Strong Accountability and Continuous Improvement Systems
In early education, strong accountability and continuous improvement systems collect, coordinate, and govern the use of data to inform improvements to early childhood programs and services, and to provide visibility into their effectiveness.
Unfortunately, Tennessee has limited statewide data on the quality of children’s early learning experiences and outcomes from birth to third grade, leaving Tennessee with an education blind spot.
While there have been some recent improvements, for example with the implementation of a portfolio approach to assessing student progress in Pre-k, kindergarten and 1st grade, parents, policy makers, school district leaders and other stakeholders don’t have adequate information to direct resources at appropriate solutions or to effectively hold early education systems – from childcare to elementary schools – accountable for good outcomes.
Our priorities for strengthening early learning accountability and continuous improvement systems:
To ensure Tennessee is getting value from its early education investments and is directing resources to effective solutions, TQEE recommends three priorities for action:
- Establish a birth to age 5 coordinated early learning data system to maximize the reach and effectiveness of early education programs and services;
- Develop a streamlined system for monitoring, measuring and improving instructional effectiveness and learning outcomes, Pre-K through 3rd grade; and
- Ensure early grades teachers have extensive training and support to know how to use early grades data, such as data provided by the new student growth portfolio model, to improve instruction.
You might also be interested in: Reading 360: Tackling Tennessee’s Literacy Crisis
