Tennessee Among Few States to Share Teacher Data with Colleges of Education

Tennessee is one of only six states giving feedback to its colleges of education on how their graduates are doing in the classroom. That won praise in a study out Thursday from the Data Quality Campaign.

The annual survey shows Tennessee and most other states now have all the numbers they need on teacher effectiveness in the classroom. The problem is convincing states to make the information public, says the Data Quality Campaign’s Paige Kowalski.

“Sharing in general is just difficult because you just don’t know what the recipient is going to do with it, and they could do something that’s going to put the data provider in an awkward situation.”

Kowalski says Tennessee is pushing through the awkwardness and leading the country in some respects. This year the Tennessee Higher Education Commission started releasing a report on the effectiveness of teacher programs. It calls out Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, MTSU and Trevecca for producing sub-par teachers.

Tennessee does have room for improvement in using its statistics on teachers. The Data Quality survey suggests district superintendents and policy makers need greater access to the numbers.

Here’s a summary of the DQC survey in Tennessee. The organization is supported by corporate donations and philanthropic groups like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.