SCORE memo notes important role of data in building student literacy

The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) has released a new memo highlighting how policymakers have worked to advance early literacy in the state with the help of student performance data, among other key metrics.

According to the memo emailed to Tennessee Firefly, titled “Literacy: Adopting Research-Based Strategies to Develop Young Readers,” Tennessee’s recent emphasis on “research-based strategies, including early literacy standards, interventions, teacher training and high-quality instructional materials,” has contributed to significant English language arts (ELA) proficiency gains for young readers in Tennessee K-12 schools. The new memo is part of a series dubbed “Policy Pillars: Supporting What Works,” which examines how state initiatives have worked to improve student performance.

The memo noted that Tennessee has prioritized early literacy programming due to the fact that students who are not proficient in reading by third grade tend to experience decreased opportunities for success later in life. It added that the implementation of Tennessee’s “strong literacy policy foundation” has yielded record-breaking ELA student outcomes, with Tennessee’s third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students reaching record highs on state assessments in 2024.

“Continued advancement and evaluation of these foundational policies and student supports are critical to ensure that more of Tennessee’s future readers are set up for lifelong opportunities and success,” the memo noted in its key points.

According to a recent SCORE blog post touching on the memo, the state’s efforts to measure and report on student proficiencies and evaluate K-12 instructors have helped analysts identify effective strategies for building student literacy.  That data, the post said, has been an essential part of state and district efforts to build early literacy in Tennessee schools.

“We’ve been the fastest-improving state in the nation in K-12 education; we’ve recovered faster than most states from the impacts of the pandemic on student learning; and we’re building stronger pathways to great jobs for more Tennessee students. Data and accountability give Tennessee taxpayers confidence that the policies and investments being made in education are resulting in actual improvements in academic outcomes. But more importantly, these efforts ground education improvement in what’s good for students,” the post read.

Moving forward, the post said, Tennessee policymakers must find new ways to “incentivize and expand new student pathways and school models” that can demonstrate data-proven ways of “bridging the gap between education and work.”

“We should also update the way we fund postsecondary education to ensure the investments we are making are reinforcing the outcomes we’re prioritizing — like whether a student gets a good job,” it read.