Tennessee is seeking to overhaul how it evaluates school and district performance.
There are currently two education accountability systems: the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA); and the state letter grade. The Tennessee Department of Education is considering combining them into one based on the letter grade system.
ESSA requires states to identify schools as high performing (Reward) or low performing (Comprehensive Support and Improvement; Target Support and Improvement; or Additional Target Support and Improvement). Since 2023, the department has used a parallel state system that identifies schools by A-F letter grades. Schools identified as low performing under the federal system receive intervention and targeted resources…