With more than two decades of on-the-ground experience impacting 300,000 educators and 3 million students, NIET's success is grounded in research. The success of NIET's work is evident in the positive findings from evaluations of impact. In NIET's 2022-23 Research Summary, we summarize findings from five new studies and highlight selected findings…

Across the U.S., educators face a common challenge: How can we help all students become strong readers and writers? In the author's state of Tennessee, many educators believe they have a reading crisis. Two-thirds of 3rd graders do not read and write on grade level as measured by the statewide assessment (Tennessee Department of Education, 2019a).…

This publication uses draft equity plans developed by three Reform Support Network pilot States to demonstrate several approaches to the development of State equity plans in response to the Secretary's Excellent Educators for All initiative. It summarizes how the State education agencies addressed each component of the equity plan and their…

"Perspective" is a monthly e-newsletter presenting news and views from Achieve. This issue includes a report describing how the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network selected Delaware and Tennessee from among 16 finalists as the winners of the first phase of Race to the Top (RTTT) grants. This issue also reports that: (1) The National…

"Perspective" is a monthly e-newsletter presenting news and views from Achieve. This month's issue commences with a report presenting the recommendations made by Achieve to the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee for the improvement of the college and career readiness of all students. This issue also reports:…

For the first time in the nation's history 46 States and the District of Columbia have agreed that all K-12 students will be educated along a common continuum of high academic expectations known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Having clear, consistent standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics will help ensure that all…

Tennessee is in the process of transitioning to new English language arts and mathematics standards that will better prepare students to be successful in college and their careers. Time, effort, and resources must be dedicated to effective implementation in order to realize the promise of these new common core state standards. This paper captures…

The Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools provide literacy-rich, summer experiences for both the K-12 children they serve and the servant-leader interns who serve as teachers. In this article, the author expands upon the scholarship of preparing teachers to be culturally responsive pedagogues of language arts instruction by illuminating…

The State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's annual Race to the Top implementation. The Year 4 report for Phase 2 grantees highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2013 through September 2014. Given that Delaware and…

The authors describe how three elementary teachers working in very different parts of the United States teach about Mexico. These teachers' practices allow them to enhance the traditional social studies curriculum, help children learn about themselves and other people, and increase children's capacities for global citizenship. (Contains 1 figure.)

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's annual Race to the Top implementation. The Year 3 report for Phase 1 and 2 grantees highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2012 through September 2013. In Year 3,…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's second year of Race to the Top implementation. The report highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2011 through September 2012. During Year 2, the Tennessee Department of…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. Tennessee received its Race to the Top grant in July 2010 as part of the first round of the competition.…

This paper describes Tennessee's progress in implementing a comprehensive and coherent approach to education reform from the time of application through June 30, 2011. In particular, this report highlights key accomplishments over the reporting period in the four reform areas: standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction, great…