work I thought his presentation was very clear very well organized and it made it very easy to follow so good to you Allan thank you and thanks for your time as
well miss harpool very interested because what let me just say this uh one of the comments I was going to say is we want to be sure and get input from higher ed on this one yes Miss Harel uh so Victoria Harel I'm representing uh
Dr Steven Gentile from the Tennessee higher education commission um Alan thanks for including us and uh higher education is really interested in making sure that our students come to postsecondary ready for that advanced rigorous coursework so I think it's a
great conversation for us to be having about all of the postsecondary options and all of the K12 Pathways that can lead to student preparation um one thing that I'll note uh is that our Hope Scholarship is dependent upon in one of the ways of of
acquiring a Hope Scholarship is through the Act and the ACT score so whether we um place a lot of value in that uh as a test in and of itself nonetheless it does uh factor into a student's ability
to acquire State funds and so as we think about course Alternatives uh and content that is is covered I wouldn't want us to lose sight of a student perhaps cutting themselves off from state aid because certain standards weren't covered that if but by
necessarily if the course you're in doesn't cover some of the algebra 2 that covered on the ACT chances are you're going to have a lower score um through no fault of of your own or reflection of your own capabilities that's just the
way um the scoring of the assessment works so just to keep in mind mind um rigorous Pathways and I think that's Alan this is what we're talk exactly what we're talking about R rigorous Pathways for students acknowledging multiple Pathways but um as the administrator of the Hope Scholarship at
tsac um wanted to make sure that we put that out there is that there is there is a link with act there in student funding so as we think about the options for students to keep that in mind yeah thank you for that excellent point I was going
to I think that's an outstanding Point let me ask this question uh if so many states are looking at this different ways uh to meet the math requirements is anybody working with act to assure that what they're asking
on the test or what the workforce needs again this goes back to the breaking the silos between k312 ired and act should be right in the middle so is there is that conversation going on well I can't speak for the ACT I can say though that the um you know the
standards Revision in Tennessee definitely considered that and um you know to Victoria's Point um you know that alignment is uh very important and um so yes is the short answer those that alignment is something that is important
in the other states that are adjusting Pathways and that's why I think it's important to stress yet again that um even if Algebra 2 isn't the name on the course those standards that are aligned and that are foundational to the quantitative to the modeling and
statistical analysis that you need in some of these alternative Pathways and that you will definitely need in those alternative careers they have to show up somewhere they have to be maintained so it's never just as simple as shut off the algebra and replace it with something else because as as as you've
highlighted correctly um and I think very importantly uh that alignment is critical to preparation for post-secondary opportunities uh regardless of the field that you're going into and um because of the connection to act it has some very practical implications as
well one of the comments I was going to make is that you know as you know we have changed uh our Algebra 2 course to add the statistics the data reasoning uh science data science that type of thing in there and obviously if you add you got to take some of the
quote rigor away uh for your information I'm an engineer by training so I'm I'm uh stem oriented myself but I also understand that everybody isn't going to be stem oriented when they go into their career so to get the data to see if we're doing
the right thing is going to take years uh and just you know we ought to be able to get the data pretty quickly on the acts I ought to have something pretty quickly on year to year to year are those numbers dropping you know are the mass scores driving that would be
helpful to to know but how do we how do we assure that what we're doing is not impacting down the road that's one question I have and then uh should we or can we offer what we call a you know
rigorous Algebra 2 we call it all Algebra 2 but it's not Algebra 2 like what it was when I was in school and people in school 10 years ago probably but it is an algebra it is a math class that is probably more valuable to to a large fraction of our students so maybe
what we want to do is have two different levels like an Algebra 2 light or Algebra 2 business and Algebra 2 uh rigor or something so the student can sign up and take the one that's going to better meet where their needs are I think those are the kind of things that we ought to be able to look at down the
road does that make sense yeah it does the thing that I would say about the standards revision that was just made you're right they took out those things that were taken out were the more abstract standards which were more specifically tied to a stem Pathway to
an advanced math pathway and those were moved to the pre-calculus course and um so students who were going in that stem pathway The Accelerated pathway students like yourself would still have those standards as they went through um the
abstract standards that are necessary for that kind of advanced work in um calcul um are are there it's not as it's not as if those are um you know those are matched to a specific pathway uh but the
foundational elements of linear regressions and um the kinds of tools that you learn in Algebra 2 that go into Data analysis and so on uh those are foundational regardless of where you go so instead of breaking at Algebra 2 and
doing like you're suggesting two separate Algebra 2 courses that are aligned to do different Pathways you have a core Algebra 2 class now and you have the pathways that can Branch from that core algebra two course uh through your fourth math credit so it's so it's
it's so I think it's an approach that um uh doesn't just doesn't toss anything out doesn't doesn't toss out the rigor but at the same time um maybe better positions it the positions the elements or the standards uh in the pathways uh
that exist gets the foundations that they need for math but uh specialize a little bit more as they go forward if that makes sense I'm not sure that answers all of your questions but I understand that but anytime you anytime you take something out of one course and
you move it into another course so you you take that riger that you're talking about uh those abstract things and you move it into pre-cal well then you obviously have to take something out of preout because you put more things in there that gets moved into calculus you
know except and so there are students that we have in Tennessee who actually take calculus in high school and so my question to miss harpool and all is by moving these things further down the
road are we impacting those students from being able to succeed the best they can when they get into the college you know upper higher math classes Etc so things to think about like I say anytime you make a change it has consequences down the road Mr hararo you had your
hand up then I'll still go back to commissioner sure Mr eie um my understanding of the course the newer Algebra 2 course that has been in place was heavily um influenced by us higher
ed we were at the table um Dr Stephanie kich from UT Martin who has been working um in uh as a math faculty and with math pedagogy along with Virginia Mayfield uh at the department of Ed were're really really key in making sure that students
who went through this algebra 2 course could go both ways they could go then into a statistics pathway in college or build with an Algebra 2 to college algebra type so um while we have not seen those students go into
postsecondary yet I am really um excited to see what the changes that were just made we've got one year of data Allan I think you showed it um my screen is really um glitchy as well um but really excited to see the partnership between
k12 and tyed that came and went into those new Algebra 2 standards to see how they um pin out for students because you had some really Heavy Hitters that helped develop those standards to really be where everyone can get what they need
and then Branch out but not lose the rigor of the algebra 2 M Reynolds yeah so thank you Dr harpool um you echoed a lot of what of of what I
was hoping to really emphasize because I I would just say initially and again my also I'm glitchy too I had to be on my phone um is that I think we also need to be very cautious and when we say there that this that there are actual
substitutions for Algebra 2 we've created an Algebra 2 course that more kids were successful this last admin this last um EOC Administration um we're we're we're gonna get the data but Algebra 2 is
algebra 2 um mathematical reasoning is not going to substitute for Algebra 2 and I want us to be very very careful when we think about this and about when we talk about also the ability for all of our students to be able to develop um
in the math space if we start think if if policy makers can take this report and then make decisions that we should get rid of Algebra 2 as a graduation requirement we're going to be in trouble right we
we're going to lose the opportunity for kids that if Algebra 2 is no longer required could then result in the elimination of Algebra 2 courses in high school because of teacher you know not
having the teachers the the the subjects covered those sorts of things those are the things that concern me particularly as we really think about the future of our economy what's going on in East Tennessee with you know quantum computer
stuff and Oakridge and and and the opportunities that we want our kids to actually um Embark upon and if we start limiting those opportunities we're going to and and we already have have a stem
um almost you know the certain kids going into certain places then we're going to remove those opportunities for kids that we say we also want to be part of our economic future so I always get nervous because people can take pieces
and then declare this shall be as such and we lose all the gains that we've made in Tennessee so I I I I I really appreciate um the conversation um um um Dr coverstone I also appreciate your
your last remarks um that was also very helpful but but that's what I just always am watching I've been through many of these conversations and um and what we really need to be focusing on is making sure
that our kids become proficient in Algebra 1 because if they are proficient in Algebra 1 and our numbers are not great in Algebra 1 they're going to want to take more courses in math because Math is fun math is an opportunity that
all of our students should have access to particularly as the courses get harder and more rigorous because if anybody can problem solve or critically think it's someone who can Master an algebra algebra algebraic equation so that's all appreciate you letting me
have some time RS and I don't disagree with anything that you said uh what I worry about is uh when we have quote the rigorous Algebra 2 that I guess some of us are
used to and require that for graduation and students who aren't going into the stem fields in the road uh the teachers end up I won't say wiing it down but they know that the student has to pass that for graduation I think might be some
watering down and so then that can hurt the students who are going to go into the stem Fields so that's why I say I like the idea possibly having an Algebra 2 rigorous and an Algebra 2 is what we've defined here uh that has some of
this reasoning because I think those critical skills of reasoning are just as important as um you know some of the the rigorous Algebra 2 equations and uh that that that the engineers need to have so it's
a tough question I'm glad that we're asking that question I'm glad that we're having this debate and uh the data is what's critical and and how our students are going to succeed in the future and that's what's going to I think lead us down down the path uh Miss Maxwell has a has her hand
up thank you chairman aie Anna Maxwell uh Dr coverstone thank you so much for your presentation I I enjoy getting to uh learn more about this and speak with you and I feel like you were very thorough and I think there's been a lot of good
points raised uh today uh just to kind of sum it up I think that we are maybe at a Crossroads but we still need to be very diligent in seeing what the data shows us in regards to the revised
standards but also take into consideration as we've spoken with as was spoken earlier about you know the the impact on the different credential Pathways and I think this may be something we really have to you know go
more in depth with and and be thoughtful about uh for all of our students so thank you Dr coverstone thank you other comments or questions let me just say this we do appreciate Dr coverstone this isn't
something that's going to get solved today I don't think you can write an algebraic equation to solve but it is something that uh we will continue to work together on uh again focusing on what's best for our students and what's best for their future down
the road and um we' like to continue to work with you as we do that thank you thank you so much okay next item is uh Tennessee educator survey Dr Laura Booker and Miss Caitlyn instead M Mr chairman yes I'm
sorry I'm sorry this is Nathan James um I wanted to I wanted to before we moved off of of the last topic I wanted to uh uh thank representative Tim Hicks for his willingness to work with us on on this legislation to turn it into the
study that it was instead of a mandate which which it could have been and so uh uh he's uh he certainly would have been there in the room with us today had we met in person I I know he's driving to
Upper East Tennessee and watching electronically and uh it's it we would just be in a different place had had that legislation gone forward the way that it could have and I I wanted to acknowledge that and and say thank you
to it thank you Mr James yes okay Tennesse educator survey Dr Booker and miss benstead good afternoon uh thank you for having us with you we're going to share some
results from the 2024 Tennessee educator survey that we do in partnership with the State Department of Education the 2025 survey will actually launch next week so we're um excited to be sharing this with you all today so as an overview this is the 13th
annual administration of the survey and we had a 55% response rate for teachers and a 50 two resp uh percent response rate for administrators um we have a core on the survey that asks main questions and then we have several specific questions that
go to teachers who are early career Career and Technical education prek Ela math and then specific questions for assistant principles and principes and we also work with the Department um to Target specific questions to learn more
about teachers instruction educator Workforce issues and issues of student Readiness so we're going to share some um overview of the findings from the 2024 survey I'll turn it over to Caitlyn to share those next
slide um so most of this stuff comes from TD's uh survey report um so we're just going to highlight a few topic areas um um so we ask uh a lot of questions related to you know different uh
Department priorities um so the first look at if you go to the next slide um were for ELA and Math teachers um and so we asked some different questions about their curriculum and different supports that they receive um in their classrooms
uh so the this is for ELA teachers um and we asked them about their satisfaction with different elements of the curriculum um so overall we found that Ela uh teachers were pretty satisfied with these different elements of the curriculum um you can see here
that most of these have 70% or higher agreement um so you know 78% of te of um ELA teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they have received adequate training to use the ELA curriculum effectively um 70% agreed or strongly
agreed that the curriculum includes culminating tasks and assessments that allow students to demonstrate Mastery in multiple ways um the only two here that were below 70% agreement were that the curriculum provid scaffolds and access
points for all Learners in the classroom and that the ELA curriculum was engaging to students um but actually if we look at this um broken the grade level taught um Elementary School teachers were a little bit more favorable towards some of these
different elements of the curriculum um so for example 60% of 1 through fifth grade teachers agreed that the curriculum was engaging to students um and then these are similar questions about satisfaction with different elements of curriculum and
these were asked to Math teachers um so in general Math teachers are also pretty satisfied with most of these elements um almost all Math teachers agreed or strongly agreed that their curriculum was aligned to the Tennessee State Standards um 70% agreed or strongly
agreed that the math curriculum is easy to use um and then we saw um a little bit weaker agreement with um these elements at the bottom like I'm able to use assessments and tasks provided by my math curriculum without having to modify
or develop my own um and then these questions we asked to teachers about um different supports that they received in the previous school year um so almost all Ela and Matthew teachers were receiving access to diagnostic assessment data for their
students um and most Ela and Math teachers also uh received um or participated in plc's uh walkthroughs and feedback Cycles um and received instructional coaching um and then viewer received coaching from an outside
partner um and actually um High School teachers um were a little bit less likely than Elementary and Middle School teachers to receive some of those supports um this next set of questions we asked uh CTE teachers on the BR of
the survey um and CTE teachers generally reported that their programs offered various types of learning experiences to their students um including career exploration opportunities and early post-secondary opportunities um so
almost all CCE teachers 93% um said that their program of study off offers career exploration opportunities to students um and 74% said that their program of study offers at least one early post-secondary opportunity or industry credential um so
we're seeing a lot of you know range of learning experiences for students offered through these CTE courses um and then we this was the first year that we asked this question I believe to C CTE teachers um but we just asked them to you know identif ify any
challenges that they face um to their programs and so CTE teachers were um most likely to identify space and Equipment um or technology in textbooks and then funding as the top challenges to their programs um so these are the
percentages of CTE teachers that said that each of these um elements were either very challenging or extremely challenging um so 27% said that space Equipment Technology and Tech books were very challenging or extremely
challenging 21% said uh funding was very challenging or extremely challenging um and then this next set of questions went to school administrators so um assistant principles and principles um and we asked them about um
hiring uh teachers for open positions in their schools um so for the past few years we've asked this question uh and they have to agree or disagree we have a strongly we have a sufficiently large pool of licensed applicants to choose a
qualified candidate for open teaching positions at my school um and since 2022 we've seen that um really only about a quarter of school administrators agree or strongly agree with that statement um so we're seeing in recent years the
school leaders tend to report challenges with recruiting teachers to their schools um and then we ask another question that um kind of more specifically asked about different types of teachers that they have challenges recruiting and that's on the next slide so we asked you know in the past
year how challenging was it for you to recruit instructionally effective teachers teachers with necessary qualifications for my school's vacancies teachers who I think will stay at my school and then racially ethnically diverse teachers um and so
in general it seems like high school teachers tend to have greater challenges recruiting some of these types of teachers um especially teachers with the necessary qualifications for my school's vacancies um like 46% almost half of high school teachers said that that was
either very challenging or extremely challenging um and then across the board um elementary middle and high school administrators reported challenges with recruiting racially and ethnically diverse teachers um and then this last uh this last
question here looks um at early career teachers and um their preparation um so this is from the early career branch of the survey um and we asked them you know to what extent they feel that their prep program prepared them for all these
different teaching competencies um so this is just the one that asks um if to how prepared they feel to effectively teach students how to read um and we've seen the early career teachers um that teach kindergarten through second grade um we've seen
pretty steady a steady rise in the percent of teachers who feel that their prep program um prepared them to teach students how to read um and then if we this is for all kindergarten through second grade teachers and this agreement is actually even higher if we look at
just kindergarten teachers um I think 84% of kindergarten teachers in 2024 agreed or strongly agreed that they felt prepared to teach students how to read um so that's promising um and then this last question here um we asked on the
student Readiness uh module um and we asked teachers um about different resources that they might um need in their schools um and so most teachers the most commonly identified um need for resources was counseling psychological
and social Services uh followed by social and personal skills in school climate um so we're seeing a lot of teachers expressing a need for more resources around mental health supports in their schools um we also asked a
question to administrators um about um different barriers that they face in providing mental health supports to students um and 55% of Administrators said that um inadequate funding limited their ability to provide mental health supports students in a minor way and
another 32% said that funding limited their ability in a major way um so just to sum up this little section here um so related to academics um Ela and Math teachers especially those in Elementary grades were pretty
satisfied with many elements of their curriculum um and they receive various content specific supports in their classrooms um as far as student um uh strategic invest U student Readiness I'm sorry CTE programs offer
students various learning opportunities um but space and equipment and funding were named as the top challenges to their programs um in terms of teacher prep and pipelines into the profession um a lot of school leaders especially in high schools have reported challenges
with recruiting teachers to their schools um and new K through two teachers feel increasingly prepared to teach students how to read um and then lastly strategic Investments um teachers reported the need for additional
resources to support students mental health so I can pause there and if anybody has questions about any of that um we can discuss um and then we can talk about we have two terara briefs that are coming out soon um so I have
some slides on our briefs around tutoring and um early career teachers and I'll just remind everyone that all schools and districts that hit a 45% response rate get their individual level District or School data back um we
always hear great things from schools and districts who are as soon as um that survey ends they're ready to have that data in hand to help inform their uh Improvement processes um as they look toward strategic planning for their schools and districts um Tara and the
department also put all survey data at the state level out on a website um and I um can make sure that everybody has that so that if you want to you can explore um the website actually had a question about that I think you said that you had a 56%
return rate or something like that if this is the 14th year that you've done it how's that return rate is is it going up is it going down is it staying pretty flat we um actually saw it go down a little bit around 2020 and we've returned back
um it started going back up again I think the highest we've ever been is about close to 60 so this is about typical um it's a it's was a little higher than the previous year in 2014 2024 uh I have one question uh you had a slide on CTE courses that your data was
the lowest uh data said 40% of the CTE teachers agree that they have some uh advice or something working with parents and students uh are you trying to do something about that or I mean that you talked about all the positive the 76%
but you didn't talk about that 40% that seemed pretty low uh is there any focus on that I guess that wouldn't be the focus you're just presenting the data maybe that's something that we ought to talk to TD about or something yeah and I'm I'm going back and looking
at that slide now that it says I'm generally involved with advisement sessions to parents Guardians and students um so 40% of CTE teachers to that statement it tells me 60% says you know
did not say yes and and I would think that uh particularly CTE that might be a very important aspect that that we in the state might want to work toward to try and increase that or or see why it's only 40% and what might we do to
increase that number I don't know Mr Reynolds or somebody from tdoe do you'all have any thoughts on that if you're trying to respond you're muted there you go yeah no um I'm sorry I had I had to take
another quick call can you can you tell me what we're um referring to again Canever controlling the slide go back to that slide so that it's up on the screen the CTE slide thank you you want to stop
there we are I think one more back no that's not it keep on going keep that's not it that's it so uh if you look at the very bottom bullet I'm generally involved with advisement sessions to parents Guardians and students this is coming from the CTE teachers and only
40% of the teachers said that they were and it that seems to me like a low number maybe not but it seems low is that something that we ought to be focusing on since CTE is so important as we continue to look toward workpl
workplace and there's such an emphasis on CTE yes sir yes sir actually yeah I I do think it is something we're going to work on one of the things that we are working on currently is really thinking through this advising piece and how we
engage with our um teachers bre record on CTE that's they're critically important because they do have the knowledge um to help kids select the right courses so that they can achieve the right Pathways um moving into whatever postsecondary you know path
they want to choose so we are definitely on um you know continuing to look at those things and and we'll definitely put a focus on it so that'll be part of partal of the work that we're doing in our in our pillar work thank you any other questions for
the in during this first section if not you can go ahead to the next section thank you I will note that we've worked with Deb null and others at tdoe to um add some additional questions about CTE for the upcoming year survey that we're
really looking forward to getting into um and we've also got some questions for specifically for um nonc High School teachers as well so with the Department's increasing focus on high school um and postsecondary um we've worked with them to add some additional
places to get insight on that before we go to the next I just want to uh I got a text this goes back to the last presentation but it kind of ties into this in some ways with regard to math review this is from somebody who was heavily engaged in the math review I
said that the math removed from Algebra 2 was duplicative with what was already in pre-cal so my question about putting things off and losing that uh has gone away so glad to get that uh that answers sorry just want to give that in thank
you uh so these next set of tutoring programs in schools um and I'll just say that these questions even though some high school teachers did respond to these questions um these numbers that you're about to see are
only for um teachers and administrators in elementary and middle schools um because that was kind of the focus of the Department's guidance on these tutoring programs um so um this first question uh went to administrators and
we asked them about what criteria they were using to enroll students in their high dosage low ratio tutoring programs um so the most commonly reported um tool that they were using was um either a specific result on a test or scener
other than TCAP or a specific assessment result on TCAP um followed by referrals from teachers um and then if we look at this um the same question kind of broken down by
school tier um those the the screeners and assessments were more commonly used by administrators from elementary schools and then Middle School administrators uh more frequently reported that they were using teacher referrals or parent Guardian requests to
enroll students in tutoring programs um and then we looked at um how what percent of students in schools were enrolled in high dosage low ratio tutoring um and we saw that schools with um higher proportions of economically disadvantaged students uh reported
enrolling higher percentages of their students in these um high dosage low ratio tutoring programs um so in schools with at least 40% economically disadvantaged students um administrators reported that about 22% of their students were enrolled in tutoring um
compared with just 12% in schools with 15% or four economically disadvantaged students um and then if we looked at this um question by um local type uh we saw that City Schools were also
reporting enrolling um the highest proportion of their students in tutoring um and also the highest proportion of teachers um said that they served as teachers as tutors in these programs
um so in City Schools like 20% of students and 19% of teachers said that they um participated in tutoring programs um and then if we we asked administrators about um Who provided the high dosage low ratio tutoring for
students in the schools um and so across the board um you know most administrators reported using current teachers um so like 84% of teacher of uh administrators said that they Ed teachers as tutors um but then um these
other options uh sort of varied by local type so in um City Schools uh administrators more frequently said that they were using PA professionals volunteers and external Partners as tutors um and then in rural schools um
administrators more often reported that they were using retired teachers um as tutors in their programs um and then we asked administrators about barriers to implementing their high dosage low ratio tutoring programs um and Elementary
School teacher or Elementary School administrators um report aailable tutors and scheduling comp conflict were their biggest challenges um but Middle School administrators had more challenges with transportation and
attendance um and this kind of coincides with when in the day they were offering these programs so Elementary School administrators said that were more likely to say that they were offering tutoring programs during the school day um while Middle School administrators uh
were more likely to offer tutoring after school so um and then just some key takeaways here um so we saw pretty wide participation in these high dosage low ratio tutoring programs um especially in city schools schools with more
economically disadvantaged students uh and in elementary schools um but we saw some differences in implementation like when tutoring is offered who does the tutoring how they identified students um across these different school contexts um and these challenges that
administrators reported related um tended to vary around these different school contexts and elements of implementation um so as we think about you know how to improve these programs it's important to consider this context um so I will pause again and we
move on to early career teacher uh perceptions from the survey and if anybody has questions about any of the tutoring stuff I just shared um we can discuss that any questions chairman E I have a question
but it's probably for doe and it's an ignorant one I I assume but um having just been a budget hearings yesterday it was on my mind in terms of what the state is currently now with e s dollars rolling off funding for highing and maybe also for summer school if that's
able to be answered what grade levels are we funding is it up to the districts to use it across the grades I just I'm wondering if I'm a district what funding and what sort of options are available for how we're thinking about who's getting T tutoring and where and
similarly for summer school first I want to see is Christy Brown on the call um okay well I if not I mean I know she could probably provide a little bit more information I mean right now we let's not forget that tea does fund um
every K through every K through three student plus um fourth grade students that I mean they get a an an extra $500 for each of those students including the kids in fourth grade that do not reach proficiency so there's funding there we are uh we've been working on RTI
guidance you know it is part and parcel of the work of school every single day oh great um Chrissy did you hear the question and if you did you're on mute I'm I'm hang on I know we're having again we're
having all these issues with our teams unfortunately well we picked the wrong day to have a virtual meeting I realize I we just can't win between the weather and the technology what can you do we hear you Christie all right I joined the uh the
the link where I can talk on the meeting so I was on the wrong link okay uh guys good to see all of you guys I think I heard the question around uh with eser dollars um rolling off and uh the and the information that we have about high
high dosage low ratio tutoring uh Tennessee alport tutoring and then also summer programming is that accurate okay um so I'll do the uh all coure tutoring first um that was um launched
in 2021 as a three-year program in sunset in uh I guess in the summer of 2024 except for a few of our community partner grants that we uh were able to to continue with um unspent funds that
they had available um so that is that was the atttend the program but what it happened there in the uh Tennessee learning loss remediation acceleration act um it requires tutoring and what it what the law requires now for Tennessee
all four tutoring is in fourth grade is a promotion pathway there are a couple other places that um tutoring is required but it's um dependent on the requirements set forth the by the department for example the uh conference pathway for students to be promoted to
fifth grade um with uh tutoring that is uh more similar to or can be delivered in a similar Manner and with ratios it's RTI so the requirement for Tennessee allore
tutoring is is lies basically solely in this fourth grade space however we have you know we've heard from districts that um it's been an effective way and one of the uh ways you know and in connection with other um strategies the department
is as supported over the last few years for learning loss and now kind of we're on the trajectory U to continue um you know with the Positive gains but uh but basically uh what is supporting that or
what can support that is all of our students in um Ines K through two uh get an additional um $500 for early literacy supports all of them uh get early literacy support uh funding through Tisa
and then for third grade um students that are not proficient in uh in third grade on the ELA cap assess of the year are all well let me get that right K through three and the first one so if they're not proficient in Spring uh
third grade elat cap then they also are um districts get an additional $500 there for those fourth grade supports support their tutor as they go on to fourth grade or if they were to be retained in third so that is what is there and of course it's not a hear that
a lot it's a it's a funding formula not a spending formula so districts can choose to spend um those dollars and prioritize those dollars however they choose to but that is what the allocation the intent is of to support those literacy supports and in
particular again that I want to just point out that um we did have I think ended up at the end there with 86 districts participating which means we had about 60 or so that did not and still implemented uh tutoring and uh in
their District some through Esra funds and then some um through local and state funding thanks chrisy yeah that I I appreciate the reminder on the Tesa piece as well and I think it interesting to see you know what districts continue to do the tutoring in the early grades
and what that looks like and if they say it's adequate not adequate I mean to the extent we see this as an effective intervention and thinking about where to target more limited resources post Esser um just interesting I think to well if I could just add to we we still have a Tennesse off for like a tutoring Network
we host uh Summits uh in the State uh a couple times a year and then person and then a couple virtual and that is to support the sustainability of tutoring effort to districts want to continue to participate in that we have uh provided some guidance and best practice
around that the district sharing the ways that they are doing that and being able to continue to prioritize that type of intervention and that well and student support um you know among several several that are available to students but uh we still those are well attended and um you know have high
participation rates so I think the interest is there and um you know we're seeing some innovative ways that the districts are able to do that with some braided funds and some things like that that we're able to um support giving them information on and um we are again
just you know and resources and things like that too with just the model schedules and different things that they can work in with existing um funding and then some again are also choosing to prioritize this and this is this the way that they want to spend those early literacy support dollars or maybe other
other local and state money um on the on if you if you're good I'll can move to the summer program that you asked me about chairman if's okay I know this was a long question I'm sorry sorry about that I have a long answer okay summer programming of course
that is um in uh in statute that students in uh that are entering kindergarten through ninth grade will be offered um summer programming opportunities in particular those students who are a priority and you know they may be at risk uh for not being on
um grade level um or perhaps um you know they may be U at risk you know economically disadvantaged and those type things um so uh that is offered for uh students and entering through kindergarten nth grade that is still ongoing that's still the um requirements
are there for um Ela and math instruction you know explicitly and then also intervention and physical activity and then uh those uh really engaging uh learning and fun opportunities through uh their stream programs and bringing in
uh Community Partners and uh CTE programming all all those things that uh that you know they really we get good um good feedback from and then one thing I I'll add and I won't I won't go on to too much about it but I thought this was
a good thing that got pointed out a couple different times is that some districts have been strategic in placing students with teachers that they'll have the following school year so they really get to build that relationship with those upcoming teachers um in a small setting uh sometimes with smaller class
ex sizes and and really being able to to support those those students and uh build their knowledge and relationships before even coming into the next school year so I thought that that that was a worth mentioning that a strategic way to to place those students in summer
program so that we are also outcomes on that just to be quick um what we did see um we did take the it was the legislation was amended to remove the requirement for the preest and so we compare pred um spring uh screeners
where we had it that information to fall and what we did find was overall we did see um some positive some gains overall for students who attended summer learning camps and um they the students who did not compared to the gr group
students who did not attend summer learning camps uh did have some summer slide there and started a little bit um lower than U than students who did attend so that's a very promising as well than thank you any other questions
or comments um I'll just say we swapped out a lot of these tutoring questions uh on the 2025 survey for summer learning questions so next year we hopefully we'll have more information from the survey about different um elements of
implementation of those summer learning programs go on to early career teaching all right um so this is the last uh set of slides that I have career teachers um and different Pathways into the profession and
supports that they've received in their classrooms and their retention plans um so in 2024 the largest share of our early career teachers um reported that they entered teaching through a career change um so this year um the the blue
bars are 2024 the green are 2023 um so 30% of early career teachers in 2024 said that they previously worked in a different field and that teaching was a career change for them um and then 27% said that they had wanted to be a
teacher since they were young um and 19% uh said that they decided to enroll in a certification program after they received a degree in a different field of study um and then 133% entered an EP after starting college and then 11%
started thinking about becoming a teacher while they were in High School um so for the purposes of our uh analysis here we are going to um Define like a non-traditional pathway as um
people who responded that they uh either entered teaching through a career change or that they decided to enroll in a teacher certification program after they received a degree in another field of study
um between um teacher who went through more of a traditional pathway and then those who went through more of a non-traditional pathway as I just defined um but in the 2025 survey we've added a couple questions that sort of get at more specifically teachers
Pathways um and we worked with the Department to you know sort of Define those Pathways um more precisely um and we have a question asking about their um clinical type and um so we'll be able to sort of refine this going forward um but
for the purposes of of this analysis that's how we're defining those two categories um and so if we look at it based on like first year second year and third year teachers um and that's on the previous slide sorry um so in 2024 over half of first
year teachers uh said that they entered teaching through um a non-traditional pathway um and in 2024 that number the number of teachers reporting that they entered through a non-traditional pathway is higher group first year
second year and third year teachers than it was in 23 um so it does seem like you know as we're um moving forward in time we're seeing an increase in the number of teachers who are entering teaching you know in these different ways than
just you know going into college entering an AP graduating and getting a teaching position um and then we asked um early career teachers about the supports that they received in their first year of teaching
um and so about two-thirds of early career teachers said that they received a mentor in their first year of teaching that was the most commonly reported um support and we saw some some small increases in the percent of teachers that received most of these supports
from um the previous year 2023 um and then if we we look at it um by preparation type traditionally and non-traditionally prepared teachers um receive pretty similar first year supports um the only difference was that
um traditionally prepared teachers were a little bit more likely to say that they had a mentor teacher and non-traditionally prepared teachers were a little bit more likely to receive tuition support um for ongoing education um and then early career
teachers who did have a mentor assigned to them reported positive experiences with um their Mentor so um you know across the board there was pretty high agreement from teachers who had a mentor that they felt comfortable going to their Mentor for help um that their
Mentor provided them with regular feedback on their teaching and that feedback from their Mentor was useful in improving their practice um this agreement was especially High among third-year teachers who had a mentor um but only about 30% of thir year teachers
had a mentor um the previous school year so um it was most common for first year teachers to have a mentor um about 78% of first year teachers had one in the 23 24 school year um and then this next question is
looking at retention plans among early career teachers um and we compared it to retention plans um from their more veteran counter parts and we don't see huge differences in their um plans to continue teaching in their school next
year um so in 2024 about 81% of non- early career teachers said that they plan to continue teaching in their school the following year and 79% of early career teachers said the same um so you know from the past four years there only been about a one or two
percentage Point difference in early career versus non- early career teachers respons to this question um and of course this doesn't this doesn't get an actual retention um but the way they respond to this question about their plans for the
following school year tends to be pretty similar um and then among teachers who did not say that they plan to continue teaching at their school next year um this is the breakdown of what their plans for the following school year were um so early career teachers were a
little bit more likely to say that they plan to leave their schools and or leave teaching the following year um and then non early career teachers were a little bit more likely to say that they plan to move into an administrative position in the district or retire um but otherwise
we still see you know not huge differences between early career and non- early career teachers plans here um but then we ask a follow-up question um for you know teachers who say that they plan to not stay in their
school the following year and we ask them about what factored into their decision um and here we see some of these items U between early career and non- early career teachers um so for teachers for example were a
little bit more likely to say that culture and climate among teachers and staff factored into their decision to not teach in their school next year um they were a little bit more likely to mention facilities and working conditions and their commute time um or say that they were encouraged to leave
by their administrator um and then this is the same question what uh influenced your plans to not teach in your school next year um but this is looking at non-traditionally prepared and traditionally prepared early career teachers um and so the non-traditionally
prepared uh early career teachers who decided to not teach in who were not planning to teach in their school the following year they were more likely to say that leadership and salary factored into their decisions while the traditionally prepared early career teachers were more likely to say that
workload factored into their decision next year um and then just to sum up a couple key takeaways here um so in recent years we have seen the early career teachers are more frequently entering teaching through non-traditional Pathways um and
we see that um these early career teachers who are entering through different Pathways might have different priorities that influence their retention plans um and so early career teachers um who are entering through
both types of Pathways um generally feel pretty prepared for a range of teaching competencies um I have some more information about that in the survey brief that will be coming out um hopefully sometime this spring um um and they both report receiving valuable
supports from their school districts um such as mentorship um but it is kind of you know we might want to keep in mind that there are some difference between these um groups of teachers and that sort of the demographics of these uh early career teachers seem to be
changing thank you uh really good data to get us thinking and uh I think will be very valuable questions or comments for Tara we again we really appreciate all the data that you present and uh I think
as I said before it gives us a lot to think about gives a lot for the Department to think about how we continue to uh improve the quality of education for our students thanks for being here today thank you for having us next item is licens your discipline and
I believe Ryan Shanahan is going to lead that discussion for us today thank you Mr chairman and good afternoon board members Ryan Shanahan associate council state board of education we will be presenting the board's staff's recommendation for lure discipline action at tomorrow's meeting
I would like to note that item J was before the board November and is before the board again tomorrow for consideration at this time we would like to take any clarifying questions or note any items for further discussion at tomorrow's meeting and uh Mr Alex Anderson associate council state board
education is on as well any comments or questions or uh particular actions that uh board members want to take pardon Mr chairman Larry Jenson yes
Mr Jensen I don't have a question in particular about any of the case I am curious on the we talked about this at the last meeting the gun carrying issues and I I just want to make sure that
there is Clarity not on this case but generally speaking with training or something with the teachers uh that is a very dangerous anybody that's had any hunter safety or any kind of training is
just I think you approach uh Firearms totally different than if You' not had that training I I don't know if there's probably council's probably going crazy right now but I just it just concerns me that uh in
reading the one that that we had it just I don't know it just seems like we need to ask for more uh in terms of teachers and expectations for firearms on campus and frankly the the penalties for uh
doing so it's just that's just a more of an editorial comment than it is a question but I just wanted to be on the record on that thank you for that comment Mr Jensen Mr chairman
M Mr molau ran just quick question on item J uh was your office contacted by Miss Smith or anybody representing Miss Smith I was in communication with her attorney yes okay uh do
is there relevant information that would be a good uh subject of conversation in this Workshop today or should we just wait till tomorrow to reveal any new findings um I think tomorrow is probably the better than you to discuss the case
um but um I I can note any questions that you may have okay no I was primarily just curious as to whether or not we had received any information from from the um from Miss Smith and I'll look forward to hearing that tomorrow thank
you Johnson you have your hand raised I do um um you you just you just muted yourself we were hearing you before there you go okay uh well so if I have questions
about this particular case Mr well Ryan are you saying that I should wait till tomorrow or express my feelings now my understanding is tomorrow is the
the time for that um I would I was asking if there was anything I should note um for the discussion tomorrow and if there were any other items that you wanted to um pull or had questions for or plan on having questions for tomorrow
well in regard to that particular case I'm I'm questioning and you might know the answer to this if there had been any uh any evidence or looking into Miss
Smith's evaluations as far as a teacher um and and did that play any part in the decision making that you got guys made and when I say evaluation as a teacher like every teacher has to go
through different U evaluations and I didn't know if her evaluations as a particular teacher played a part in that and if not if that was something that should have been okay uh thank you um if it's okay I'll note that question and be prepared
to uh give you an answer tomorrow great thank so so to provide an answer to that tomorrow then I guess what you're saying is that this is one that we will pull out separately from from the others if that's what request comes from the board
that's correct can I make that request at this point you make it tomorrow at the board meeting but okay we know we know that you're going to make the request and and uh our attorneys are aware of that and so they can be preparing for whatever so
any other questions that they might prepare for that um would be helpful um maybe one other question did they look into well never mind I'll wait for
tomorrow because it it it's just a comment basically so okay other questions on that case or any of the other cases for uh Mr Shannahan all right thank you
Ryan thank you Mr chairman so uh final discussion uh comment uh anybody like to make any comments Dr Morrison I'm just sitting here hoping that tomorrow we have fewer glitches with our technology because we will need
to do a roll call vote on every item so everyone just cross your fingers and toes that Microsoft and others get it together um but I don't think I have any other comments other than it's been a really good afternoon of discussions as I expected it would be based on the agenda and appreciate everybody hanging
with us in a virtual environment for those those PowerPoint power Point presentations I'm always impressed by the quality of the presentations that we get our Workshop very very helpful to us as we move forward and make our decisions like tomorrow and in the
future well no other comments the purposes of the committee of the whole having been fulfilled I declare it and the board adjourned and we will reconvene tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Central Time 10:00 a.m. eastern time thank you very much good night