SCORE

AI has the potential to transform education, but thoughtful implementation grounded in student success will matter far more than the technology itself.

In our latest Perspectives blog, Amanda Glover, director of AI initiatives, explores what educators and school leaders should keep in mind as they navigate the growing role of AI in classrooms.

To support strategic AI implementation, SCORE partnered with technology nonprofit Playlab to launch the Tennessee AI Ecosystems Project. This initiative will support nine Tennessee school districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) committed to shaping what responsible and effective AI implementation can look like across the state. Through hands-on learning and development, participants will build the technical foundations and practical applications of AI in education.

As schools explore AI, SCORE believes a few principles remain critical:
✅ AI can support learning, especially when implementation is teacher-led and structured.
✅ Teachers remain central to successful AI integration and need strong AI literacy and professional development.
✅ Real risks, including inaccuracies, privacy concerns, and student overdependence, require clear strategies and safeguards.

Read more here: tnscore.org/perspectives-and-press/perspectives/score-and-playlab-launch-tennessee-ai-ecosystems-project

Last week, SCORE's Senior Vice President of Strategy, Mary Cypress Metz, joined industry, workforce, and education leaders at the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development inaugural 2026 WorkSource Summit.

On the panel "Building Micro-Credentials that Matter: Designing Industry-Driven Pathways," she spoke to what it really takes to make nondegree credentials work for students and Tennessee's workforce:

✅ The success of nondegree credentials must be grounded in measurable labor market outcomes.
✅ Tennessee needs statewide data systems to track and report outcomes for nondegree credentials.
✅ Workforce Pell is establishing a strong framework for requiring structured, meaningful employer validation of micro-credentials as a condition for program eligibility.
✅ Micro-credentials only matter if employers recognize and value them in hiring and advancement decisions that help more students access in-demand careers that lead to economic independence.

Thank you to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development for convening this important conversation.

🚨 Final call to register! 🚨

Join us tomorrow for the third installment of SCORE’s Future Forward Webinar Series. Featuring Nick Moore, acting assistant secretary in the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education in the U.S. Department of Education, this conversation will explore what it takes to build a coherent statewide pathways system that better connects students to economic opportunity.

We’ll discuss:
➡️ Statewide governance and coordinated systems
➡️ Skills and competency-based systems aligned to workforce needs
➡️ Employer engagement in scalable pathways
➡️ Practical steps Tennessee can take to strengthen pathways across communities

🗓 Wednesday, May 20
⏰ 1–2 p.m. CT
🔗 Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kNz4ciczR2yjq3nzM_rKTg #/registration

This National Charter Schools Week, we’re celebrating the educators, school leaders, and students driving meaningful academic growth in schools across Tennessee.

A stellar example of this is happening in Memphis, where charter students are not only experiencing significant gains in math, but are now outperforming noncharter peers. Memphis charter schools more than tripled math proficiency rates in just four years — rising from 8% proficiency in 2021 to 26% in 2025.

In our latest Perspectives blog, SCORE's Manager of Charter Initiatives, Trent Carlson, takes a closer look at the gains happening across Memphis charter schools and the instructional practices helping drive stronger outcomes for students. 📈

Read more here: https://tnscore.org/perspectives-and-press/perspectives/lessons-from-math-gains-in-memphis-charter-schools

📈 Tennessee’s academic progress is happening across the state, not just in one region or one type of district.

New Education Scorecard data identified several Tennessee districts as “Districts on the Rise,” meaning they are outperforming similar districts in both math and reading growth.

The data highlights four districts making notable gains across both subjects, grades 3-8, from 2022-2025:
➡️ Johnson City Schools students grew at a rate higher than 97% of districts nationally in math and 93% in reading, outperforming similar districts by 41 percentile points in math and 26 points in reading.
➡️ Maury County Public Schools students outperformed similar districts by 34 percentile points in math and 24 points in reading, while ranking in the top 92nd percentile nationally in reading growth.
➡️ Putnam County Schools (TN) School System students ranked in the 97th percentile nationally for math growth and 90th percentile in reading growth, significantly outperforming peer districts in both subjects.
➡️ White County Schools - Sparta, TN students ranked in the 95th percentile nationally in reading growth and 86th percentile in math growth, outperforming similar districts by 35 percentile points in reading.

Several other districts across Tennessee also demonstrated significant student growth in reading or math relative to similar districts, including Arlington Community Schools, Anderson County Schools TN, Germantown Municipal School District, Grainger County Schools- Official Site, Greeneville City Schools, and Sullivan County Department of Education.

From rural communities to growing suburban districts, these results reinforce that meaningful student progress is possible in every corner of Tennessee.

Read more here 🔗: https://educationscorecard.org/states/tennessee/

Tennessee’s latest Education Scorecard results signal more than learning recovery — they are further proof that Tennessee has become a national model for K-12 education. New national research from Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth shows that from 2022 to 2025, Tennessee ranked:
📈 #2 nationally in math growth
📚 #4 nationally in reading growth
➕ Nearly HALF a grade level gained in math
➕ Nearly 20% of a grade level gained in reading

This comes on the heels of new National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data analysis showing Tennessee is now the #1 state in the South for K-12 student achievement.

The work is far from finished, but this moment matters, and it belongs to all Tennesseans working to improve outcomes for students.

Read our latest What Matters blog for key takeaways and reflections on where Tennessee goes from here:
🔗 https://tnscore.org/perspectives-and-press/perspectives/what-matters-tennessees-student-growth-signals-a-broader-education-transformation