Dear Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds,
Strong accountability systems, at their best, support what we want for Tennessee students: high quality public schools that prepare them for the opportunities and demands of an increasingly diverse and complex world. The Tennessee Alliance for Equity in Education (TAEE), convened by EdTrust-Tennessee, is a collective effort of over 90 civil rights, social justice, and education organizations and advocates working to promote educational equity for underserved students across the state.
As the Tennessee Department of Education considers a waiver for our state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan, we urge the state to adopt an accountability framework that is clear, student-centered, and grounded in evidence. A strong state plan must reflect the values Tennessee families consistently raise: transparency, meaningful measurement of student learning, and accountability for serving all students well—particularly those whom our systems have historically underserved.
To that end, we believe Tennessee’s accountability plan must uphold the following core principles:
STRONG
Keep student learning front and center: Assist schools in holding all students to high academic standards and receive credit for students’ academic growth and other measures of school quality beyond academic performance.
TRANSPARENT
Accurately identify how schools need to improve overall or for one or more student groups: Ensure we have strong, consistent identification criteria that includes overall performance and performance for one or more student groups so we can focus supports and resources in ways that result in improvement for our lowest-performing schools.
FAIR
Evaluate how schools serve all groups of students: School performance should be determined by the performance of all students and the performance of individual student groups, especially those underserved by educational systems.
We appreciate the Tennessee Department of Education’s drive and thoughtful process to review the state’s ESSA plan, and the opportunity for stakeholder engagement. We hope to see the TN Alliance for Equity in Education recommendations reflected in the revised accountability system.
Sincerely,
