Standards Review

It benefits our state when all students learn and progress each year to become knowledgeable thinkers, good citizens, and valuable members of our community. Academic standards are an important part of that mission. Standards are the grade- or course-level expectations for what students should know and be able to do.

Process

The State Board of Education is charged under Tennessee statute with setting and approving academic standards. State Board Policy 3.209 requires that the Board review all sets of academic standards at a minimum of every six years. To achieve this mission, the State Board of Education solicits comments and feedback from the public on academic standards during its review cycles. The standards review cycles document indicates recent and upcoming standards review cycles. These dates are subject to change based on requests from the Tennessee General Assembly or the Tennessee Department of Education. 

Current Review Cycle

• Social Studies
  The initial public survey for the social studies standards review was open from June 20 to July 18. Educators, parents, and community members were invited to share their thoughts and feedback on the current social studies standards. During this initial review period, the State Board of Education collected 114,500 comments from Tennesseans. Feedback from this initial public review period informed the work of expert educator teams that proposed revisions to the social studies standards in fall 2022. The revised social studies standards were available for a second round of public feedback from February 27, 2023 - March 26, 2023. 
• CTE
  During the August 4, 2023 Meeting, the SBE considered several Career and Technical Education (CTE) course standards, including Advanced Manufacturing; Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources; Arts, A/V, Technology, and Communications; Business Management and Administration; Health Science; and High School Career Exploration. Educators, parents, and community members are invited to share thoughts and feedback on the CTE and High School Career Exploration course standards that will be implemented in the 2024-25 school year.  Academic standard documents along with the CTE and High School Career Exploration course standards agenda are available here. The revised standards were available for public comment and feedback from August 10 - August 28, 2023.

Subjects

You can find additional information about the academic standards reviewed by the State Board on each of the subpages in this section. With each of these standards revision cycles, our goal is to listen carefully to the people of Tennessee so we can make adjustments while maintaining the high standards that Tennessee students will need to succeed, both now and in the future.

For more information regarding standards review, contact TNStandards.Review@tn.gov.