Deeply understand state academic standards

Tennessee’s new academic standards set a high bar for what is expected of our students. These updated standards are a dramatic shift from prior standards adopted in Tennessee. Therefore, we must support educators to be clear on “what” students are expected to learn. This is the road-map. We believe that we cannot build an effective plan to reach our destination without understanding the road-map. The state standards are our compass, and we must ensure our educators have deep knowledge of the content standards to be able to facilitate student learning at the highest levels.

Action Steps:

  • Form a strong teaching and learning organization to support educators to understand the state standards with the help of local expertise.
  • Create teacher-led teams to revamp curriculum maps and guides that reflect the state grade-level standards.
  • Maintain discipline and focus on teaching grade-level standards during core instruction (tier 1) while implementing clear systems to respond and intervene early, when there are signs of individual student struggle.
  • Identify and adopt aligned instructional materials, along with providing professional development to support teachers in utilizing these tools in their classroom instruction.
  • Foster continuous, embedded professional development (PD) to deepen knowledge of standards and clear learning targets utilizing instructional coaches, content lead teachers, and other teacher leaders.
  • Leverage staff PD days, common planning time, and professional learning community structures to build teacher capacity in understanding the state standards.