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The Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) is an initiative to jumpstart long-term educational change in Tennessee to ensure that every child graduates high school prepared for college or a career. SCORE will achieve this goal by (1) developing a strategic plan for K-12 education reform in Tennessee via a statewide Steering Committee of key stakeholders (2) launching a number of Project Teams to initiate both statewide and local education projects and (3) running a grassroots campaign to promote the state's new standards, identify education activists across the state, and create conversations among local community leaders about how each community can improve its local schools.

Visit SCORE.

Our goals are to develop a strategic plan for K-12 education reform in Tennessee and create a concrete action plan for implementing that plan over the next 3-5 years. SCORE will also focus on ensuring that the many new education reforms that were passed into law in 2010 are effectively implemented, especially the state’s new teacher evaluation system.

• In March 2011, SCORE released The State of Education in Tennessee
• SCORE played a key role in the state’s first-round Race to the Top win. Tennessee’s First to the Top Act, the largest education reform bill in the state since 1992, included all major recommendations from SCORE’s 2009 final report, “A Roadmap to Success.” SCORE’s efforts to build consensus among stakeholders contributed significantly to the broad buy-in for Tennessee’s application.
• Individual school districts writing Race to the Top plans were supported by eight consultants hired by SCORE, working from regional offices of the Tennessee Department of Education. SCORE also provided assistance to the fifteen members of the Teacher Evaluation Advisory Committee created by the First to the Top Act.
• Building support for Tennessee’s policy reforms, SCORE’s advocacy efforts included eighty-one presentations statewide. SCORE hosted an education-focused gubernatorial debate in  January, and co-sponsored a September candidates’ forum. Its largest advocacy effort was the “Expect More, Achieve More” campaign, which built support for Tennessee’s new standards and was led by a coalition of thirty business and education organizations.

Jamie Woodson
Executive Director

Media Contact: David Mansouri
(615) 545-0409

Twitter: @score4schools