The "Examining Implementation and Outcomes of the Project On-Track High-Dosage Literacy Tutoring Program" study describes the characteristics of students who participated in a full year of Project On-Track, a high-dosage, small-group literacy tutoring program for students in grade 1-3. Its online adaptive program, Amplify Reading, groups…

In 2015, Tennessee community colleges initiated a wave of national reform that reimagined academic support and accelerated student success. Through innovations in the delivery of targeted learning support, such as the corequisite support model, students are more likely to achieve key milestones of success in their first year of college. Now, after…

The article addresses the process of making significant programmatic changes to the PhD exams in the Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics division in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Drawing from the various experiences and positionalities of the authors, the article provides a narrative analysis of the process of…

There is a burgeoning body of evidence on the average impacts of educational programs. Yet, for many local decision makers, because impacts can vary across sites, the question of whether a certain program will work in their particular district or school remains. This article addresses the question of the generalizability of large-scale average…

The past decade has been marked by rapid changes in teacher evaluations. While many districts and states announced their intention to install better systems, they faced political and structural challenges. In this study, [National Council on Teacher Quality] NCTQ examines evidence of the impact of teacher evaluation in six places (four districts…

This article provides an overview of the development and components of LEAD95, University of Tennessee (UT) Extension's comprehensive leadership program for county-level leaders. The program was designed in accordance with results from a Delphi study, which identified critical skills and resources new county directors need to be successful. The…

Community-based education programs must demonstrate effectiveness to various funding sources. The pilot study reported here (funded by CYFAR, NIFA, USDA award #2008-41520-04810) had the goal of determining if state level programs with varied curriculum could use a common evaluation tool to demonstrate efficacy. Results in parenting and youth…

In 2010, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for K-12 English language arts/literacy and mathematics. CCSS are a state-led effort to define the knowledge and skills students need to graduate from high school…

Despite growing calls for more accountability of teacher education programs (TEPs), there is little consensus about how to evaluate them. This study investigates the potential for using observational ratings of program completers to evaluate TEPs. Drawing on statewide data on almost 9,500 program completers, representing 44 providers (183…

Spurred by the federal Race to the Top competition, the state of Tennessee implemented a comprehensive statewide educator evaluation system in 2011. The new system is designed to increase the rigor of evaluations and better differentiate teachers based on performance. The use of more differentiated ratings represents a significant shift in…

This document compiles information from multiple sources to offer readers a snapshot of Preschool Development and Expansion Grant (PDG) states' progress towards implementing a full comprehensive assessment system, as well as the tools they are using for each of the components.

States, programs, and schools have long focused on the inputs of teacher preparation--the rules for candidates and the preparation programs they attend--because inputs were thought to predict teacher effectiveness, and because they were often the best option available. But in the early 2000s, policymakers began trying to evaluate preparation…

Teacher perceptions after 5 years of implementing evaluation protocols that were initiated under Race to the Top revealed attitudes about the evaluation instrument used and the nature of their relationship with the evaluator. This study surveyed middle and high school teachers in nine Eastern Tennessee school districts. Data indicated unintended…

Across the country, education leaders are adding their voices to the call to address the issue of overtesting in schools. To assist districts in ensuring they have a coherent assessment strategy in place and only administer tests that are useful and of high quality, Achieve developed the "Student Assessment Inventory for School…

The federal Race to the Top initiative signified a shift in American education policy whereby accountability efforts moved from the school to the teacher level. Using administrative data from Tennessee, we explore whether evaluation reforms differentially influenced mobility patterns for teachers of varying effectiveness. We find that the rollout…